Working time is a crucial issue for both research and public policy. This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of both paid and unpaid work time, integrating a unique discussion of overwork, underwork, shortening of the working week, and flexible work practices. Time at work is affected by a complex web of evolving culture and social relations, as well as market, technological, and macroeconomic forces, and institutions such as collective bargaining and government policy. Using a variety of new data sources, the authors review the latest trends on working time in numerous countries.

Contents:
1. Introduction and overview:Understanding working time around the world Part I: Current trends and patterns in work hours: What is the evidence? 2. The enigma of working time trends 3. Working time reduction in the European Union: A diversity of trends and approaches 4:.The longest day: Working time for teachers 5. Working hours and time pressure: The controversy about trends in time use Part II: Empirical and theoretical foundations:Explaining overwork and underemployment 6. Who are the overworked Americans? 7. The incentive to work hard: Differences in black and white workers hours and preferences 8. Driven to spend: Longer work hours as a by-product of market forces 9. Natural, social and political limits to work time: The contemporary relevance of Marx's analysis 10. Revising the labour supply curve: Implications for work time and minimum wage legislation Part III: Innovations in working time and public policy 11. Working time reductions, employment consequences and lessons from Europe: Defusing a quasi-religious controversy 12. The perennial 'lump of labour' case against worksharing: Populist fallacy or marginalist throwback? 13. Better timing: Work schedule flexibility among US workers and policy directions 14. The social implications of European work time policies: Promoting gender equity? 15. History and housework: :Implications for work hours and family policies in market economies

In recent years, much attention has focused on the growth of nonstandard and contingent employment (including part-time work), which involves up to 30 percent of the total U.S. labor force. There is little agreement on either the causes or the effects of this trend. Some researchers emphasize the advantages: employees may explore the job market and obtain work that does not necessarily involve rigid schedules, while employers enjoy greater flexibility and lower costs. Others point to the disadvantages for employees, such as lack of job security, fewer benefits and chances for promotion, and often lower wages. Drawbacks for employers include a workforce that has little chance to develop firm-specific knowledge or loyalty.

Chapters in Nonstandard Work: The Nature and Challenges of Emerging Employment Arrangements carefully analyze the extent and nature of various nonstandard work arrangements; their advantages and disadvantages for employees and employers; the demographic, industrial, and occupational distribution of such positions; and the question of whether standard employment itself is changing. Some contributors consider how innovative labor market intermediaries and unions might expand opportunities for workers while also helping firms to raise their productivity.