The article examines the preferences for working time among men and women in 22 countries. The main question was whether working hours reflect workers' preferences and tastes or whether they were a constraint imposed by the organization of the labor market and economic considerations. The study is based on the ISSP survey on Work Orientation conducted in 1997 and employs hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to determine individual- and country-level factors affecting the preferences for working time. The findings suggest that a significant number of workers are still constrained by structural factors in their time allocation. Preferences for work were affected by both individual-level and country-level characteristics.
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