Mostly Mismatched With a Chance of Settling

Mismatches between Americans’ actual and preferred hours of paid work are common, but the understanding of such mismatches is still limited. In this article, the authors provide the first large-scale, longitudinal study of hour mismatches in the United States. They found that the population of workers with hour mismatches is in constant flux. Nevertheless, hour mismatches seem to persist for long periods of time: The vast majority of respondents who wanted fewer hours when first interviewed still wanted fewer hours 5 years later. The authors also found inequalities in the methods through which people develop and resolve mismatches. Women who want fewer hours were less likely than men to resolve their mismatches by working less. Also, they found evidence suggesting that non-Whites who want fewer hours may be settling for the hours they can get rather than getting the hours they want.