FS I 91-9
The Regulation of Part-Time Work:
A Comparative Study of Six EC Countries Friederike Maier
April 1992
ISSN-Nr. 1011-9523
Report prepared for the Commission of the European Communities (DG V)
(in collaboration with: Herrad Höcker,
Lothar Linke, Karin Reinsch, and Brigitte Strunk) Translation: Andrew Watt
Forschungsschwerpunkt Arbeitsmarkt und Beschäftigung
Research Area
Labour Market and
Employment
Research Area
Labour Market and Employment Reichpietschuf er 50
1000 Berlin 30
At the end of the eighties in the EC Countries more employees than ever work on a part-time basis. It is remarkable that part-time employment is concentrated in certain industries and occupations, although the development of part-time work in Europe is far from being uniform. The study starts from the thesis, that both the similarities and differences in part-.time employment trends in six selected Ec; mem~er states (France, Belgmm, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Umted Kmgdom and West Germany) can be explained by intertwined factors like the overall economic development, the political and institutional regulations of the labour market and the gender-specific division of labour. The study is started with a detailed analysis of the development of part-time work, based on (unpublished) data from the European Labour Force Survey. In a second step the way in which national legal regulations (with particular reference to social security regulations and labour law) affect part-time employment are presented. It is analysed whether such employment is treated as marginal or is fully integrated in the general systems and which forms of regulations and policy initiatives are used by the governments ( and/ or collective bargairring partner) to influence the structure and development of part-time work. Finally, the effects of such institutional arrangements on actual developments are discussed, while the last section closes with a discussion of policy-developments within the European Community.
Die Regulierung der Teilzeitarbeit-
Eine vergleichende Untersuchung für sechs EG-Länder Zusammenfassung
Ende der achtziger Jahre arbeiteten in den EG-Ländern mehr Beschäftigte als jemals zuvor in Teilzeitarbeitsverhältnissen. Dabei ist bemerkenswert, daß sich Teilzeitarbeit auf bestimmte Branchen und Tätigkeiten konzentriert - obohl die untersuchten Länder ganz unter- schiedlich hohe Teilzeitanteile aufweisen. In der Studie wird von der These ausgegangen, daß sich Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten in der Entwicklung der Teilzeitarbeit der sechs Länder (Dänemark, Belgien, die Niederlande, Großbritannien, Frankreich und West-Deutschland) analysieren lassen in der Interdependenz zwischen ökonomischer Entwicklung, poilitischen und institutionellen Regulierungen des Arbeitsmarktes und den spezifischen Formen der geschlechtsspezifischen Arbeitsteilung. Zunächst werden anband von (bisher unveröffentlichten) Daten aus der Europäischen Arbeitskräftestichprobe Entwicklung und Struktur der Teilzeitbeschäftigung dargestellt. Im zweiten Schritt werden die Regelungen der nationalen Sozialpolitik und des Arbeitsrechts im Hinblick auf Teilzeitbeschäftigte analysiert sowie die staatlichen Programme zur Förderung von Teilzeitbeschäftigung dargestellt. Daran anschließend werden die Effekte solcher Regelungen auf die Entwicklung der Teilzeitbeschäftigung diskutiert und im letzten Abschnitt der Studie werden die Initiativen auf Ebene der EG-Kommission vorgestellt.
2. Part-time Employment: Its Structure and Dynami es ... ., ... 11
2.1 General Comparative Trends ... , ... 11
2.2 Gender-specific Structures ... 12
2.3 Industriesand Occupations ... 20
a) Structure of Fernale Employment. ... 20
b) Structure of Male Employment ... 22
2.4 Structural Shifts ... 26
3. Political Regulation of Part-Time Employment ... 33
3.1 Regulation by Labour Law and Social Security Legislation ... 33
3. 1.1 The Demand Side ... 33
3.1.2 The Supply Side ... 42
3.2 Public Programmes to Encourage Part-Time Employment ... 52
3.2.1 Financial and Other Incentives for Employers ... 53
3.2.2 Financial and Other Incentives for Employees ... 57
3.2.3 Part-Time Employment in the Public Sector ... 59
3.3 Preliminary Conclusions ... 62
4. The Effects of Regulation ... 64
4.1 Links between Regulation and the Level of Part-Time Employment. 64 4.1.1"Short" and "Long" Part-Time Employment.. ... 65
4.1.2 Distribution by Sector ... 69
4.2 Workers without Protection ... 73
4.3 Effects of Labour Market Policy Programmes ... 75
4.4 Conclusions ... 79
5. Part-Time Employment Regulation within the EC ... 81
5.1 Directives on Part-Time Employment. ... 81
5.2 Other EC egulations concerning Part-Time Employment. ... 85
5.3 Conclusions ... : ... 86
Tables ... 87
Charts ... 107
Synopses ... 120
Bibliography ... 129
Appendix ... ·133
countdes have experienced a remarkable shift in employment relatians.
