Among the OECD countries, Korea is one of the hardest working countries has very long working time and a high percentage of long-time workers. Working long time has a lot of impact on life. Recently, the government intends to promote a balance between work and life to improve the quality of life. It focuses on improving quality of life by reducing working time. In this context, this study analyzed the increase and decrease of working time, the relationship between working time and other times, and the effect of wage on time allocation. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of reducing working time on childcare, housework, and leisure time, and whether it helps work-life balnce.

As a result of the analysis, the working hour is 2.2 times longer for males than for females. However, housework hour is 7.2 times longer and parenting hour is 3.5 times longer for females than males. In the analysis of time use of husbands and wives, the major feature is that the factors of children are more influential than any other factors. For individuals, the relationship between work time and other time is a trade-off. So, as work time increases, housework time and child care time decrease for both husbands and wives. For couples, the relationship between individual time and spouse's time is complementary. So, as one’s work time increases, the other’s work time decreases. As the wife's wage increased, her husband's work time and her own child-care time decreased. While husbands feel lack of time when they have a long working hours and preschool children, wives feel lack of time when they have a long parenting hours and feel lack of time less when they have long leisure hours. 

Abstract ················································································································1

Ch. 1. Introduction ·························································································11

   A. Research Background and Purpose ·············································································13

   B. Research Contents and Method ·············································································16

Ch. 2. Theoretical Background ·············································································23

   A. The Concept of Work-Life Balance and Its Theoretical Considerations ···················································25

   B. Empirical Studies on Work-Life Balance ····························································38

   C. Application in this Study ···············································································61

Ch. 3. Married Couples' Time Allocation ·······································································67

   A. Changes in Married Couples' Time Use ··················································································69

   B. Married Couples' Time Allocation ······················································································71

Ch. 4. Factors That Impact on Time Allocation ·························································105

   A. Variables Used for Analyzing Time Allocation ··································································107

   B. Analysis of Time Allocation on Weedays ·······························································109

   C. Analysis of Time Allocation on Weekends ·······························································128

   D. Chapter Summary ·····································································································129

Ch. 5. Work-Life Policy ·······················································135

   A. Low Fertility and Work-Life Policy ···············································137

   B. Labor and Work-Life Policy ············································143

   C. International Trends of Work-Life Policy ··························································154

Ch. 6. Summary and Policy Suggestions ·····························································163

   A. Summary ·····································································································165

   B. Policy Suggestions ·························································································170

References ···························································································177

Appendices ································································································189