Occupational Overwork and the Transition to Self-Employment: A Couple-Level Analysis

Examining couples as joint decision makers offers valuable insights into gender disparities, yet the literature has largely overlooked the transition to a key alternative work arrangement: self-employment. Using couple-matched data from the 2015–2024 Current Population Survey, the author investigates how the collective decisions of couples are linked to the shift toward self-employment and how these patterns are moderated by parenthood and occupational characteristics. The author finds that wives are more likely to move from wage employment to self-employment if their husbands work long hours. Although this tendency is not moderated by parenthood, the association between husbands’ long hours on encouraging wives’ self-employment is stronger when wives are in occupations with strong overwork norms. This work underscores the option of self-employment for women when the demand for flexibility is heightened because of partners’ long work hours while the potential supply for flexibility is limited because of occupational norms.