There has been an increase in those forms of paid employment which deviate from the traditional nor:tn of full-time work as regards bath the length and distribution of working time. Such forms of employment are collated here under the collective term "part-time employment", despite the fact that the term can be_ applied to a wide variety of different employment relations, ranging from a regular working time of one hour per week to 50% of regular working hours, right up to relations approaching the general level of statutory or collectively agreed weekly working time. The distribution of working hours, too, can vary greatly:
some part-time workers have fixed working hours, others work "on call", while still others work only at weekends, ar in the morning or evening.
Part-time work itself is far from being a new phenomenon. As early as the 1960s there was a growth of emplayment relations with reduced working time in many industrialised countdes (for the Federal Republic cf.
Brinkmann 1986, for the United Kingdom, Hurstfield 1987). This usually took the form of "housewife~shifts" in both the manufacturing and service sectors. Conceived as a way for married warnen to top up family income and introduced at a time of labour shortage and the expansion of the service sector, the part-time employment opportunities affered reflected the working-time preferences of warnen (particularly mothers) and the tightening of labour markets. Since the mid-1970s, however, the basis for part-time work has changed fundamentally. Not only has the diffusion of part-time working, andin particular of its modern forms such as "on call", increased but whole industries and sectors of national economies have reorganised their employment relations araund various forms of part-time work. The constellatian of the general employment crisis with mass unemployment, the rising aspirations of increasingly weil qualified warnen
regarding paid employment, and the strong pressure op. both private and
public~sector employers to rationalise and cut costs led to the widespread use of part~time employment as an important instrument of economic and labour market adjustment,
The demand for part-time labour by both private and public-sector employers must be seen in the context of new enterprise strategies to cut costs and labour input. U ncertainties in product markets ( demand
position~ market opportunities) and the new scope ( due to technical progress) for decoupling individual working time from plant ope·rating time on the one hand, and for seasonal, weekly or daily shifts in labour demand on the other, have accelerated the introduction of flexible working-time regimes, of which part-time work is only one of many forms (shift work, overtime/short-time working, week-end working). Enterprise strategies aimed at coping with the increased pressure to rationalise production and cut costs - to raise productivity at enterprise level, to utilise machinery and equipment more fully and effectively - include the intensification of work and the introduction of new working time systems.
In this context part-time working provides employers with a variety of advantages ( cf. Kurz-Scherf 1989, Weiermair 1988). Their precise nature depends on the form of part-time employment in question but can be summarised as follows:
- the cost-output relation is generally more favourable in part-time than in full-time employment because part-timers can work more intensively - for shorter time periods - than full-time employees. In other words, enterprise performance requirements and individual capabilities/work capacity are more effectively decoupled than is the case with full-time workers.
- the relation between enterprise labour requirements and individual work performance is far closer for part-time employees: actual working hours correlate closely to paid hours; work breaks and periods of inactivity are reduced, fluctuations in operating times (for instance due to the extension of opening hours in the retail sector) can be handled more flexibly. The use of part-time employment, particularly of workers on "on-call" contracts, enables personnel flexibility to be increased
substantially and rapidly.
- part-time work at non-standard times such as at the weekend, or before or after normal daily working hours, are, moreover, particularly cost- effective as full-time workers would receive bonuses for working at such hours; part-time workers arenot usually entitled to such bonuses.
It is the case that these advantages apply in principle to all industries, sectors and occupational groups in which working and/ or operatingtim es are subject to fluctuations or in which a decoupling of ent~rprise operating times and individual working times has the effect of boosting productivity growth. The analysis of the actual distribution of part-time employment by industry and occupational group reveals, however, that part-time work is highly concentrated in a small nurober of industries (wholesale and retail trade, catering and private services) whereas it is seldom encountered in high-skill and executive positions.
Differenttypes of workload fluctuations are:
- seasonal or cyclical fluctuations ( e.g. in construction and agriculture ), where it might be expected that employers would seek flexibility through the use of temporary, fixed-term contracts, casual and self- employed labour,
- short term fluctuations in workload during the day, or the week ( e.g.
retailing, banking, public transport), where it might be expected that part-timers might be used to coversuch peaks,
- both types of workload fluctuation (seasonal and short-term) ( e.g.
hotels, catering, tourism and Ieisure industries), which might be expected to resort toworking patterns and contracts which embody both types of flexibility (both part-time and casual/temporary).
This concentration is explained by the following three factors:
- the different role of part-time work in industries subject to the same type of fluctuation (for instance public transport, where part-time employment is relatively insignificant and retailing where it plays a very important role) i.s due to the differences in labour-force structure
between the industries. The public transport is dominated by male workers whose traditional employment relation is open-ended and full- time, in which working time flexibility is achieved through complex shift patterns. Short term demand peaks are handled with the help of overtime working. In retailing, on the other hand, whose employment structure has been steadily "feminised" in the course of the last fifty years, the flexibility pattern is very different: the fixed-term part-time employment contract {with a set number of hours, days or weeks fixed in advance) is wide-spread; open-ended, or full-time employment is likely ta be the exception.
