Buying Out in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples: Outsourcing of Routine and Non-Routine Housework Tasks

Although research on housework outsourcing has expanded in recent years, most studies focus exclusively on different-sex couples, overlooking the outsourcing strategies used by same-sex couples. This study uses data from the 2003–2023 waves of the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey in combination with logistic regression and decomposition analysis to examine outsourcing differences between same- and different-sex couples. We find that same-sex couples are modestly more likely to outsource housework, with educational attainment accounting for a substantial share of this difference and couples’ total paid work hours accounting for a smaller share. Bargaining power, proxied through income parity, plays a more limited role. Notably, we find no significant outsourcing differences between same-sex male and female couples, suggesting that egalitarian values and gender attitudes shared across same-sex couples may influence housework outsourcing in ways not fully captured by our data. By broadening the analytic scope of outsourcing research to be inclusive of sexual minority couples, this study contributes to our understanding of the strategies same- and different-sex couples use to meet their work-family demands, as well as the socioeconomic conditions that determine their ability to do so.