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The Part-Time Pay Penalty

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  • Alan Manning
  • Barbara Petrongolo

Abstract

In 2003, women working part-time in the UK earned, on average, 22% less than women working full-time. Compared to women who work FT, PT women are more likely to have low levels of education, to be in a couple, to have young and numerous children, to work in small establishments in distribution, hotels and restaurants and in low-level occupations. Taking account of these differences, the PT penalty for identical women doing the same job is estimated to be about 10% if one does not take account of differences in the occupations of FT and PT women and 3% if one does. The occupational segregation of PT and FT women can explain most of the aggregate PT pay penalty. In particular, women who move from FT to PT work are much more likely to change employer and/or occupation than those who maintain their hours status. And, when making this transition, they tend to make a downward occupational move, evidence that many women working PT are not making full use of their skills and experience. Women working PT in the other EU countries have similar problems to the UK but the UK has the highest PT pay penalty and one of the worst problems in enabling women to move between FT and PT work without occupational demotions. At the same time, PT work in the UK carries a higher job satisfaction premium (or a lower job satisfaction penalty) than in most other countries. Policy initiatives in recent years like the National Minimum Wage, the Part-Time Workers Regulations and the Right to Request Flexible Working appear to have had little impact on the PT pay penalty as yet although it is too early to make a definitive assessment of the full impact of some of these regulations. The most effective way to reduce the PT pay penalty would be to strengthen rights for women to move between FT and PT work without losing their current job.

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  • Alan Manning & Barbara Petrongolo, 2005. "The Part-Time Pay Penalty," CEP Discussion Papers dp0679, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0679
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    Cited by:

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    5. Bukowski, Maciej & Lewandowski, Piotr & Koloch, Grzegorz & Baranowska, Anna & Magda, Iga & Szydlowski, Arkadiusz & Bober, Magda & Bieliński, Jacek & Zawistowski, Julian & Sarzalska, Malgorzata, 2008. "Employment in Poland 2007: Security on flexible labour market," MPRA Paper 14284, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Wolf, Elke, 2010. "Lohndifferenziale zwischen Vollzeit- und Teilzeitbeschäftigten in Ost- und Westdeutschland," WSI Working Papers 174, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    7. Thierry Lallemand & Robert Plasman & François Rycx, 2007. "The establishment-size wage premium: evidence from European countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 34(5), pages 427-451, December.
    8. Jeroen Horemans, 2016. "The part-time poverty gap across Europe: How institutions affect the way part-time and full-time workers avoid poverty differently," Working Papers 1603, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    9. Shirley Dex & Joanne Lindley & Kelly Ward, 2007. "Vertical occupational mobility and its measurement," Working Papers 2007006, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2007.
    10. Sile Padraigin O'Dorchai, 2008. "Do women gain or lose from becoming mothers?," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 51(2/3), pages 243-268.
    11. Brehmer, Wolfram & Seifert, Hartmut, 2008. "Sind atypische Beschäftigungsverhältnisse prekär? : eine empirische Analyse sozialer Risiken (Are atypical employment relationships precarious? : an empirical analysis of social risks)," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(4), pages 501-531.
    12. Jeroen Horemans, 2017. "Atypical Employment and In-Work Poverty: A Different Story for Part-Timers and Temporary Workers?," Working Papers 1701, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    13. Prowse, Victoria L., 2006. "Part-time Work and Occupational Attainment Amongst a Cohort of British Women," IZA Discussion Papers 2342, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Violante, Giovanni & Hornstein, Andreas, 2006. "Frictional Wage Dispersion in Search Models: A Quantitative Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 5935, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Bachmann, Ronald & Bauer, Thomas K. & Kröger, Hanna & Schaffner, Sandra & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2012. "Tarifvertragssystem stärken - Allgemeinverbindliche Tariflöhne und branchenspezifische Mindestlöhne erleichtern. Stellungnahme zur Anhörung des Ausschusses für Arbeit und Soziales des Deutschen Bundes," RWI Projektberichte, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, number 72615.
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    17. Síle O'Dorchai & Robert Plasman & François Rycx, 2007. "The part‐time wage penalty in European countries: how large is it for men?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(7), pages 571-603, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment transitions; part-time work; motherhood; EU; equality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

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