Working-time flexibility among European couples

This study examines patterns of working-time flexibility amongEuropean heterosexual couples, focusing on both employee –and employer-oriented flexibilities. Using 2019 EU LFS andmultinomial logit models, we analyse how these flexibilities aredistributed between partners, considering education andparenthood status. The findings highlight the critical role ofworking-time flexibility in shaping labour force participation andreveal stark differences across socioeconomic and family contexts.Among the tertiary-educated strata, there is a high prevalence ofdual-earner couples in which both partners work with employee-oriented flexibility, which remains consistently high even whenthere are children at home. This pattern is, however, much morecommon in Western Europe than in Southern and Central EasternEurope. In contrast, below tertiary-educated couples are less likelyto have employee-oriented flexibility and more often form malebreadwinner families, particularly as family size increases.Additionally, we demonstrate that below tertiary-educated fathersoften have to rely on employer-oriented schedules, whichhighlight the challenges they may face in balancing work andfamily responsibilities due to unpredictable work hours. We foundthis pattern most common in Southern Europe. This studyunderscores the critical intersection of education, working-timeflexibility, and parenthood in shaping labour force participationand perpetuating gender inequalities across socioeconomic strata.