Work-Centered Dual-Earner Households Still Predominate: Greater Flexibility in Working Hours Needed to Enhance Work-Family Balance

• ■The way dual-earner couples allocate time to paid work, domestic labor, and childcare has been shifting toward greater balance between men and women and between work and family. 
  

• ■The work-centered type accounts for about 60% of dual-earner households, a figure reflecting the continued prevalence of long working hours for both partners. 
  

• ■Strengthening work-family balance policies, particularly flexible working-hour systems, is needed to enable dual-earner couples with children young enough to require close care to adjust their working hours.

KIHASA has published Health and Welfare Issue & Focus No. 460, titled “Changes in Time-Use Patterns among Dual-Earner Households with Children of Care-Needing Age (2019-2024).” The study was led by Research Fellow Choi In-sun of the Population Policy Research Department.

Dr. Choi notes that the study examines changes in time-use patterns among dual-earner households over the past five years. It classifies households into distinct types based on the allocation of time to paid work, domestic labor, and childcare and analyzes the unique characteristics of each group to identify heterogeneity across household types.

According to Dr. Choi, the study uses latent class analysis based on raw data from the 2019 and 2024 Time Use Surveys to identify changes in how dual-earner couples with children under age 10 allocate their time to paid-work, domestic labor, and childcare.

Dual-earner households are classified into three types based on the hours they spent in paid work, domestic labor, and childcare: work-centered, role-sharing, and work-care balanced. The characteristics of each type are as follows:

• ○Work-centered type: Both spouses allocate relatively long hours to paid work compared to other groups. Women spend more time on housework and childcare than men.
  
  

• ○Role-sharing type: This group reflects a traditional division of roles, with men focused on paid work and women on childcare. Men work long hours, while women have comparatively shorter working hours but longer housework and childcare time.
  
  

• ○Work-care balanced type: Both men and women distribute their time more evenly across paid work, housework, and childcare.

The analysis found a gradual shift in time allocation among dual-earner couples, with a slight decrease in role-sharing households and a modest increase in work-care balanced households. Nevertheless, the work-centered type still accounted for the largest share.

No significant changes were found in gender roles; instead, patterns of time allocation were reconfigured across household types.

• ●Regardless of household type, men’s working hours declined overall but still accounted for the majority of their time. Increases in childcare time were observed in the role-sharing and work-care balanced types.
  
  

• ●Among women, both working hours and childcare time increased in the work-centered and work-care balanced types, while domestic labor time decreased―suggesting a shift toward a time-use structure dominated by paid work and childcare.

Senior Researcher Choi said, “Comparing the 2019 and 2024 surveys shows that time-use patterns among dual-earner couples have shifted toward greater gender balance and improved work-family balance. This shift likely reflects increasing female labor force participation, the cumulative impact of work-family balance policies―including flexible work arrangements and childcare support―and changing social norms regarding gender equality.”

“Even during the peak years of childcare responsibilities, many dual-earner couples remain in long-hours work arrangements,” Dr. Choi said. She added, “If sufficient options for adjusting working hours are not available when childcare needs increase, these adjustments are more likely to occur through women reducing their working hours or exiting the labor market altogether.” She further stressed the need to “enhance the effectiveness of flexible work arrangements and design work-family balance policies that address existing institutional gaps.”