Liangshu QiSchool of Economics and Management,

Tsinghua UniversityXiao-yuan Dong

Department of Economics, University of Winnipeg

Time Poverty in China: Measurement and Policy

Assessment

MotivationTime poverty: do not have enough time to meet

some basic needsLong working hour is Hazardous to health.

Chronic fatigue (Park et al., 2001)Depression, anxiety, sleep problems (Bannai and

Tamakoshi, 2014)Higher risk of coronary heart disease (Virtanen et al.,

2012)ILO “decent work” agenda

“Decent working time” is one of the substantive elements of “decent work” agenda.

Decent work should ensure that “women and men enjoy working conditions that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values”.

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Motivation

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Long working hours are prevalent in China.26.5 % of the workforce are doing paid work more than 48

hours per week.17.4% people have a total work time which is more than 77

hours per week. Among them, 61.5% are women. (CTUS data)Two different types of time stress

Some people could be able to reduce work time without the risk of falling in income poverty or leaving some basic needs for unpaid housework unaddressed.

Meanwhile, some people have to work long hours to lift their family out of income poverty and meet their basic needs for unpaid housework.

In this paper, following Amartya Sen’s capacity approach, we define “time poverty” as not having the capacity to meet individual/household basic needs.

Objectives This paper examines time poverty of prime-

working-age employed workers in urban China using data from two national representative surveys.

It has three objectives:(1) Introduce a new time poverty measure that takes

into account both income and time constraints;(2) Estimate the percentage of prime-age urban

employed workers in China who are time poor and examine the characteristics of the time poor;

(3) Evaluate the extent to which China’s working-hour and minimum wage regulations help to alleviate time poverty.

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Literature Review: Time Poverty Measures One-dimensional measures

free time < 50% or 60% of the median (Bittman 2004) total work time > 1.5 times of the median(Bardasi and Wodon 2006)

Two-dimensional measures Actual time approach

Time-adjusted income poverty measure: based on “time deficit” in household production (Vickery 1977, Douthitt 2000, Harvey and Mukhopadhyay 2007, Zacharias et al. 2012, Antonopoulos and Memis, 2010);

Time-income index: actual standardized disposable time multiplies actual standardized free time (Burchardt 2008)

“Working long hour and having no choice”: Being income poor or at the risk of being income poor, and at the same time total work time is longer than a threshold (Bardasi and Wodon 2010)

Capabilities approach: based on “necessary” or “minimum” time Discretionary Time: the time left over after fulfilling the basic needs that an

individual needs to supply for him/herself and his/her dependents. (Goodin et al., 2005)

Time-income capability index: disposable time capacity range multiplies free time capacity range (Burchardt 2008)

Freely Disposable Time (Hobbes et al., 2011)

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Time Poverty Measure in This StudyThis paper applies the capabilities approach and

measure time poverty based on the minimum amount of time (total necessary time) an individual must spend to lift the family out of income poverty and also meet the family’s basic needs for unpaid housework.

Total necessary work time consists of two components:Necessary paid work time:

Minimum time needed to bring the family income to the poverty threshold, given an individual’s wage rate and share in total household earned income;

Necessary unpaid housework time:Minimum time needed for unpaid housework, given the type

of the household and the individual’s share in total household unpaid work time.

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Time Poverty Measure in This StudyAn individual is deemed time poor if his/her total

necessary work time is more than 77 hours per week.Why 77 hours per week?

No well-established standard availableThe benchmark of 77 work hours per week allows each

individual to have 8 hours for sleep and 3 hours for eating, personal hygiene and other self-care activities, and 2 hours of free time each day.

The time poverty measure captures the plight of individuals whose choices are significantly limited by time and income constraints.

These individuals could escape income poverty and also meet basic needs for unpaid housework only by falling into time poverty, or vice versa.

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Measurements Time Poverty TP = 1 (time poor) if necessary total work time > 77

hours/week TP = 0 (not time poor) Time Poverty Gap

TPG = (necessary total work time -77)/77, if TP=1

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Measurements

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Necessary total work time = Necessary paid work time + Necessary unpaid work time

Necessary paid work time = (poverty line * eq.-scale * i’s share of household

earned income) / wage rate + travel timeNecessary unpaid work time = median housework time * i’s share of total unpaid

housework Where

Poverty line = 60% of provincial median equivalent-scale income

eq.-scale: square root of number of individuals in the household i’s share: individual share in household total earned incomeWage rate: yuan/hour travel time: travel time associated with paid work housework time: total unpaid work time of a given type of

household defined by number of adults and the presence of children

Simulation We assess the impact of working-hour regulation and minimum

wage standards on time poverty through simulation. The minimum wage regulations in China was introduced in 2004. Minimum wage thresholds vary from county to county, and

usually contains a monthly wage threshold (for full time workers) and an hourly wage threshold (for part time workers).

