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It's more complex than that. People on salary earn a fixed amount per month - they don't get paid extra if they work an hour longer in the evening instead of s

It's more complex than that. People on salary earn a fixed amount per month - they don't get paid extra if they work an hour longer in the evening instead of shopping. People on most hourly jobs have their schedule set by their manager. They can't pick up an extra hour of work unless their manager has some to offer, and not at the time of their own choosing. People working on their own businesses have an even less direct correlation between extra hour worked and extra income. Only the very few people who do remote freelance work on an hourly basis have the flexibility to decide between going shopping for an hour or doing billable work for an hour. For everyone else, the opportunity cost of leisure time is close to 0, but they might be willing to pay for services for other reasons.

grandalf 10y ago
> For everyone else, the opportunity cost of leisure time is close to 0, but they might be willing to pay for services for other reasons. If you define leisure time as the time not spent in paid employment, the opportunity cost of leisure time is actually very high, since each of us has many unpaid tasks that we must do to keep our lives going (such as keeping the living space tidy, stocking the fridge with food, obtaining clothing, etc.) If we opt for "leisure" and fail to do these things, the cost of rectifying the situation increases. I think a more accurate way to look at it is that most of us have paid labor (hourly or salaried) and a lot of unpaid labor that we need to do to keep our lives in order. Things like chores, maintenance of our living space, etc. Leisure time is actually what is left only after we've done all of the paid labor our job demands AND all of this unpaid labor. For some people, this leaves very little leisure time, but it may leave some extra money that can be allocated to hiring out some of those unpaid tasks in exchange for more time available to do whatever else.

grandalf 10y ago

> For everyone else, the opportunity cost of leisure time is close to 0, but they might be willing to pay for services for other reasons. If you define leisure time as the time not spent in paid employment, the opportunity cost of leisure time is actually very high, since each of us has many unpaid tasks that we must do to keep our lives going (such as keeping the living space tidy, stocking the fridge with food, obtaining clothing, etc.) If we opt for "leisure" and fail to do these things, the cost of rectifying the situation increases. I think a more accurate way to look at it is that most of us have paid labor (hourly or salaried) and a lot of unpaid labor that we need to do to keep our lives in order. Things like chores, maintenance of our living space, etc. Leisure time is actually what is left only after we've done all of the paid labor our job demands AND all of this unpaid labor. For some people, this leaves very little leisure time, but it may leave some extra money that can be allocated to hiring out some of those unpaid tasks in exchange for more time available to do whatever else.