· Different (gender-specific) working time regimes are even to be found within a single industry. The (small nurober of) men employed in the retailing sector, for example, are usually employed full-time, the majarity of warnen, on the other hand, work in the various farms of part- time employment.
The beneficial effects on enterprise flexibility inherent in part-time employment are exploited in a way which is not independent of the gender composition af the labour force. Male-dominated· industries and occupations are characterised by a low proportion of part-time workers, while in those with a high share of female workers part-time employment tends to play an important role.
- the concentration of part-time employment on poorly paid low-skill jobs near the bottarn af enterprise hierarchies has, however, more than just this gender-specific dimension: work organisation 1s also of considerable importance. The almost complete absence of part-time employment in high-skill and executive positions is not to be . interpreted as indicating a fundamental functianal incompatibility of part-time work with such positions. It is rather a consequence of the hierarchical nature of enterprise-level work Organisation. Increasingly working time is becoming an important factor in the allocation of status, income and power. A process of differentiation is occurring whereby actual working hours are on the increase in high-skill and executive positions and simultaneously on the decline among workers performing low-skill or unskilled activities ( cf. Kurz-Scherf 1989). Moreover, this
differentiation process is also occurring within the full-time "normal"
employment relation, as in many countdes statutory or collectively agreed regulation of the labour market allows the volume of working hours to vary to some degree. This hierarchical differentiation of working time, tagether with the strong gender-specific component militates against agreements on working time and the division of labour reached on the basis of solidarity between the sexes. The scale of this problern is confirmed by the small number of male "working-time pioneers" who voluntarily work parttime ( cfo Bielenski/Strümpel 1988).
The lack of part-time work at higher occupational levels means that well-qualified warnen (and men) who want to work part-time have the choice either of taking full-time work in order to remain in a post of an appropriate level, or of accepting an inferior part-time job.
- A further dimension exerts an influence on the concentration of part- time employment in low-pay areas. Em.ployers often explain their (usual) lack o~ interest in high-skill part-time work with reference to the higher costs of employee orientation and training relative to actual working time for part-time staff. The industry and occupation-specific distribution of part-time employment could thus be interpreted as reflecting the greater relative importance of such costs. In other words, the lower these costs, the more profitable is the use of part-time workers. It is stated that this cost-benefit calculation will be influenced by two further factors: if the public education and training system provides sufficiently well-qualified workers, this will tend to lead to a wider spread of part-time employment; if, on the other hand, training and orientation costs are borne primarily by firms, employers will have an interest in restricting part-time employment to such activities for which investment in training and employee orientation is as low as possible (cf. W·eiermair 1989). A second factor is tobe found in internal enterprise labour markets: if such markets are subject to detailed regulation by collective bargaining, with a high degree of worker involvement in questions of pay, promotion and working conditions, a management flexibility strategy may lie in seeking to take certain labour markef segments out of the dominant form of regulation. The basic premise of these arguments, which provides employers' discriminatory
behaviour with an economic rationale, can be challe.nged, however, on at least two grounds: women demanding part-time work are likely to be women wishing to re-enter the labour market after a maternity or parentalleave. A high proportion of these women is weil qualified, they are fully trained and experienced prior ta their leave. Occupational downgrading often occurs when employers offer only less well-qualified jobs on apart-time basis. The training cost argument could be argued in an opposite way - having invested in training these women9 employers can reap a better return on their investment by affering them part-time work at the approppriate skill level rather than underutilising their skills. Secondly, the training cost argument depends critically on how long the employees stay with the oranization. If part-time workers have the same as or a Ionger ex:pected jab-term with the enterprise than full- time warkers, the training cost argument may not be valid.
The structure and quality of part-time employment is thus determined by the articulation of the interests9 wants and needs of the (mostly female) workers, and the power structures and rationalisation needs of
enterprises.
