Flexible `Parts' and Rigid `Fulls': The Limited Revolution in Work-Time Patterns

1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Dey

The evidence indicates that there has been some erosion of the distinction between part-time and full-time employment over the past decade. However, this is almost entirely attributable to the growth in part-time employment, and despite a continuing rigidity in full-time work patterns. It is argued that part-time employment can only make a limited contribution to labour market flexibility so long as full-time work patterns remain inflexible. This paper questions the assumptions sustaining a rigid bifurcation of work into full-time and part-time hours, and considers the case for a more flexible approach to full-time hours in the context of the debate over worksharing.

Author(s):  
Milla Salin

The aim of this study was to analyze mothers’ working time patters across 22 European countries. The focu was on three questions: how much mothers prefer to work, how much they actually work, and to what degree their preferred and actual working times are (in)consistent with each other. The focus was on cross-national differences in mothers’ working time patterns, comparison of mothers’ working times to that of childless women and fathers, as well as on individual- and country-level factors that explain the variation between them.In the theoretical background, the departure point was an integrative theoretical approach where the assumption is that there are various kinds of explanations for the differences in mothers’ working time patterns – namely structural, cultural and institutional – , and that these factors are laid in two levels: individual- and country-levels. Data were extracted from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2010 / 2011.The results showed that mothers’ working time patterns, both preferred and actual working times, varied across European countries. Four clusters were formed to illustrate the differences. In the full-time pattern, full-time work was the most important form of work, leaving all other working time forms marginal. The full-time pattern was perceived in terms of preferred working times in Bulgaria and Portugal. In polarised pattern countries, full-time work was also important, but it was accompanied by a large share of mothers not working at all. In the case of preferred working times, many Eastern and Southern European countries followed it whereas in terms of actual working times it included all Eastern and Southern European countries as well as Finland. The combination pattern was characterised by the importance of long part-time hours and full-time work. It was the preferred working time pattern in the Nordic countries, France, Slovenia, and Spain, but Belgium, Denmark, France, Norway, and Sweden followed it in terms of actual working times. The fourth cluster that described mothers’ working times was called the part-time pattern, and it was illustrated by the prevalence of short and long part-time work. In the case of preferred working times, it was followed in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Besides Belgium, the part-time pattern was followed in the same countries in terms of actual working times. The consistency between preferred and actual working times was rather strong in a majority of countries. However, six countries fell under different working time patterns when preferred and actual working times were compared.Comparison of working mothers’, childless women’s, and fathers’ working times showed that differences between these groups were surprisingly small. It was only in part-time pattern countries that working mothers worked significantly shorter hours than working childless women and fathers. Results therefore revealed that when mothers’ working times are under study, an important question regarding the population examined is whether it consists of all mothers or only working mothers.Results moreover supported the use of the integrative theoretical approach when studying mothers’ working time patterns. Results indicate that mothers’ working time patterns in all countries are shaped by various opportunities and constraints, which are comprised of structural, cultural, institutional, and individual-level factors.Keywords: mother, working time pattern; preferred working time, actual working time, integrative theoretical approach, comparative research


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh K. Rogers

Abstract A Student Exchange Program began with four students from Germany visiting Siemens-Westinghouse and the University of Central Florida in Summer, 1999, as an initiative from Siemens training officials in Muelheim, Germany. In Summer 2000, a program with four German apprentices coming to the U.S. and four U.S. interns working and studying in Germany was very successful. The initial UCF students continued part-time work at Siemens during their senior year and were offered full-time employment upon graduation. Not only did the German students complete their work, but some of them returned for employment in the U.S. Siemens, as a multinational enterprise, is preparing technologists and engineers to understand product design and manufacturing for integrated systems in international markets. Students will benefit from an understanding of the systems, standards, and cultures involved. The internship model being developed uses the best from the German and U.S. systems and merits further study and implementation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (10) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Piotr Matuszak

