Inadequacy inequality: the distribution and consequences of part-time underemployment in the US

Abstract

Despite some attention devoted to part-time employment with
insufficient or inadequate work hours, research is still too limited
on how the burden of underemployment is distributed
disproportionately on vulnerable workers and its implications for
financial well-being and work-family balance. Furthermore, scarce
research considers the role of control over work hours in the
context of worker underemployment. Using unique data and
measures constructed from a nationally representative survey of
the 2006 and 2016 US General Social Survey, we find that being
part-time underemployed is concentrated toward workers who
are minority, lower income, and employed in certain service
occupations. Multivariate analysis reveals that, relative to both
part-time workers satisfied with their hours and to full-time
workers, the part-time underemployed endure significantly
greater risks of facing lower financial status and financial dissatisfaction.
Part-time underemployed workers also experience
more frequent work-to-family conflict, compared to other parttime
workers, and no less than otherwise comparable full-time
workers. Their elevated work-family conflict is intensified when
having limited control over their work hours. We derive
implications of these findings for preventative public policies that
would help curb both the extent and the harms of
underemployment, recently rendered even more necessary by its
rise during the 2020 recession.

Keywords: Underemployment, Part Time work; Involuntary part time; work hours mismatch; Inadequate hours; work-family conflict; control over work hours; labor market hardship

JEL Classification: J15, J21,, J22, J23, J31, J64, J82