The Willingness-to-Pay for Work/Family Policies: A Study of Teachers

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that employers and employees may benefit from work/family policies and that even non-beneficiaries may support such policies. The authors posit that these policies generate not only "use" values (values for those who rely on them), but also, based on a particular norm of social justice, "need" values (values received by all individuals, regardless of expectations of direct benefit). Combining the median voter model with the contingent valuation method, which was designed to measure the willingness-to-pay for environmental goods such as national parks, the authors capture the willingness-to-pay for seven distinct work/family policies within a sample of 343 public, elementary school teachers. The results suggest that referenda to initiate work/family policies in exchange for payroll deductions from teachers would pass, depending on the specific deduction. Even respondents with no expectation of direct benefit may place a positive value on the policies, consistent with the notion of "need" values.

Keywords: work and family, benefits, contingent valuation

JEL Classification: J30, J13