Feature: The Price of Reconciliation: Part‐Time Work, Families and Women's Satisfaction

Abstract

While the gender pay gap has been narrowing for women in full-time jobs the pay penalty for the 40% of women who work part-time has risen, reflecting the growing polarisation of part-time jobs in low-wage occupations. A further dimension is that women often experience downgrading from higher-skill full-time into lower-skill part-time occupations. As women reorganise their working lives around the presence of children their reported hours and job satisfaction are highest in part-time work, but life-satisfaction is scarcely affected by hours of work. This Feature explores these issues and their challenge for economic efficiency as well as gender equity.On gender equality recent years have brought much good news in Britain. As in most advanced economies, increasing numbers of girls and young women have been staying on in post-compulsory education, and proceeding to further and higher education. They are outperforming their male peers at all levels, from primary school to university, and their aspirations are high. Building on their educational attainment women's labour force attachment is strengthening. They are moving into an expanding range of occupations, achieving career success in many. The UK's long-established gender pay gap is narrowing significantly and a reverse gender pay gap should no longer be unthinkable.This success story, however, relates only to women working full-time. Six million women, around 40% of those in work, are in part-time employment. For them the pay gap has been widening steadily over a number of years; they now face a substantial pay penalty not only relative to men but also relative to women in full-time work. The principal reasons for this are becoming starkly clear. Part-time jobs are heavily polarised into low-paid occupations. As wage inequality has increased the relative wage position of these jobs has deteriorated further. The key legislative provisions against discrimination, requiring equal pay and equal treatment, are not structured to address inequalities arising from occupational segregation. Moreover, the formal proscription against differential outcomes does not prevent differences in grading and individualspecific salaries within occupations. 1 Women supplying limited numbers of hours are least likely to claim their legal entitlements.The occupational segregation of women working part-time cannot be simply dismissed as selection into low-paid jobs by those whose weaker human capital attributes will generate poor labour market rewards. With 40% of women working part-time and the strong educational attainment of younger women this explanation is already stretched. More tellingly, the direct evidence of panel data shows that many women working part-time in low-paid occupations are qualified for, and have previously held, higher level, better paid jobs. This occupational downgrading with the switch to parttime work has recently been characterised by the Equal Opportunities Commission as * Helpful comments from Alison Booth during the preparation of this Introduction are ackn...

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