EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND PARENT’S WORKING TIME FLEXIBILITY

We analyzed the relationship between flexible working time and the use of care services for children under three years of age. We used data from the EU-LFS ad hoc module in 2018 for twelve European countries. We model the probability of using a nursery using logistic regression. We include flexible working hours, other characteristics of the workplace, and demographic controls as independent variables. We hypothesized that the use of nursery care and flexible working time are positively correlated, strengthening each other’s impact on the ability to combine work and family life. This was not reflected in the data. Parents who chose their working hours were more likely to use nurseries only in Belgium and France. There was no correlation between nursery use and flexible working time in the remaining countries. People with high education were more likely to use nurseries in almost all countries, as were younger people in France, people living in cities in Italy and Poland, and people working part-time in Austria. Younger people in Austria, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, those employed on a fixed-term basis in France, and those working part-time in Spain and Ireland used nurseries less often. Our study contributes to the literature on working time flexibility in testing the joint functioning of this work-life balance instrument with the use of nurseries.