Part-time Employment Can Be a Life-Time Setback for Earnings: A Study of British Women 1975-2001

Abstract

Two particular features of the position of women in the British labour market are the extensive role of part-time work and the large part-time pay penalty. Part-time work features most prominently when women are in their 30s, the peak childcare years and, particularly for more educated women, a crucial period for career building. This makes it essential to understand its impact on women's subsequent earnings trajectories. We find that the wage return to part-time experience is low - negligible in lower skill occupations. Even more important channels contributing to the pay disadvantage of women working part-time are job changing, particularly when this involves occupational downgrading. Downgrading can lead to a permanent pay disadvantage for women following a spell in part-time work.

Keywords: female employment, part-time work, occupation, earnings trajectories, life-cycle, downgrade, over-qualification

JEL Classification: C23, C25, C33, C35, J16, J22, J62