Interestin part-time employment on the part of workers can be the result of a wide variety of needs and wants. They may wish to provide their skills and knowledge in paid employment without having to withdraw from other life-spheres (such as child-care, housework, leisure, education and training) because of long working hours. Labour-market participation may be a source of additional or temporary income, while other roles ( e.g.
education) predominate. Older workers may wish to leave the work force gradually rather than abruptly .. Surveys have shown that the demand for part-time jobs varies greatly according to sex, age, social status, hausehold income, Ievel of education etc. ( cf.Bielenski/Strümpel 1988). For women workers the most important aim is often the compatibility of family and work. Less and less is this being sought in terms af successive stages ( education/training - labour market entry - withdrawal from labour market on child-birth - reentry); the emphasis is increasingly on parallel family and career biographies. This consciously "two-track" pursuit of
family and employment interests is a relatively recent gevelopment. With every cohort entering the labour market warnen are becoming more and more geared towards paid employment ( cf. OECD 1988 and 1990). This orientation of warnen towards creating autonomaus income security via continuous paid employment has become characteristic of all Western industrialised countries. This is not only due to the fact that indirect income provision via a "bread-winner" in paid employment has become increasingly uncertain in recent years - consequent not only on unemployment and falling real income but also on the increase in divorces and single parents - but also the improvement in academic and vocational education for warnen, the desire for social recognition and social integration outside private (family) life. The role-models in modern industrial societies have shifted in such a way that the married "housewife- and-mother" of the 1950s and 1960s no Ionger exerts the predominant influence.
Part-time employment can be an individual element in a temporary or permanent reduced-level integration into the labour market, which, however, for many warnen is linked with "overtime" in the private sphere in the form of child-care or the need to look after other family-dependents.
For other groups, such as school-leavers and young persans still in the education system, part-time employment can represent the mode of entry into the employment system. Depending on the extent of the overlap between education and employment this can be part of the development of vocational skills or merely a source of additional1ncome in a biographical phase marked by other interests and time-structures. For older workers it can offer the opportunity of a staged transition from employment to retirement, avoiding the disadvantages of a sudden end to working life. Of course this latter case applies primarily to full-time male workers.
The interaction between the interests, wants and needs of workers and employers has two sides to it. For enterprises whose strategy involves the recruitment of warnen and young people - because their specific enterprise constellation makes the use of such labour attractive - the offer of part- time employment gives the firm access to a !arger pool of potentiallabour
than would be the case if orily full~time employme,nt positions were offered. This is all the more so bearing in mind that in many countries the full potential for female employment (as indicated by statistics on participation rates) has not yet to be fully exploited. Offers of part-time employment may induce formerly non-active members of the population~
particularly women, to take up employment. It is employers, however, in whose power it lies to decide which forms of employment relation aretobe offered. Those interested in working part-time must choose from the jobs available. While in principle part-time employment represents an extension of choice, increasing the scope for individual action, in the real context of labour markets under prevailing economic conditions it is workers who have to adjust to the predetermined structure of enterprise working-time regimes. Employers may be forced to negotiate on the concrete form of working-time where they are dependent on specific skills and knowledge, and where the workers involved cannot be quickly or cheaply replaced on external labour markets; in other words, where employers have a functional interest in stabilising their (female) human capital.
In reality, the majority of part-time employment relations, concentrated as they are in the most poorly paid jobs and dominated by women workers, are such that a negotiating position for workers is the ex.ception rather than the rule. Part-time jobs are considered as non-human~capital
intensive, low-skill with neither individual nor collective bargaining power. The result of this constellation which has been confirmed in numerous surveys is often a discrepancy between the wishes of part-time workers and the reality of their employment. This applies in particular to the volume of hours, the distribution of working time, the underutilisation of skills, the low pay and the integration within plant~level training and promotion processes (for Germany cf.Bielenski/Strümpel 1988, Dittrich et al. 1989). With this in mind two factors would appear particularly interesting with regard to future developments in part-time employment:
- firstly, we are witnessing an increase in the relative nurober of women workers in skilled (white-collar) occupations, particularly in the financial and public sectors, with a consequent increase in occupational
status for warnen workers. This should imply an expansion of "better"
forms of part-time employment, particularly where
- secondly, a shortage of skilled labour on externallabour markets exists but there is no scope for a further substantial increase in female participation rates 1.
The concrete forms taken by part-time employment cannot, of course, be explained "autonomously", i.e. seperate from the economic, social and institutional conditions prevailing in a given society. Here a number of different factors interact:
- What is the dominant role~model for family, employment and gender relations? Which institutional forms of regulation support or modify this model?
- What is the relation between private and public child-care, care for the elderly etc.?
~ Is paid employment by warnen supported or bindered by institutional regulation ( e.g. legal restrictions, the tax system, support for child-care.
etc.)?
~ What developments have occurred and what trends can be expected in the economic structure, the industrial mix and gender-specific labour markets?
- Which institutional forms of regulationpromote part-time employment and which concrete forms of part-time work are so promoted from the cost or income side? (Such institutional forms include the tax and social security system, labour law and collective agreements.)
