scholarly journals Working-hour Trends in the Nordic Countries: Convergence or Divergence?

Author(s):  
Aart-Jan Riekhoff ◽  
Oxana Krutova ◽  
Jouko Nätti

In this article, we investigate changes in usual working hours and part-time work in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in recent decades. We analyze whether convergence or divergence occurred between countries, between men and women, and between men and women in each country. We use annual data from the European Labor Force Survey to identify trends between 1996 and 2016 (N = 730,133), while controlling for a set of structural factors. The findings suggest a degree of divergence between countries: usual working hours and the incidence of part-time work were relatively stable in Finland and Sweden, while working hours decreased in Denmark and Norway. The latter is partly driven by a decline among the 15–29 age group. The gender gap in working hours and part-time work was closed somewhat, in particular due to a rise in part-time work among men and a decline among women in Norway and Sweden.

SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401774269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariska van der Horst ◽  
David Lain ◽  
Sarah Vickerstaff ◽  
Charlotte Clark ◽  
Ben Baumberg Geiger

In the context of population aging, the U.K. government is encouraging people to work longer and delay retirement, and it is claimed that many people now make “gradual” transitions from full-time to part-time work to retirement. Part-time employment in older age may, however, be largely due to women working part-time before older age, as per a U.K. “modified male breadwinner” model. This article therefore separately examines the extent to which men and women make transitions into part-time work in older age, and whether such transitions are influenced by marital status. Following older men and women over a 10-year period using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this article presents sequence, cluster, and multinomial logistic regression analyses. Little evidence is found for people moving into part-time work in older age. Typically, women did not work at all or they worked part-time (with some remaining in part-time work and some retiring/exiting from this activity). Consistent with a “modified male breadwinner” logic, marriage was positively related to the likelihood of women belonging to typically “female employment pathway clusters,” which mostly consist of part-time work or not being employed. Men were mostly working full-time regardless of marital status. Attempts to extend working lives among older women are therefore likely to be complicated by the influence of traditional gender roles on employment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne van Zwieten ◽  
Jan Fekke Ybema ◽  
Goedele Geuskens

Terms of employment and the preferred retirement age Terms of employment and the preferred retirement age The present study examines how the satisfaction with the terms of employment among older employees affects the preferred retirement age. Two waves of data collection (2008 and 2009) of the cohort-study of the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NWCS) were used for this study. The results of this longitudinal study showed that satisfaction with terms of employment that concern flexibility (e.g. flexible working hours and the possibilities for part-time work) contribute to a higher preferred retirement age. It also contributes to not specifying the preferred retirement age. This means that employees who are satisfied with the flexibility in their jobs more often do not know at what age they prefer to retire than employees who are not satisfied, but if they do know they report a higher preferred retirement age. By arranging flexibility in the job together with and to the satisfaction of employees, employees can be stimulated to postpone retirement.


Author(s):  
Hanne Cecilie Kavli ◽  
Roy A. Nielsen

Migrants are often at a disadvantage in the labour market. Increased migration has therefore led to a strong focus in receiving countries on policy that can facilitate employment. Less attention is paid to working hours, contracts or type of work. The workplace is viewed as an arena where immigrants can improve language skills and establish contacts through which they can achieve upwards mobility in the labour market. We investigate transfers out of part-time work among immigrants and natives in Norway. By means of competing risk event history analyses, we compare transitions from part-time work to either full-time positions or exits from the labour market over five years among Norwegians and different groups of immigrants. Stable part-time is less common among immigrants than among natives, as immigrants have higher transfers to both full-time work and unemployment. Immigrants - men and women - have the same or higher likelihood of transitioning from part-time to full-time compared to natives. This suggest that immigrants are more often involuntarily in part-time and that they benefit from the opportunity to demonstrate their skills to employers. However, immigrants also have higher exit risk and this risk increases with short working hours, indicating a higher level of precariousness.


2020 ◽  
pp. 073112142093774
Author(s):  
Corey Pech ◽  
Elizabeth Klainot-Hess ◽  
Davon Norris

Gender inequality in the labor market is a key focus of stratification research. Increasingly, variation in hours worked separates men and women’s employment experiences. Though women often voluntarily work part-time at higher rates than men, involuntary part-time work is both analytically distinct from voluntary part-time work and leaves workers economically precarious. To date, researchers have not systematically investigated gender disparities in involuntary part-time work in the United States. Utilizing Current Population Survey data, we test for a gender gap in involuntary part-time work and evaluate two potential mechanisms: occupational segregation and penalties for care work. We find that women are much more likely than men to work in involuntary part-time positions. Occupational segregation and a care work penalty partially, but not fully, explain this gap. Findings extend existing theories of gender inequality in the workforce and show how an underresearched dimension of job quality creates gender stratification in the United States.


Author(s):  
Mara A. Yerkes ◽  
Belinda Hewitt

This chapter contributes to the dualization debate by investigating the extent to which gender unequal part-time work patterns reflect insider - outsider labour market effects (e.g. based on gender and occupational effects) by comparing the Netherlands - a country with high protection of part-time workers - with Australia - a country with minimal protection. We focus on the part-time work strategies of men and women of childbearing age, bridging dualization theory with work-family theory. We explore both the extent of dualization between men and women (how women and men differ in their part-time employment patterns) as well as possible dualization effects within part-time work, considering variation in part-time work strategies among women in both countries. Our findings suggest dualization between part-time and full-time workers exists in both countries. Crucially, we find that dualization exists within part


2021 ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
Monique Kremer ◽  
Robert Went ◽  
Godfried Engbersen

AbstractThis chapter focuses on part-time work as well as other ingredients necessary to improve control in life including paid leave, good childcare, care for the elderly and workers’ ability to determine their own working hours. How are new technogies, flexible contracts and the intensification of work affecting people's own control in life?


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 67-79
Author(s):  
Milica Mladenović

Due to demographic, economic and cultural changes at the global level, the importance of establishing a balance between business and private life of employees has increased. The need to balance life is especially pronounced in sales managers due to high pressure and constantly high levels of stress. The paper will propose various benefits that organizations can offer to contribute to balancing the lives of employees and managers: flexible working hours, part-time work, part-time work, division of labor, work from home, kindergarten for children in the office building and employee assistance programs in coping with stress. The introduction of a work-life balance program can have positive effects on both employee performance (e.g, increasing commitment to the organization) and organizational performance (e.g, attracting and retaining the best employees).


2020 ◽  
pp. 521-548
Author(s):  
David Cabrelli

This chapter examines the policies that have been adopted to strike a balance between the twin objectives of labour market flexibility and enhanced job quality in the context of the regulation of part-time work and fixed-term work. It discusses the benefits and drawbacks of part-time and fixed-term working: for workers the flexibility which accompanies such positions can enable them to secure working hours that are tailored around their domestic and social responsibilities; however, such work often comes at a cost in terms of low pay, low status, and insecurity. These working patterns are attractive to employers as they generate cost efficiencies. The chapter evaluates the equal treatment regimes contained in the Part-Time Workers Regulations and the Fixed-Term Employees Regulations. In so doing, it addresses the Framework Agreement and Directive on Part-time Work and the Agreement on Fixed-term Work and the Fixed-term Work Directive.


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