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Back-to-front Down-under? Part-time/Full-time Wage Differentials in Australia

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Author Info

  • Alison Booth
  • Margi Wood

Abstract

In 2003, part-time employment in Australia accounted for over 42% of the Australian female workforce, nearly 17% of the male workforce, and represented 28% of total employment. Of the OECD countries, only the Netherlands has a higher proportion of working women employed part-time and Australia tops the OECD league in terms of its proportion of working men who are part-time. In this paper we investigate part-time full-time hourly wage gaps using important new panel data from the new Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. We find that the usual negative part-time wage penalty found in other countries is not found in Australia once unobserved individual heterogeneity has been taken into account. Instead, part-time men and women typically earn an hourly pay premium. This result survives our numerous robustness checks and we advance some hypotheses as to why there is a positive part-time pay premium.

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File URL: http://cbe.anu.edu.au/research/papers/ceprdpapers/DP482.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 482.

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Length: 22 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:482

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Keywords: part-time; full-time; efficiency hours; gender;

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References

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  1. Alison L. Booth & Jan C. Van Ours, 2009. "Hours of Work and Gender Identity: Does Part-time Work Make the Family Happier?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(301), pages 176-196, 02.
  2. John F. Ermisch & Robert E. Wright, 1993. "Wage Offers and Full-Time and Part-Time Employment by British Women," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(1), pages 111-133.
  3. Hirsch, Barry T., 2004. "Why Do Part-Time Workers Earn Less? The Role of Worker and Job Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 1261, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Main, Brian G M, 1988. "Hourly Earnings of Female Part-time versus Full-time Employees," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 56(4), pages 331-44, December.
  5. Booth, Alison & Ravallion, Martin, 1993. "Employment and Length of the Working Week in a Unionized Economy in which Hours of Work Influence Productivity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(207), pages 428-36, December.
  6. Joan R. Rodgers, 2004. "Hourly Wages of full-time and part-time employees in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), The Centre for Labour Market Research (CLMR), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(2), pages 231-254, June.
  7. Mark Wooden & Diana Warren, 2003. "The Characteristics of Casual and Fixed-Term Employment: Evidence from the HILDA Survey," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n15, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2010. "Insecurity of Employment and Work-Life Balance: From the viewpoint of compensating wage differentials," Discussion papers 10052, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
  2. Mark Wooden & Diana Warren & Robert Drago, 2007. "Working Time Mismatch and Subjective Well-Being," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2007n29, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
  3. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Paul, Marie & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2011. "Part-Time Work, Fixed-Term Contracts, and the Returns to Experience," IZA Discussion Papers 5815, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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