Taking the theses on the role of part-time employment for workers and
1 The last factor in particular draws attention to countries in which high female participation rates are matched by rapid growth of (skilled) white-collar activities and widespread use of part-time employment, i.e. especially to the Scandinavian countries. Is it the case that working time patterns there, the distribution of working hours, worker satisfaction etc. diverge from trends in other countries, or are new lines of segmentation and segregation between women of different skilllevels developing which willlead to the marginalisation of low-skill part-time work and to a privileged status for qualified women workers?
employers discussed above as our point of departure,. the present study attempts to analyse the factors behind both the similarities and differences in part~time employment trends in six selected EC member states (France~ Belgium~ the. Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom and Denmark). These are then evaluated according to social, economic and political criteria (section 2). In a second step the way in which national legal systems (with particular reference to social security and labour law) affect part-time employment are presented; whether such work is treated as marginal or as fully accepted form of employment and which policy initiatives and forms of regulation are used by the state ( and/ or collective bargaining partners) to influence the structure and development of part-time employment (section 3 ).
Finally, in section 4, the effects of such institutional arrangements on actual developments are discussed, while section 5 closes with a discussion of trends within part-time employment and its status in the context of the European Single Marketin 1993.
2. Part-time Employment: Its Structure an.d Dynamics
Although it is possible to state at the most generallevel that in all the EC countdes considered here part-time employment has expanded and now accounts for a greater proportion of overall employment than in the mid 1970s, it is at the same time difficult to obtai~ "a precise picture of different national development trends based on internationally standardised data, enabling an exact cornparison to be made. Our study is based on data collected in the course of the annuallabour force sample of EC member states. This data set employs relatively highly standardised definitions, at least for the period after 1983. Nevertheless, the figures published by Burastat and the unpublished statistics which we have processed are tobe viewed as rough indicators, as in some cases there are variations in the data base, the survey methods and/ or the definitions used within a time series or between countries. Precise definitions of the indicators used can be found in the Appendix (p. 133 ).
2.1 General Comparative Trends
We start with a broad outline of the major trends since the mid 1970s.
Changes in the level of employment and in the proportion of employees working part time (part-time employment share) are set out in Table 1.
Three distinct groups of countdes can be distinguished:
- a high part-time employment share in the mid 1970s with a gradual increase since then in Denmark (and also in the other Scandinavian countries, cf. Hohenherger /Mai er/ Schlegelmilch 1989);
- a sharp increase in part-time employment from a medium level (United Kingdom), from a low level (the Netherlands) or from a very low Ievel (Belgium)2 ;
2 In the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, although part of the increase must be attributed to changes in definitions during the intervening period, a careful comparison indicates that the overall development trend is correctly captured by the data ( cf.
Dale/Glover 1990).
- a restrained expansion of part-time employment frorp. a medium or low level ( Germany /France ).
In 1987 the share of total employment accounted for by part-time workers varied considerably between the countries studied. In the Netherlands almost 30% of all· employees ( over 20% in Denmark and the United Kingdom) work part time, while in France, West Germany and Belgium
part~time work accounts for only about 10% of employment. Despite the rise observed in all countries, there does not appear tobe a uniform trend.
In Table 2 part-time employment shares are disaggregated by gender. For four years ( 1975, 1981, 1985 and 1987) the part-time share of all employees, of all male employees, of all female employees tagether with the share of warnen among all part-time workers are indicated. From these figures the following picture of similarities and differences can be drawn:
- the overwhelming majority of part~time workers are warnen. They account for between 90% (West Germany) and 70% (Netherlands) of all part-time employment. Over time this gender-distribution has remained relatively constant, varying only marginally in some countdes (Belgium, W·est Germany and France) and falling slightly in those countdes with a high part-time employment share (Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands). This irnplies that a rapid expansion of part-time employment or a stabilisation at a high level increasingly involves the integration of male workers into part-time work, a trend which in these countdes is also reflected in an increase in the share of male part-time workers in total male employment. This proportion remained constant in the first three countdes (at 2-3% ), whereas it doubled in the latter group,. reaching 13.8% in the N etherlands.
The importance of part-time employment for warnen also varies considerably in the different countries. In the N etherlands almost 60%
andin Denmark and the United Kingdom over 40% of working warnen are employed part-time. In countdes where the part-time employment share of total employment is lower the share of total female employment
represented by warnen working part time is also lower,. between 29% and 23%. Looking at the trend since the mid 1970s, further differences come to light. While in the United Kingdom and West Germany part-time employment has expanded only slightly as a segment of female employment, it has grown particularly strongly in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. In Denmark the share of female part-timers among all warnen workers has actually declined slightly over the period as a whole.
2.2 Gender-specific Structures
From these observations it is possible to formulate hypotheses regarding the importance of part-time employment for gender-specific labour market integration:
- irrespective of the relative Ievel of part-time employment as a whole, as a segment ofthefemale labour market, part-time work has risen sharply in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, and somewhat in West Germany and the United Kingdom. Only in Denmark did this share decline. Nevertheless, the Ievel of female part-time employment varies so greatly (from 23% to 57% of total female employment) that it is difficult to make out a single consistent pattern of trends in female employment across all the countdes studied.
