The paper examines whether there is an asymmetry in the distribution of market
work and domestic work within families in Australia, and to what extent
differences in earnings capacities of spouses can account for the division of labor.
Using a Blinder-Oaxaca Tobit-type decomposition, we find that the difference
in earnings capacities of Australian couples could explain about 30
and 20 percent of the observed disparities in spousal time allocation in market
and domestic work, respectively. Most of the work gaps, however, appear to be
accounted for by the differences in labor supply behaviors of partners rather
than by the differences in earnings capacities.We further observe that the differences
in wages are more relevant for immigrant families originating from
non-English speaking countries.Convergence of gender wages would produce
the greatest reduction in spousal specialization for this particular group.Given
that immigrant women from non-English speaking background have high levels
of formal qualifications, our results could assert the significance of improving
the returns to human capital attributes of these immigrant women in reducing
the imbalance in spousal work distribution.