Women's Contingent Work and Allocation of Domestic Labor in South Korea

Abstract

I focus on the association between contingent employment and the division of domestic labor within marriage. A voluminous literature has shown that women's lower economic resources, relative to their spouse's, decreases their bargaining power and increases their share of domestic labor within marriage. I examine the associations between women's contingent work, a type of devalued employment, and allocation of domestic labor in South Korea, where there is a sharp divide in employment quality between permanent and contingent work. Using longitudinal data from 5000 married women in South Korea and fixed-effect analysis, this study reveals that women in contingent positions shoulder a greater share of domestic labor compared to women in permanent positions even after accounting for tangible rewards including wages and access to fringe benefits. I also find that the negative associations between women's income share and their housework share was weaker for women in contingent positions than for those in permanent positions. These results suggest that contingent employment may have deeper negative consequences on women's bargaining power in marriage.