IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp1261.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Do Part-Time Workers Earn Less? The Role of Worker and Job Skills

Author

Listed:
  • Hirsch, Barry

    (Georgia State University)

Abstract

The wages of part-time workers are considerably lower than are those of full-time workers. Measurable worker and job characteristics, including occupational skill requirements, account for much of the part-time penalty. Longitudinal analysis indicates that much of the remaining gap reflects worker heterogeneity, evidenced by small wage gains and losses among workers switching between part-time and full-time jobs. The lower skills of part-time than fulltime workers result primarily from limited work experience and accumulation of human capital. Little evidence can be found of a large wage gap between part-time and full-time women. A part-time wage penalty is found for men, but men account for a small proportion of total part-time employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Hirsch, Barry, 2004. "Why Do Part-Time Workers Earn Less? The Role of Worker and Job Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 1261, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp1261.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Montgomery & James Cosgrove, 1993. "The Effect of Employee Benefits on the Demand for Part-Time Workers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 47(1), pages 87-98, October.
    2. Daniel Aaronson & Eric French, 2004. "The Effect of Part-Time Work on Wages: Evidence from the Social Security Rules," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 329-352, April.
    3. Hersch, Joni, 1998. "Compensating Differentials for Gender-Specific Job Injury Risks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 598-627, June.
    4. Murphy, Kevin M & Welch, Finis, 1990. "Empirical Age-Earnings Profiles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(2), pages 202-229, April.
    5. Alan Manning & Helen Robinson, 2004. "Something in the way she moves: a fresh look at an old gap," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(2), pages 169-188, April.
    6. Henry S. Farber, 1999. "Alternative and Part-Time Employment Arrangements as a Response to Job Loss," NBER Working Papers 7002, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Freeman, Richard B, 1984. "Longitudinal Analyses of the Effects of Trade Unions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, January.
    8. Bruce Fallick, 1998. "Part-time work and industry growth," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1998-16, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Garry F. Barrett & Denise J. Doiron, 2001. "Working part time: by choice or by constraint," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 1042-1065, November.
    10. Neal, Derek, 1999. "The Complexity of Job Mobility among Young Men," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(2), pages 237-261, April.
    11. Rob Euwals & Maurice Hogerbrugge, 2004. "Explaining the growth of part-time employment; factors of supply and demand," CPB Discussion Paper 31.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. Farber, Henry S. & Levy, Helen, 2000. "Recent trends in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage: are bad jobs getting worse?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 93-119, January.
    13. Hotchkiss, Julie L, 1991. "The Definition of Part-Time Employment: A Switching Regression Model with Unknown Sample Selection," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 32(4), pages 899-917, November.
    14. Susan L. Averett & Julie L. Hotchkiss, 1996. "Discrimination in the Payment of Full-Time Wage Premiums," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 49(2), pages 287-301, January.
    15. Lundberg, Shelly J, 1985. "Tied Wage-Hours Offers and the Endogeneity of Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(3), pages 405-410, August.
    16. H. Naci Mocan & Erdal Tekin, 2003. "Nonprofit Sector and Part-Time Work: An Analysis of Employer-Employee Matched Data on Child Care Workers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 38-50, February.
    17. Hirsch, Barry T. & Schumacher, Edward J., 1995. "Monopsony power and relative wages in the labor market for nurses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 443-476, October.
    18. Euwals, Rob & Hogerbrugge, Maurice, 2004. "Explaining the Growth of Part-Time Employment: Factors of Supply and Demand," IZA Discussion Papers 1124, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Peracchi, Franco & Welch, Finis, 1995. "How representative are matched cross-sections? Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 153-179, July.
    20. Barry T. Hirsch & Edward J. Schumacher, 2004. "Match Bias in Wage Gap Estimates Due to Earnings Imputation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(3), pages 689-722, July.
    21. Farber, Henry S, 1999. "Alternative and Part-Time Employment Arrangements as a Response to Job Loss," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 142-169, October.
    22. Card, David, 1996. "The Effect of Unions on the Structure of Wages: A Longitudinal Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 957-979, July.
