Coordinated Work Schedules and the Gender Wage Gap

Abstract This paper studies how coordinated work schedules across jobs contribute to the gender wage gap. Using US time diary data, we construct occupation-level measures of coordinated schedules. Higher coordination is associated with higher wages and a larger gender wage gap. Empirically, women with children allocate more time to household care and are penalised for missing work during peak hours. An equilibrium occupational choice model generates a gender wage gap of 8.9%; most of the gender wage gap is within occupations. If coordination is set to the value of healthcare support across all occupations, the within-occupation gender gap halves.