The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between temporary part-time employment and the wages male employees receive in subsequent full-time employment within the first five and the first ten years from the date of starting their full-time employment. The study uses data from the German labour market, obtained from the Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984–2014. The fixed effects estimator, which solves the unobserved heterogeneity issue by removing time-invariant individual effects by a ‘within’ transformation, was applied in the empirical analysis. The results indicate that having experience as a part-time worker is associated with lower future wages – a one-year increase in the number of years in part-time work in the last two to five years leads to a reduction in future wages in a full-time job by 4.4% on average, compared to having solely a full-time job experience. However, this relationship becomes statistically insignificant after five years of being employed full-time. The results are robust to different specifications and it is indicated that an inverse relationship between working below regular hours and future wages in full-time employment is related to working parttime in low- and medium-skilled occupations. At the same time, working part-time is less detrimental to future wages than periods of unemployment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese Jefferson ◽  
Alison Preston

In this article we present data on earnings and hours in 2010 and, using data over a longer time frame, show how the character of the Australian labour market has significantly changed in recent decades. Among other things, we demonstrate a continued shift towards part-time work and, across full-time and part-time labour markets, a change in the distribution of jobs towards more highly skilled occupations. We continue to argue that traditional indicators of labour-market activity, such as headline unemployment and earnings in full-time employment, are only able to partially explain the health of the labour market. There is an urgent need to better understand other dimensions such as underemployment, part-time employment and part-time earnings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvette van Osch ◽  
Jaap Schaveling

The literature on part-time employment suggests that this type of employment hampers career advancement especially for women. Conversely, role congruity theory suggests that part-time employment hampers career advancement for men. In view of the often confounded nature of gender and job status in research, we studied the main and interaction effects of job status and gender on perceived job alternatives and four subdimensions of organizational career growth. The data ( N = 211) revealed (1) a main effect of job status on job alternatives: compared to part-time employment, full-time employment leads to more perceived job alternatives; (2) an interaction effect of job status and gender on career goal progress, ability development, and promotion speed: men working part-time experienced less progress, development, and promotion speed than men working full-time and women in general. These results are explained by gender-role incongruence and challenge the idea that part-time work affects women in particular.


Author(s):  
Moira Wilson ◽  
Deborah Ball

Since 1996, the abatement regime and conditions of entitlement facing sole pare Ills in receipt of the Domestic Purposes Benefit have changed markedly. These changes were intended to increase sole parents' likelihood of supporting themselves and their families through paid employment. Were they effective in raising levels of participation in part time and full-time work? This paper addresses this question using a multiple cohort analysis based on administrative data on benefit dynamics. It finds marked differences in the declared earnings of successive cohorts that coincided with the 1996 and 1997 Employment Task Force reforms, and strongly suggest that those reforms increased DPB recipients’ participation in part-time employment. lt finds no marked differences in declared earnings propensities following the 1999 DPB reforms, but marked increases in the probability of being off benefit which appear to at least partly reflect policy impacts on full-time employment propensities. lt is possible that compositional changes associated with these increases mask changes in part-time employment propensities. This is an area for further work.  


ILR Review ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haya Stier

Using data on Jewish Israeli women aged 25 to 55, the author examines patterns and determinants of women's transitions among four employment categories: regular full-time employment, reduced-hours full-time employment, part-time employment, and non-employment. Israeli women are not trapped in part-time employment. Departures from reduced-hour and part-time employment occur at higher rates than departures from full-time jobs. Women who have just given birth have an increased likelihood of moving from full-time employment to reduced-hour or part-time employment. Women in female-type occupations and those in “peripheral” jobs (jobs outside core industries) are more likely than other women to reduce their work hours or exit the labor force. The author argues that although part-time work is a valuable short-term option for many women, in the long run it preserves labor market institutions that are disadvantageous to women.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
David S. Pedulla ◽  
Michael J. Donnelly

Abstract The social and economic forces that shape attitudes toward the welfare state are of central concern to social scientists. Scholarship in this area has paid limited attention to how working part-time, the employment status of nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, affects redistribution preferences. In this article, we theoretically develop and empirically test an argument about the ways that part-time work, and its relationship to gender, shape redistribution preferences. We articulate two gender-differentiated pathways—one material and one about threats to social status—through which part-time work and gender may jointly shape individuals’ preferences for redistribution. We test our argument using cross-sectional and panel data from the General Social Survey in the United States. We find that the positive relationship between part-time employment, compared to full-time employment, and redistribution preferences is stronger for men than for women. Indeed, we do not detect a relationship between part-time work and redistribution preferences among women. Our results provide support for a gendered relationship between part-time employment and redistribution preferences and demonstrate that both material and status-based mechanisms shape this association.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document