A Half-Century of US Labor Data Shows Steady Retreat From Evening and Night Work

Source: Slashdot

Overview

A new NBER working paper analyzing fifty years of U.S. labor data (1973‑2023) finds that Americans have been steadily moving away from evening and night work toward traditional daytime hours. The paper can be accessed here [PDF].

Main Findings

• The share of the workforce on the job at 11 PM fell by over 25 % from its 1970s level.
• The wage premium employers must pay for undesirable hours has grown by about three percentage points over the period.

Drivers

• Rising real incomes: Night work is essentially an inferior good that workers avoid as they earn more.
• Wage premiums: Higher premiums for evening and night shifts reflect the increasing cost of attracting workers to these hours.

Sector Exceptions

• Retail: The rise of big‑box chains, 24‑hour Walmart supercenters, and overnight distribution‑center restocking pushed more employees into late‑night and early‑morning shifts.
• COVID‑era telework: Rather than spreading work across the day, telework accelerated concentration into prime hours, especially among college‑educated workers.

International Comparisons

• France showed a similar pattern of daytime compression over 1966‑2010.
• United Kingdom did not exhibit the same trend, likely because rapid de‑unionization eliminated the union wage premiums that had made night work comparatively attractive.