Publication type
Journal Article
Author
Publication date
January 15, 2020
Summary:
Using data from Understanding Society and the British Household Panel Survey, this article explores the relationship between working part-time and progression out of low pay for male and female employees using a discrete-time event history model. The results show that working part-time relative to full-time decreases the likelihood of progression out of low pay, defined as earning below two-thirds of the median hourly wage. However, part-time workers who transition to full-time employment experience similar rates of progression to full-time workers. This casts doubt on the idea that part-time workers have lower progression rates because they have lower abilities or work motivation and reinforces the need to address the quality of part-time jobs in the UK labour market. The negative effect of working part-time is greater for men than for women, although women are more at risk of becoming trapped in low pay in the sense that they tend to work part-time for longer periods of time, particularly if they have children. Factors such as childcare policy and Universal Credit (UC) incentivise part-time employment for certain groups, although in the right labour market conditions UC may encourage some part-time workers to increase their working hours.
Published in
Journal of Social Policy
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 49 , p.41 -59
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047279419000205
ISSN
472794
Subjects
Notes
Referenced by: Clery, E., Dewar, L., and Edney, C. (2023) 'The single parent employment challenge'. London: Gingerbread.
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