An ABCNEWS 20/20 poll finds that two-thirds of Americans are satisfied with their free time — but with huge variation among groups. Seniors and the unemployed are broadly satisfied with their free time; child-rearing and full-time working Americans, far less so.
Complaints aren't as bad as the office-cooler kvetching might imply. Even among the least satisfied groups, majorities nonetheless are satisfied with the amount of free time they have in an average week — 51 percent of parents of young children, 53 percent of people in high-income households and 55 percent of full-time workers.
At the other end of the scale, 90 percent of seniors are satisfied with their free time, as are 78 percent of nonworking Americans.
And the old days don't look better: Only about a third of Americans feel they have less free time than their parents did at their age. Thirty-six percent feel they have more free time, 31 percent, about the same amount.
That's consistent with work by University of Maryland sociologists who say Americans are working fewer hours than in 1965, doing less housework and having more time to themselves.
Who’s Satisfied
After seniors and people who don't work for pay, satisfaction with free time is highest among those who have annual household incomes less than $25,000 (72 percent), who don't have children at home, and who aren't married (in both cases, 71 percent).
Jobs take up a lot of time: Satisfaction with free time falls from 78 percent among the unemployed to 68 percent of part-time workers and, as noted, down to 55 percent of those who hold full-time jobs. (It's a good bet that free-time satisfaction is comparatively low in high-income households because many of them include two-worker couples.)
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