The standard working week is standard no longer. For men, the change has been towards an increase in work hours. This is occurring in an era marked by wives increasingly sharing the income earning load, a consequent need for husbands to take on more of the home making load, and a need for workplaces to allow this to happen. Given such a climate of conflicting demands, are those extra hours men put into their job worth it in terms of personal and marital happiness? This article first outlines trends in paid work hours over the 20th century, apparent reasons underlying recent trends, and previous research into some of the personal repurcussions of long work hours. On the basis of this background information, predictions of the links between work hours and these other factors are then specified and later assessed on the basis of data collected through a survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in 1996, the Australian Life Course Study. The analysis focuses on the direct and indirect impact of men's extended work hours on relationship well being and life satisfaction, when the effects of some other variables likely to affect personal and marital well being were controlled.