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 willing-ness-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