Slate published an article on this subject last week. It’s something that’s been on my mind for awhile but, for some reason, I never gave it much thought (until now.)

Slate.com: The Theory of the Leisure Class An economic mystery: Why do the poor seem to have more free time than the rich?

The article does point out that, across all economic classes, overall leisure time has risen over the past several decades. The economic class whose income has risen the most (college educated professionals) has experienced the least amount of growth in the area of free time. No explanation for this trend is given in the article so this is where my brain kicks in…

Could it be that the “professional” workforce has changed significantly over the past few decades? Our economy isn’t nine to five, Monday through Friday anymore. Many young professionals with whom I’m acquainted bring their work home with them to some extent either in the form of telecommuting or simply receiving work-related phone calls after hours or on weekends. Furthermore, many of them would consider a 40 hour workload to be a fairly light and atypical week. If they were to become disgruntled and quit there’s a good chance that they’ll end up in a job making less money to work more hours somewhere else.