Journal of Social Equity and Public Administration

Gauging the Gap: Inequality of Time Use When Seeking Government Services

Andrea Briceno-Mosquera

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4155-1525

Sharon Mastracci

Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) at Virginia Tech

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1506-7585

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jsepa.v3i2.6273

Keywords: Racialized burdens, administrative burdens, American Time Use Survey (ATUS), government services, waiting time

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Abstract

Seeking government services and interacting with the administrative state require time and waiting. However, the use of time while interacting with the administrative state is unevenly distributed across racialized groups. Using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003–2022, we examine inequities when seeking and waiting for government services. Blacks wait 1.7 times longer, and Hispanics wait 1.6 times longer than Whites when seeking government services. Individuals without a partner, with more household children, and the unemployed also devote more time waiting for government services. This article contributes to the scholarship on administrative burdens by arguing that uneven wait time distribution may result from racialized administrative procedures. Those who spend more time seeking government services and waiting experience higher opportunity costs that interfere with their lives, reproducing and normalizing injustices. Uneven wait times may also engender animosity toward the administrative state among already marginalized individuals.

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Author Biographies

Andrea Briceno-Mosquera, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Andrea Briceno Mosquera (she/her) (bandream@vt.edu) is a research scientist at the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (IPG). Her research explores administrative burdens, the interaction between citizens/individuals and the administrative state, and the intersections of immigration, higher education, and labor market policies. She was a 2019–2020 fellow with the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Sharon Mastracci , Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) at Virginia Tech

Sharon Mastracci (she/her) (smastracci@vt.edu) is a professor with the Center for Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) at Virginia Tech. She studies gender, emotional labor, and stigmatized work in public service. She was a 2014–2015 Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom and is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

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