Does household labour impact market wages?

This study investigates the hypothesis that women's greater home responsibilities contribute directly to their lower wages because household labour time reduces their market effort. OLS regressions show a significant negative effect of household labour hours on market wages for white married women, but not for other groups of women (single, black) or men. Regressions correcting for endogeneity of household hours in the wage equation or heterogeneity among women indicate there is no significant effect of household labour hours on wages for any demographic group. These results suggest that the evidence in support of the hypothesis is not compelling.