- The trends in male part-time employment - which have changed only in those countdes with a relatively high part-time employment share - suggests that an expansion of part-t1me working or its stabilisation at a high level Ieads to the integration of male workers into the part-time sector.
In order to facilitate a more precise analysis of the significance of part- time employment .as a mode of integration of female workers into the labour market, Table 3 illustrates the changes in the composition of the female labour force over time. The trend since 1975 serves to .confirm the obs.ervation made above. In France and the Netherlands female full-time employment barely increased at all - in Belgium it actually feil - while
part-time employment rose rapidly. In West Germany and the United Kingdom the same basic trend is to be observed, although in a milder form, while in Denmark the growth of full-time employment actually exceeded that of part-time working.
In view of the considerable importance which part-time employment has as a specific form of female employment, it is tempting to assume a close relationship between changes in female participation rates and part-time employment trends. This relation is depicted in Chart 1 for the period 1975 to 1988. Here at least four different patterns can be ascertained:
- a rapid increase in female participation rates (from different starting points) with a parallel expansion of part-time employment (in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom);
- an increase in part-time employment coupled with an almost constant participation rate (in France and Belgium)
- an increase in the participation rate tagether with a fall in part-time employment in Denmark and;
- a slow growth in both participation rates and part-time employment in West Germany.
It must be concluded, on the basis of these disparate trends, that the relationship between labour market participation and part-time employment is clearly not mono-causal, but rather that a series of other factors exerts an influence on changes in the two trends. Chart 2 shows for one year ( 1984) the differences which prevailed between the level of female employment in general and that of full-time and part-time employment by age group. An analysis conducted by the OECD of changes in participation rates by age category between 1967 and 1987 ( cf. Chart 3) indicates that while the pattern of female labour market participation differs between countries, there is a degree of convergence between national trends.
Table 4 presents a summary of the part-time employment shares for men and warnen in broad age categories for the years 1983 and 1987. The
overall picture ernerging from Charts 2 and 3 and Tab.le 4 regarding the relationship between participation rates, full-time and part-time employment of women can be summarized as follows:
in Belgium the share of female part-timers is almost constant in all age groups, participation rates decrease in the higher age groups and labour-market re-entry via full-time or part-time employment is very much the exception.
- in the Netherlands3 the marked fall in participation rates in the middle age groups (Chart 3) coexists with a high part-time employment share (almost 63% of all female workers between 25 and 49 years work part- time).
- West Germany exhibits a slight fall in participation rates in the middle age groups, followed by an upturn with constant part-time employment shares;
- in Francethereis scarcely any fall of participation rates and a relatively constant relation between full and part-time employment;
- in the United Kingdom an initialfall is followed by a sharp increase in participation rates reflecting growth of part-time and an increase in full-time employment;
- in Denmark rising participation rates occured along with a fall in full- time employment and a consistently high share for part-time employment.
Thus the importance of part-time employment for the labour market position of women varies from country to country. In Denmark, for example, women have high participation rates during the child-raising period with the help of part-time work. In West Germany and the United Kingdom on the other hand, it would appear more common for women to withdraw from the labour market for a limited period, re-entering the labour market in part-time employment. In France, by contrast, the compatibility of family and work seems to have no effect on the relation between full and part-time employment, while in the Netherlands and
3 Chart 2 excludes the Netherlands because f or 1984 no data were available from Eurostat.
Belgium participation ratesfall consistently with age, a. trend which in the N etherlands has as yet hardly been affected by the increase in part-time employment4.
These results indicate two things
1. The degree of integration of women in national labour markets, in both full and part-time employment, does not follow a uniform pattern, being dependent on factors affecting both the initial decision whether or not to enter paid employment and the subsequent choice of full- or part-time work. In terms of age this would seem to be linked to the phase in women's biographies associated with child-birth and child- care.
2. It is against this background that the differences in the importance of part-timework for warnen in different countdes must be seen: in some countries it is a means of re-entry into the labour market, in others a means of bridging the child-care phase5 .
The age-specific analysis sheds more light on the relation between participation rates and full- and part-time employment:
- a shift from an declining to a more continously high female labour market participation within different age groups (from an M-shaped to an inverted U -shaped curve) is associated with one of two patterns: the
4 The unusually low level of female participation rates in the Netherlands compared to other countdes cannot be adequately explained using such "objective" factors. The "Dutch case" is thus usually considered with reference to historical tradition and the traditional norms of Dutch society f or which the transition to a modern industrialised society has not been accompanied by an increase in female participation rates. The strength and significance of social norms concerning male and female societal roles, of what is considered acceptable cannot be quantified although they clearly affect the social and individual view of paid employment. The degree of segregation of the labour market into
"male" and"female" sectorsalso seems to have an influence on the structure and form of participation ( cf. Maier 1990).
5 A more detailed analysis of such flows on nationallabout markets would be possible only with data on the flows to and from non-participation and full and part-time employment.
