The Australian National University

Working time in Australia is very diverse, with large segments of the work force working part-time hours, standard hours and very long hours of work. These diverse working time arrangements often reflect the preferences of workers, however, it has been established there is a substantial proportion of the workforce that have not achieved their desired work hours. There is very little literature that explores the dynamics of working time preferences. Hakim’s (2000) preference theory argues that women have certain preferences that are maintained throughout their lives. The three ‘ideal types ’ she identified were home-centred, work-centred and adaptive. However, from a small study of women in a large banking and financial organisation in Australia, Walsh (1999) found that women’s preferences for full-time work varied depending on the age of the child. Data from the Negotiating the Lifecourse (NLC) survey shows that working time and working time preferences do change over time for individuals. Preferences are not solely determined by actual hours of work but tend to be influenced by other factors such as occupation and gender, as well as lifecourse factors such as family structure and age. Understanding the types of people who experience changes in work hours and preferences is a useful first step in knowing more about the dynamics of working time preferences. The purpose of this paper is to unpack the different preference movements over time. Using the NLC data I will examine the different preference change groups, in terms of actual and desired work hours, and lifecourse and work characteristics. It is expected that preferences and the likelihood of achieving preferences will be determined by lifecourse characteristics, and that preferences generally, will conform to a ‘standard ’ working week