Do women pay for working from home? Gender gaps in pay and wellbeing during Covid-19 in the British Birth Cohorts

The shift to remote work, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has the potential to reshape gender inequality in work and wellbeing. It may benefit women by enhancing their ability to compete with men ( the work-life balance hypothesis ). It may also disproportionately burden women’s mental wellbeing by reinforcing traditional gender roles ( the work-life conflict hypothesis ). Three British Cohort Studies provide data on pay, life satisfaction, anxiety and depression for people who remained employed a year into the pandemic. Gender differences across three work arrangements (fully remote, hybrid and on-site) were analysed accounting for personal, job and pre-pandemic characteristics. Remote work (both fully remote and hybrid) is linked to a greater gender pay gap than work on-site. Hybrid work shows the greatest gap gender in wellbeing to women’s disadvantage across the work arrangements analysed. With some evidence in support of both hypotheses, future policies should continue to manage, protect and develop flexible practices.