Unfortunately such disaggregated data arenot available, and our analysis of these trends necessarily remains incomplete.
Danish model of compatibility between family and. paid employment through part-time work (although the patt-time employment share is now declining, as more warnen are seeking and finding full-time employment); or the French pattern of a slight expansion of part-time employment for the 25 to 40 age bracket and the growth of full-time employment from age 40 on. There is also a. considerable difference in the overall level of participation rates between the two countries (Denmark
=
78.3%, France=
55.3%, figures for 1988);- a participation age-structure with the basic form of an Mbshaped curve, indicating that parts of the labour force withdraw from the labour market (as in the United Kingdom and West Germany) is also associated with two patterns. Common to both countries is an overall decline in participation rates and full-time employment from age 25 onwards. However, in West Germany re-entry into the labour market is accompanied by an increase in part-time employment, whereas in the United Kingdom full-time employment also increases. The expansion of part-time employment in recent years seems to have had a positive influence on participation rates of the over-40s (which is reflected in a sharper gradient on the right-hand side of the M-shaped curve ). The overall level of participation in these two countries are separated by about 9 percentage points (United Kingdom = 63.5%, FRG = 54.4%, 1988);
- participation rates taking the basicform of a single peak in the young age cohorts, as in the N etherlands and Belgium, indicate that in both countrieswarnen of child-bearing age withdraw from the labour market without returning in higher age-groups. Those that remain exhibit a differentiated working-time regime: a low part-time employment share in Belgium, a high share in the Netherlands. The two countries have a similar overall participation rates (Belgium = 51.4%, Netherlands =
51.6%, 1988). However, this aggregate figure conceals the rapid growth of part-time employment in the middle age groups in the Netherlands, which previously tended to withdraw completely from the labour market. The trend in the Netherlands towards an M-shaped participation pattern may well be linked to the increase in part-time employment among warnen re-entering the labour market.
One trend visible in all the national charts is the hi~h level of labour market participation of women under 25, the only difference being that the year of labour market entry varies from country to country according to specific features of the national education system. As can be seen from Table 4, an additional trendisthat in Denmark and the Netherlands (and increasingly in France) labour market entry for young persons of both sexes is often via a part-time job, while in West Germany full-time work remains the norm for both men and women, and in Belgium and the United Kingdom part-time employment as a means of entering the labour market for the first time is important only for young women. In the core age groups, the 25 to 49 year olds, 90-99% of men work full-time whereas this is true for 33p 79% of women. The part-time employment shares of older men (50=64 years) are somewhat higher in all countries. In other words, part=time work is of only marginal importance for male employment as a whole, playing a significant role at most in the initial and final stages of male employment biographies, easing entry to and exit from the labour market. The level and form of male participation in the labour market are thus clearly determined by different factors than those for women.
As has already been shown the relationship between the level and the age- specific distribution of female participation rates is not as clear-cut as is usually assumed. A number of other factors appear to influence both values. A series of other studies both indicate that the absolute level of female participation and its age-specific distribution are influenced by a whole range of social and institutional norms and forms of regulation, factors affecting both the demand and supply side of the labour market.
They create incentives or disincentives for workers and enterprises to adopt part~time employment and influence the specific structure of such work ( e.g. the volume of hours ). In this context the following factors are particularly important:
= the way in which the income of (married) men and women who live tagether is treated for tax purposes and social security. This influences married women's decision whether or not to take up paid employment and whether to opt for full or part··time employment (without affecting
the career decisions of married men!). A number o~ empirical studies discusses the impact of tax-regulations on part-time employment on the supply-side (cf. Gustaffson 1988, OECD 1990, Dex/Walters 1989). The tax position of full and part-timers does not play a significant role on the de.mand side.
- institutional regulations facilitating or hindering the reconciliation of family and career, such as parentalleave and the availability of child- care facilities. This is particularly important for the employment decisions of mothers with children under the age of 16. Empirical studies have shown that the availability and quality of child-care facilities, the financial support for and costs of raising children, the financial and time dimensions of parentalleave vary greatly within the EC member states and affect the structure and Ievel of labour market participation ( cf., for example, Schettkat 1987 a/b, Moss 1988, OECD 1988, OECD 1990). For employers, too, such institutional forms can provide incentives or act as deterrents to employing women at all or to considering their recruitment under different conditions (wage levels, working time) than male workers.
- legal provisions, especially those of social security and labour law, also exert an influence on the Ievel and, in particular, the structure of participation: some legal systems view part-time employment as a socially protected form of · labour market participation, others as a marginalised means of generating extra income. Depending on the nature of these legal provisions part-time employment may be more or less attractive (higher or lower relative net wages and costs for employees and employers respectively) compared with full-time employment relations.
