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Family-friendly benefits?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2014

Ana Ferrer  and
Lynda Gagné
Ana Ferrer*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Lynda Gagné
Affiliation:
School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
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Abstract

Data from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (1999–2002) is used to assess the take-up of family-friendly benefits provided by employers. We distinguish benefit availability from the actual use of benefits and are able to account for worker selection into firms. We find that selection is important to understand the take-up of family-friendly benefits and that there is little difference between genders regarding benefit use. Overall, it seems that some family-friendly benefits (like flexible time) are relatively little help in the management of work-family conflict, while others (like childcare or eldercare) are unavailable to those who would benefit from them the most.

Keywords

work and family conflictfamily-friendly benefitstake-up of employer benefits
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 19 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 721 - 741
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2013 

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