The Labor Law adopted in 1995 stipulates that a regular working day should not be longer than 8 hours net of travel time and the total work time per week should not exceed 44 hours, and that monthly paid days is 21.75.

Combining the working time regulation and local minimum wage standard, we derive the minimum wage rate for full time workers: derived minimum hourly wage = minimum monthly wage /(monthly paid days

*8).

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Data

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China Time Use Survey (CTUS, 2008)time diary data collected from 10 provincesdetailed information on the time use of 37,142 individuals

aged 15-74 in 16,616 households on a weekday and a weekend day

incomplete or inaccurate data on income and family structure

China Household Income Project (CHIP, 2008) 9 provinces, 13,001 households, 46,469 individuals

Two samples are combined by propensity score matching method.

After matching, the sample for analysis contains 3,790 observations (2,108 men and 1,682 women) from 5 provinces.

1. Actual Time Allocation (Hour/week)

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Male Female AllActual Time Spent on Main Activities (Hour/week) Personal care 81.87 79.58 80.85 Paid work 46.34 42.58 44.67 #Net paid work time

38.18 35.51 37.00

Travel time 8.16 7.07 7.68 Unpaid work 10.19 23.07 15.89 Free time 29.63 22.77 26.58 % of overworked workers Net paid work time >44

28.23 22.35 25.62

Net paid work time >48

22.68 15.64 19.55

Total work time >77 12.14 17.41 14.49N 2108 1682 3790

2. The Distribution of Actual Total Work Time (Hour/week)

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0.0

1.0

2.0

3D

ensi

ty

1.166666 116.33337760Total work time

3. The Distribution of Weekly Paid Work Time (Net of Travel Time)

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0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4D

ensi

ty

0 50 10044Net Paid Work Time

Male

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4D

ensi

ty0 20 40 60 80 10044

Net Paid Work Time

Female

4. Income/Wage Thresholds by Province

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Zhejiang

Anhui

Henan

Guangdong

Sichuan

All

Income poverty line 23,04016,00

013,680 31,521 15,200

20,747

Mean minimum monthly wage 920.94

522.55

407.79 780.12 550647.1

7

60% of median monthly wage (full-time workers)

1,200 924 900 1,680 900 1,140

Mean derived minimum hourly wage for full time workers

5.32 3.01 2.34 4.46 3.16 3.72

60% of median hourly wage (full-time workers)

6.90 5.31 5.17 9.66 5.17 6.55

Mean minimum hourly wage 7.66 5.64 6.10 7.35 6.0 6.61

60% of median hourly wage (part-time workers)

8.60 6.59 6.16 13.64 6.59 8.00

N 694 620 688 985 732 3790

5. Time Poverty An individual is in time poverty if his/her total

necessary work time is greater than 77 hours per week.

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MaleFemal

eAll

Necessary paid work time (hour/week)

31.40 28.28 30.01

Necessary unpaid work time (hour/week)

11.31 27.20 18.36

Total necessary work time (hour/week)

42.71 55.48 48.38

Time poverty rate (%) 5.50 10.64 7.08Time poverty gap (%) 31.44 26.06 28.17 N 2108 1682 3790

6. Time Poverty Rate: by Sex and Age

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0.0

5.1

.15

.2

20 30 40 50 60Age

Male Female

7. Time Poverty Rate, by Household structure (%)

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Male Female

All N

By marital statusUnmarried 2.69 0.86 1.99 302Married 5.55 10.70 7.83 3398Widowed or divorced 20.69 27.87 25.56 90By presence of childrenChildren < 6 years 4.40 7.21 5.64 695Children 7 - 15 years 6.27 14.37 10.08 1821Children < 6 years and 7-15 years

7.41 35.71 17.07 42

With no children 5.01 5.84 5.35 1264N 2108 1682 3790 3790

8. Time Poverty Rate: by Education Level (%)

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Male Female All N

<=primary school 16.46 17.65 17.01 147Lower secondary 11.40 21.14 15.79 703Higher secondary 6.16 13.18 9.28 1283>=junior college 1.61 3.43 2.41 1657N 2108 1682 3790 3790

9. Time Poverty Rate: by Income Quintile (%)

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Male Female All NLowest 20% 21.44 36.23 27.80 77720%-40% 2.96 9.58 5.95 73940%-60% 1.42 5.65 3.29 75960%-80% 0.71 2.09 1.32 757Highest 20% 0 0 0 758N 2108 1682 3790 3790

