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When it comes to dusting and doing the dishes, young men are finally doing their fair share of the housework - almost.

A Statistics Canada study released Tuesday shows that in households with two employed spouses, young couples are increasingly sharing domestic responsibilities, with women doing just over half of the housework (53 per cent). Women aged 20 to 29 report doing 1.4 hours of housework a day, compared to 1 hour for men.

The study compared the young adulthood of three generations: the late baby boomers (born 1957 to 1966) when they were aged 20 to 29 in 1986, Generation X (1969 to 1978), who was in that age group in 1998, and Generation Y (1981 to 1990), who reached it in 2010.

The findings suggest Gen Y men have had to pull their weight at home more as their wives worked longer hours in paid employment.

"As women have increased their hours of paid work, men have steadily increased their share of household work," the report says.

Domestic equality decreased, however, among older couples. Generation X women reported doing 59 per cent of the housework when they were aged 20 to 29. They spent 1.8 hours a day on housework, compared to 0.9 hours for men.

And Baby Boomer women reported that when they were in that age group, they did 1.2 hours more housework a day than men.

"By the time Generation Y arrived at the same age group, the difference had narrowed to 0.4 hours. This was due entirely to a decrease in the time women spent on housework," the report says.

While the average daily time spent on paid work and housework by men and women is now nearly equal for dual-income couples without kids, having dependent children at home decreased the average paid work done by women, while their contribution to housework increased.

Overall, the data show Gen Y is doing less housework than ever before, a trend Statistics Canada attributes to the fact that those under 30 are more likely to be in school and living with their parents than previous generations.



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