Income
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1 Introduction
This section discusses how respondents of different income levels spent their time in 2020. Respondents were asked “Including all sources (e.g. pensions, investments, wages, benefits and all other money received by household members), how much income does your household receive per month (after tax)?”
Response options were on a scale from “Less than £770 p.m.” to “£5,601 or more p.m.”, where p.m. means per month. Responses were grouped in the following categories:
participants from households with income of £1,700 or under per month (310 diary days)
participants from households with income of between £1,700 and £3,300 per month (342 diary days)
participants from households with income of over £3,300 per month (205 diary days)
Responses which did not fall into this category, such as “Don’t know” and “Prefer not to say” were categorised as ‘Other’ (243 diary days). This category has been removed from the analysis as it does not provide a meaningful and robust comparison between categories.
The following sections utilise the whole sample for analysis, later sections will utilise only the proportion of the sample who carried out an activity on a given day for analysis.
2 Activity type
2.1 Respondents of varying household income differed on time spent in paid work, unpaid work, and free time
Figure 1: A bar chart showing average time spent on the different activity types by income, Scotland, 2020
There were differences between household income and time spent in paid work, where respondents with a higher income spent more time in paid work than those who had less income. Respondents with a household income of £1,700 p.m. and under spent on average 1 hour and 41 minutes per day on paid work, those with income between £1,700 and £3,300 p.m. spent 2 hours and 48 minutes on average, and respondents with income over £3,300 p.m. spent 3 hours and 41 minutes in paid work.
Over half of respondents with higher household income (52%) spent time on paid work, compared to 43% of respondents with income between £1,700 and £3,000 and just over a quarter (26%) of those with the lowest household income.
The opposite was true for free time and unpaid work, where those with lower income spent more time on these activities compared to those with higher income. On average, those with income of £1,700 p.m. and under spent 6 hours and 3 minutes per day on free time and 4 hours and 17 minutes on unpaid work, while those with a household income over £3,300 p.m. spent 4 hours and 41 minutes on free time and 3 hours and 33 minutes on unpaid work.
3 Paid work
3.1 Household income was associated with amount of time spent working from home, where those with higher incomes spent longer working from home on average
3.1.1 Figure 2: A bar chart showing average time spent on paid work by income, Scotland, 2020
In terms of time spent on paid work when working from home, those with higher income spent the most time working from home, with those with a household income of over £3,300 p.m. spending an average of 1 hour and 59 minutes per day doing paid work at home. This was more time than households where income per month was between £1,700 and £3,300 (1 hour and 25 minutes) and households with income of £1,700 or under who spent 33 minutes on paid work from home.
There were no differences in the amount of time spent working away from home when disaggregated by household income.
4 Unpaid work
4.1 Differences between different income levels were found for time spent on developmental and non-developmental childcare, housework/cooking, and study
Figure 3: A bar chart showing average time spent on unpaid work by income, Scotland, 2020
There were differences across all household incomes for time spent on developmental childcare, housework/cooking, non-developmental childcare, and study.
Higher household income was associated with more time spent on developmental childcare, an average of 7 minutes for those earning up to £1,700p.m., compared to 18 minutes for £1,700 to £3,300 p.m. and 22 minutes for those with income over £3,300 p.m.).
Those with a household income of between £1,700 p.m. and £3,300 p.m. spent more time on non-developmental childcare (an average of 13 minutes per day) compared to those with an income of up to £1,700 p.m. (on average 3 minutes per day).
Those with the lowest household income spent the longest doing housework/cooking (1 hour and 57 minutes) compared to those with household income between £1,700 and £3,300 p.m. (1 hour and 28 minutes), and those with income over £3,300 p.m. (1 hour and 24 minutes).
In terms of time spent studying, those with income over £3,300 p.m. spent the least amont of time on this activity (2 minutes), compared to those with income between £1,700 p.m. and £3,300 p.m. (10 minutes), and those with income up to £1,700 p.m. (18 minutes).
5 Personal care
There were no differences between income levels for personal care activities.
6 Free time
6.1 Time spent on other leisure activities was higher for respondents with lower household income
Figure 4: A bar chart showing average time spent on free time by income, Scotland, 2020
Respondents with lower income spent more time on other leisure activities, which includes watching TV, reading books, spending time online, and paying games, compared to those with higher income. Those with income of £1,700 p.m. and under spent 4 hours and 44 minutes, which was more time than those with income between £1,700 p.m. and £3,300 p.m. (4 hours and 1 minutes), and those whose income was over £3,300 (3 hours and 44 minutes).
7 Did activity type
7.1 When looking only at those respondents who participated in the activities differences between income levels were found in the category of free time
Figure 4: A bar chart showing average time spent on the different activity types by income for those who did the activity, Scotland, 2020
Based on the proportion of the sample who carried out the relevant activities, those with income up to £1,700 p.m. spent more time (on average 6 hours and 12 minutes per day) on free time compared to those with income over £3,300 p.m. (4 hours and 46 minutes).
8 Did paid work
When considering only those who participated in paid work, there were no differences across respondents of different levels of income on time spent on paid work.
9 Did unpaid work
9.1 Of those who did unpaid work, differences on time spent on unpaid work were found in housework/cooking for different income levels
Figure 5: A bar chart showing average time spent on unpaid work by income for those who participated in the activity, Scotland, 2020
Of those who participated in unpaid work, differences were found in time spent on housework/cooking. Respondents with a household income of £1,700 p.m. or under spent more time on housework and cooking (on average 2 hours and 16 minutes per day) compared to those with a household income of £1,700 to £3,300 p.m. (1 hour and 51 minutes), and those with a household income of over £3,300 p.m. (1 hour and 47 minutes).