Good, Bad and Very Bad Part-time Jobs for Women? Re-examining the Importance of Occupational Class for Job Quality since the ‘Great Recession’ in Britain

an article by Tracey Warren (University of Nottingham, UK) and Clare Lyonette
(University of Warwick, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 12 Issue 4 (August 2018)

Abstract

Britain has long stood out in Europe for its extensive but poor-quality part-time labour market dominated by women workers, who are concentrated in lower-level jobs demanding few skills and low levels of education, offering weak wage rates and restricted advancement opportunities.

This article explores trends in part-time job quality for women up to and beyond the recession of 2008/9, and asks whether post-recessionary job quality remains differentiated by occupational class.

A pre-recessionary narrowing of the part-time/full-time gap in job quality appears to have been maintained for the women in higher-level part-time jobs, while part- and full-timers in lower-level jobs suffered the worst effects of the recession, signalling deepening occupational class inequalities among working women.

---

Does Part-Time Employment Widen the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence from Twelve European Countries

a paper by Eleonora Matteazzi (University of Verona, Italy) and Ariane Pailhé and Anne Solaz (INED, Paris, France) published by ECINEQ 2013 – 293 (Society for the Study of Economic Inequality) in March 2013

Abstract
One of five workers work part-time in Europe, mainly women.

This article examines the extent to which the over-representation of women in part-time employment explains the gender hourly earnings gap in twelve European countries.

Using the EU-SILC 2009 data, a double decomposition of the gender wage gap is implemented: between men and women employed full-time and between full-time and part-time working women.

The high prevalence of part-time employment plays only a minor role. The nature of part-time employment and labor market segregation are much more important factors. A large share of the gender wage gap still remains unexplained, however.

JEL Classification Codes: C31, C49, J21, J22, J24, J31, J71

Full text (PDF 49pp)

---