Teleworking, family, and income. A comparative study on five Western European countries.

This study analysed the interrelations between teleworking, family, and income in five Western European countries: Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK, using EU-LFS data. The aim was to examine whether this form of flexible work arrangement attenuates the disadvantage for women in the labour market and how the impact of teleworking on income varies by education and social class. The results obtained from ordinal logit models showed a positive association between teleworking and income, which in all the countries was greater for men than for women. However, this association was strongly mediated by the compositional effects of education, occupation, economic sector, and working hours. No clear pattern emerged on the heterogeneity by educational level and social class. Teleworking did not diminish the disadvantage for women in the labour market but resulted in greater premia for fathers, especially in Spain and the Netherlands.