    23. Rob Euwals & Maurice Hogerbrugge, 2004. "Explaining the growth of part-time employment; factors of supply and demand," CPB Discussion Paper 31, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    24. Lettau, Michael K., 1997. "Compensation in part-time jobs versus full-time jobs What if the job is the same?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 101-106, September.
    25. Montgomery, Mark & Cosgrove, James, 1995. "Are Part-Time Women Paid Less? A Model with Firm-Specific Effects," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(1), pages 119-133, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hielke Buddelmeyer & Gilles Mourre & Melanie Ward, 2008. "Why Europeans work part-time? A cross-country panel analysis," Research in Labor Economics, in: Work, Earnings and Other Aspects of the Employment Relation, pages 81-139, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Hielke Buddelmeyer & Gilles Mourre & Melanie Ward, 2004. "The determinants of part-time work in EU countries: empirical investigations with macro-panel data - Hielke Buddelmeyer, Gilles Mourre and Melanie Ward," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 213, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    3. Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Mourre, Gilles & Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 2004. "The Determinants of Part-Time Work in EU Countries: Empirical Investigations with Macro-Panel Data," IZA Discussion Papers 1361, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Buddelmeyer, Hielke & Mourre, Gilles & Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 2004. "Recent Developments in Part-Time Work in EU-15 Countries: Trends and Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 1415, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Annemarie Künn-Nelen & Andries de Grip & Didier Fouarge, 2013. "Is Part-Time Employment Beneficial for Firm Productivity?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(5), pages 1172-1191, October.
    6. Christopher R. Bollinger & Barry T. Hirsch, 2006. "Match Bias from Earnings Imputation in the Current Population Survey: The Case of Imperfect Matching," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 483-520, July.
    7. Russo, Giovanni & Hassink, Wolter, 2005. "The Part-Time Wage Penalty: A Career Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 1468, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. G. Russo & W.H.J. Hassink, 2005. "The Part-Time Wage Penalty: a Career Perspective," Working Papers 05-01, Utrecht School of Economics.
    9. William Even & David Macpherson, 2004. "Do Pensions Impede Phased Retirement?," Labor and Demography 0407001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Pfeifer, Christian, 2007. "Eine theoretische und empirische Analyse der betrieblichen Determinanten von Teilzeitarbeit, Mini- und Midi-Jobs (A theoretical and empirical analysis of the company determinants of part-time work, mi," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 40(1), pages 65-76.
    11. John Addison & Paulino Teixeira & Katalin Evers & Lutz Bellmann, 2014. "Indicative and Updated Estimates of the Collective Bargaining Premium in Germany," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 125-156, January.
    12. Edward J. Schumacher, "undated". "What Explains Union Membership Contract Coverage Wage Differentials?," Working Papers 9719, East Carolina University, Department of Economics.
    13. Ramos, Raul & Sanromá, Esteban & Simón, Hipólito, 2018. "Wage Differentials by Bargaining Regime in Spain (2002-2014): An Analysis Using Matched Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 12013, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Gaston, Noel & Kishi, Tomoko, 2007. "Part-time workers doing full-time work in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 435-454, December.
    15. Shuaizhang Feng & Yingyao Hu, 2013. "Misclassification Errors and the Underestimation of the US Unemployment Rate," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 1054-1070, April.
    16. Martin Browning & Thomas F. Crossley & Eric F. Smith, 2007. "Asset Accumulation and Short Term Employment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 10(3), pages 400-423, July.
    17. Joan R. Rodgers, 2004. "Hourly Wages of full-time and part-time employees in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 7(2), pages 231-254, June.
    18. Joanna Abhayaratna & Les Andrews & Hudan Nuch & Troy Podbury, 2008. "Part Time Employment: the Australian Experience," Staff Working Papers 0805, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia.
    19. Nicholas A. Jolly, 2022. "The effects of job displacement on spousal health," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 123-152, March.
    20. David Card & Thomas Lemieux & W. Craig Riddell, 2020. "Unions and wage inequality: The roles of gender, skill and public sector employment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 140-173, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    part-time; wages; worker heterogeneity; job characteristics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1261. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.