10. Comparison of Necessary Time and Time Actually Spent: Time Poor vs. Non-Time Poor

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Male Female AllNecessa

ryActual Necessa

ryActual Necessa

ryActual

Time PoorPaid work time 87.77 66.12 63.77 54.13 73.21 58.85Unpaid work time

13.45 10.04 33.29 24.72 25.49 18.95

% of actual total work hours > 77

46.55 52.51 50.17

N 116 179 295Non-Time-PoorPaid work time 28.11 45.18 24.04 41.21 26.37 43.48Unpaid work time

11.19 10.17 26.48 22.87 17.76 15.63

% of actual total work hours > 77

10.14 13.24 11.47

N 1992 1503 3495

11. Income Poverty and Time poverty (%)

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MaleFemal

eAll

Income poverty rate 14.18 14.15 14.17Income poverty gap 26.05 26.64 26.31Time Poverty rate 5.50 10.64 7.08Time poverty gap 31.44 26.06 28.17 Both income and time poor 4.60 7.31 5.80N 2108 1682 3790

12. Low-paid and Overworked Workers (%)

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MaleFema

leAll

Low-paid workerslower than minimum wage 1.52 4.52 2.85lower than derived minimum hourly wage

2.18 5.17 3.51

lower than 60% median hourly wage 20.78 30.80 25.22Overworked workersNet paid work time more than 44 hours a week

28.23 22.35 25.62

Net paid work time more than 48 hours a week

22.68 15.64 19.55

N 2108 1682 3790

13. Time Poverty, Minimum Wage, and Working hours Regulations: Simulation (%)All other conditions being equal

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Male Female AllThe actual situationIncome poverty ratio 14.14 14.11 14.13Time poverty ratio 5.50 10.64 7.08Time poverty gap 37.65 31.38 34.05 Paid work time <= 44 hour/week at derived minimum wage rate Income poverty ratio 13.71 13.79 13.75Time poverty ratio 1.14 7.25 3.85Time poverty gap 10.54 9.28 9.49Paid work time <= 44 hour/week and raise minimum wage rate to 60% median wage rateIncome poverty ratio 8.97 8.32 8.68Time poverty ratio 0.71 4.10 2.22Time poverty gap 7.80 7.65 7.68N 2108 1632 3790

14. Time Poverty: Correlates (Probit Model)

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Time poverty Male Female All

Female0.315*** (0.067)

Age 0.077 (0.082) 0.035 (0.083) 0.060 (0.56)Age squared -0.001 (0.001) -0.001 (0.011) -0.001 (0.001) Lower secondary -0.280 (0.195) 0.018 (0.202) -0.124 (0.140)Higher secondary

-0.572*** (0.189) -0.224 (0.198)-0.395*** (0.137)

>=junior college-1.219 *** (0.209) -0.933*** (0.210)

-1.072*** (0.147)

Married 0.286 (0.264) 0.693* (0.411) 0.391* (0.210)

Widowed or divorced 1.061*** (0.366) 1.401*** (0.450)1.147*** (0.256)

Presence of Children under 6 -0.080 (0.157) 0.175 (0.17) 0.036 (0.110)

Presence of Children 7-15 0.034 (0.120) 0.438*** (0.123)0.233*** (0.084)

Presence of elderly above 65 0.154 (0.146 ) 0.216* (0.132) 0.192** (0.097)

Log GDP per capita (county) -0.283* (0.161) -0.237* (0.138)-0.245** (0.103)

Share of service industry in GDP -0.066 (0.238) -0.051 (0.072) -0.051 (0.063)Share of public expenditures in GDP

-1.555 (1.267) -2.547* (1.288)-2.044** (0.895)

Minimum wage level -0.145 (0.653) -0.345 (0.613) -0.207 (0.441)Weak enforcement of working time regulation

3.220** (1.277 ) 1.769 (1.202)2.484*** (0.871)

_cons 0.171 (1.442) 0.199 (2.357) -0.097 (1.655) Pseudo R2 0.1314 0.1322 0.1397 N 2108 1682 3790

Conclusions About 7% of Chinese urban prime-working-age employed

workers are in time poverty. They face the difficult tradeoffs between meeting their family’s basic needs and having adequate free time and rest for themselves.

Time poverty is especially high for workers who are female, less educated, in the bottom income quintile, and live with children or the elderly.

Simulation exercise attributes part of time poverty to inadequate implementation of working-hour regulation and minimum wage standards.

However, the analysis indicates that the enforcement of working-hour regulation and minimum wage is insufficient for eliminating time poverty for female workers. Policy measures are also needed to reduce unpaid housework burdens on working women.

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Thanks!