PRESS RELEASE

Are Nova Scotians working more and enjoying life less?

• Nova Scotians are putting in more than a month’s worth of extra, paid work-time a year than they did 10 years ago — and their free time is shrinking.
• Nova Scotians are losing $1.25 billion worth of free time each year compared to what they had ten years ago.
• 30% more women are severely time-stressed than women were 10 years ago.
• Working single parents replace income poverty with time poverty.
• 40% of free time spent watching TV; reading time down 30%.

Nova Scotians are working longer hours than ever before, and their free time is shrinking. On average, Nova Scotians are putting in 204 hours a year extra paid work time than they did ten years ago, and they have 186 hours a year less free time. That’s the equivalent of more than a month extra work at the expense of free time.

That’s one of the findings of a new report on Nova Scotians’ free time released today by GPI Atlantic, the Nova Scotia based non-profit research group that is constructing new measures of progress for the province. The GPI study analysed special data runs on the time use of Nova Scotians—not previously published—drawn from Statistics Canada’s 1992, 1998, and 2005 General Social Survey time use diaries.

The GPI report found that the biggest losers of free time were single working mothers, who saw their free time shrink by 2.7 hours a day or nearly 19 hours a week. And parents with infants and toddlers now have less than 24 hours a week total for fun and relaxation—including TV, reading, socializing with friends, going to movies, eating out, playing sports, and exercising.

Nova Scotian women are working longer hours for pay than ever—seven hours more each week than a decade ago. Not surprisingly, levels of “time stress” among women are going through the roof. According to a 10-question time stress survey, 22.7% of Nova Scotian women are classified as severely time stressed—up by nearly a third from ten years ago. “The biggest time squeeze is on working mothers,” says Dr. Andrew Harvey of Saint Mary’s University’s Economics Department, and lead author of the new GPI report. “And single mothers were specially pinched when social service payments were cut in the1990s after deep cuts in federal transfers to the provinces. So they had to work long hours to make ends meet, while still carrying the total burden of household work alone. A lot of them have replaced income poverty with time poverty.”

Harvey has estimated that more than half of all Canadian single parents suffer ‘time poverty’, which he defines as less than the minimum necessary to accomplish basic household tasks, and that that 88% of employed single parents with one child, and 98% of those with two children are time-poor.

Harvey notes that free time is one of 20 core components of the Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index because it is one of the most basic conditions of wellbeing and quality of life. “It’s the only time we have to do what we want, not what we have to do—to pursue our interests and enjoy our lives. So it’s a condition for freedom.”

He points out that free time is also a proven buffer against stress, and we need it to get some exercise. “So it’s also vitally important for good health. When it gets squeezed out, the quality of lives suffers. It’s important to recognize that free time has real value.”

Based on evidence that shows many workers willing to swap work hours for free time if their pay cut amounts to half their gain in leisure time, GPI Atlantic values leisure time at half the average wage—or $8.77 an hour. On that basis, Nova Scotians are losing $1.25 billion worth of free time each year compared to what they had ten years ago. That means each Nova Scotian 15 and older has $1,630 less worth of free time now than in 1998.

The GPI study also looks at how Nova Scotians spend their leisure time. Fully 40% of Nova Scotians’ free time is spent watching television. Another 26% is spent socializing. And 20% is spent on sports and other active leisure pursuits.

But what Harvey finds most disturbing is the steady decline in time spent reading. The average Nova Scotian spends only 22 minutes a day reading—down from 26 minutes a day in 1998, and 31 minutes a day in 1992.

The GPI study recommends that Nova Scotia take a lesson from the Netherlands, which reduced its work hours and gave its citizens much more free time mainly by improving the conditions of part-time work. “In Holland,” says Harvey, “part-time work fetches the same hourly pay rates as full-time work, pro-rated benefits, and equal opportunity for career advancement. Part-time work is good work, so people want to work shorter hours, and that gives them more free time.”

The full GPI Value of Free Time report released today can be accessed here.

For interviews or questions on this report, please call

Andrew Harvey, Prof. Emeritus,
Economics Department, and Director, Time Use Research Program,
Saint Mary’s University

(902) 488-3531
or
(902) 477-3531

email: andrew.harvey@stmarys.ca

GPI Atlantic Executive Director, Ronald Colman

902-823-1944
or
902-489-7007

email colman@gpiatlantic.org