Job Insecurity, Overwork, and Work-Family Conflict

Jack Lam, University of Minnesota
Wen Fan, University of Minnesota

Using General Social Survey data from 2006, 2010, and 2012, we examine the association between job insecurity and work-family conflict among U.S. workers. We find that respondents with higher job insecurity report higher work-to-family conflict. Job insecurity is likely to translate into higher levels of work-to-family conflict for women, suggesting they usually carry the mental labor of family work. The link between job insecurity and work-family conflict is magnified for middle-class women. However, as women in the lowest income tertile contribute more to their household income, the association between job insecurity and work-to-family conflict becomes magnified, while no such pattern is observed for men. Our study contributes to existing literature by showing that perceived job insecurity, a prevalent contemporary work stressor, lead workers to feel a higher sense of conflict between work and family domains, but that this is moderated by gender and one’s relative breadwinning status within the household.