Introduction

Labour market evidence suggests that the 2008–09 recession and subsequent on-going economic crisis in the UK have led to a reduction in the proportion of workers reporting over-long working hours and an expansion in work-time underemployment (Bell and Blanchflower, 2013, 2011). The study of ‘work–life’ balance has a long-standing interest in the impact of work-time and work-time preferences on work–life imbalance. This interest has largely concentrated on worktime intensification, with a common conclusion that spending ‘too many’ hours in the labour market can impact negatively on work–life balance. If there are indeed fewer workers working ‘too many’ hours, albeit with more working ‘too few’, then this development raises vital questions about the potential impact of economic crisis on work–life balance in Britain. There are concerns too about work–life balance and class during this crisis because working too many and too few hours are both related to workers’ class positions. What have been the class ramifications so far of this crisis, heralded originally as ‘the first middle class’ UK recession: have recessionary work-time developments in the UK impacted on class differences in work–life imbalance?

This chapter offers a consideration of work–life balance and class in the context of economic crisis. To do this, it incorporates an economic root of work–life imbalance rather than a focus only on work time. The chapter is influenced by the author's argument (Warren, forthcoming) that we need a more holistic understanding of work–life balance if we are to give recognition to the types of work–life imbalance that are experienced more by the working class. It proposes that the analysis of economic-based work–life imbalance is overdue, and is particularly apt in this time of economic crisis. Data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and its follow-on Understanding Society (US) are analysed to explore class variations over time. The chapter concludes that the persistence of class inequalities in self-reported economic security raises serious questions about the work–life balancing of the working class in the UK.

The economic crisis and work-time developments

Economic crises can have inconsistent impacts on the number of hours committed to the labour market. Table 1.1 groups these impacts into categories and summaries the types of labour market based work-time changes that can occur as an outcome of recession.