When one spouse takes a greedy job, it makes sense for the other parent to take a big step back from working to make it easier for the greedy job worker to take on 50-70 hour weeks. The clients of a greedy job employer want guaranteed access to a particular person, whether it’s their banker, their lawyer or another professionalized service worker. Greedy jobs are often high-touch, concierge-like jobs. She calls them greedy jobs because the employer would always like more of your time, and they’re willing to pay enough to make it tempting.

Someone working a 50-hour week at a greedy job makes much more than twice someone doing similar work for 25 hours a week. Goldin defines “greedy” jobs as ones where the pay per hour rises substantially with hours worked. What she terms “greedy jobs” make it simpler for one parent - usually the dad - to do most of the paid work, even when that’s not what the parents prefer. As Goldin describes, it can be hard for women to return to work part time. It’s when women become mothers that their earnings take a hit and never recover. Women without children tend to match comparable men’s earnings (whether or not the men have children). Men and women face a persistent pay gap, but, in most cases, it’s no longer the result of explicit discrimination. In her 2021 book “ Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity,” economic historian Claudia Goldin examines why that balance is so hard to strike. My ideal scenario would be for both my husband and I to work complementary part-time jobs, with plenty of time at home to be parents. Schools certainly seem to assume we all work part time, with summers off and kids released long before the end of the typical work day.

What kind of work works for working mothers? In surveys by both Pew Research Center and the Institute for Family Studies, a majority of mothers say they’d prefer not to work full time.

Mr greedy book