- state interventiort in the form of social, education or labour market policies and programmes affect not only the overalllevel of part-time employment in a country but also the relative share of men and warnen in the part-time sector, and the status of part-time work as a temj:>Orary or permanent form of employment relation ( e.g. as a "bridge" for labour market entry).
- of decisive importance on the demand side are of course the economic
structure of the national economy, the relative i:p1portance of the manufacturing and service sectors, the relative share of branches subject to fluctuating demand and output levels tagether with the scope for flexible adjustment to changes in labour-input requirements,
2.3 Industries and Occupations
The study of the distribution of part-time employment by industries ~ which will be initially conducted in the form of a "snap~shot" of 1987- must consider three relevant aspects:
- the employment share of total employment of each industry, - the part-time employment share of each industry, and
- the proportion of part-timers to total employment in each industry.
These dirnensions are presented in Table 5a (for warnen) and Table 5b (formen).
The interpretation of these tables yields the following outstanding similarities and differences:
a) Structure of fernale employrnent
Fernale ernployrnent - both full and part-time - is concentrated in a relatively small nurnber of industries: fernale employment shares are particularly high in other services (NACE group 90) and trade/hotel and catering (NACE group 60), In the countries studied here over 50% of all working warnen are employed in these two groups. The fernale ernployment share in public adrninistration (NACE group 91) varies considerably between countries; between 4.9% (Netherlands) and 11.9%
(France) of all warnen worked there in 1987, while the significance of public adrninistration for female part-time ernployrnent also differs: in the
Netherlands only 3.7% of all female part-timers w~nk in the public administration, whereas in France the figure was 13.6%.
The distribution of part-time employment relative to the share of part- timers in the work force as a whole is, as expected, also very high in other services and trade/hotel and catering. Nevertheless, in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom part-timers account for more than half of all warnen workers in these sectors (in Denmark almost half), whereas in the FRG, France and Belgium considerably less than a third of warnen employees in these areas work part time.
Compared with these sectors, part-time employment plays only a subordinate role in public administration. Only in the N etherlands and Denmark do part-timers account for a large proportion (some 40%) of female employment in public administration. In the other countdes this figure is below 30%.
Three other sectors exhibit interesting characteristics: transport and communications, a category including the (usually state-run) post and telecommunications services, which, while they employ relatively few warnen, make relatively frequent use of part-time employment relations for their women workers. A similar phenomenon is to be observed in the construction industry. Banking and insurance, which in some countdes employs more warnen than public administration, exhibits consistently lower part-time employment shares than public administration or the other service sectors.
Agriculture is something of a special case; in all the countdes studied this sector accounts for only ab out 1.% of female employment. Of these more than 50% work on a part-time basis in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, more than 40% in Denmark, while in German and French agriculture part-time work does not account for an above average share of female employment.
A comparison of the country profiles of women's overall part-time
employment share reveals the following differences: in. France the part- time employment share is low in manufacturing industry and under 30% in services; in the Netherlands, by contrast, the part~time share is consistently high, even in manufacturing industry being greater than the overall figure for other countries; in Denmark, too, the figures are high and relatively evenly distributed, while in the United Kingdom the polarisation between manufacturing and services is much more pronounced; the figures for services are consistently lower in the F RG and Belgium, whereas they are relatively high in manufacturing,
The distribution of female employrnent can, finally, be summarised as follows: in all countries fernale employment as a whole is highly concentrated, while it is only in some (such as the Netherlands arid the United Kingdom) that part-time employment is significantly more heavily concentrated than full-time employment. This indicates that not only is female participation in the labour market subject to considerable horizontal segregation, butthat at least in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom part-time employment reinforces this segregation. While these segregation lines are to be observed in the other countries, too, it seems that in these countdes they are similar within part-time and full-time employment.
b) Structure of male employment
Formale workers, for whom part-time employment plays a very minor role in both absolute and relative terms, it i.s also the other services and trade/hotel and catering industries which are most important for part- time employment. Over 50% of male part-timers work in these two industries, which employ only 20-30% of allmale employees. Formen, too, public administration does not exhibit a particularly high part-time employment share: between 1.6% (Denmark) and 16% (France) of all male part-timers are employed in this sector. Overall part-time work as a share of male employment is low in the F RG, Belgium and France, relatively equally distributed between manufacturing and services. The
employment share is relatively high in the N ethe.rl ands (where a significant minority, 13%, of allmale workers are employed on apart-time basis), with employment shares in manufacturing of up to 9%. In Denmark, too, the number of male part-timers is rather high, although the very low Ievel of male part-time work in Danish public administration is striking. The United Kingdom occupies a median position with respect to both the overall male part-timeemployment share and the distribution between the different sectors.
Comparing the sectors and their part-time employment sharesformen and women it is clearly trade/hotel and catering and other services which are the two sectors in which part-time employment is significant for both sexes.
In Chart 4 the industries are grouped according to the share of fernale part-timers to total (male and female) employment. The Chart presents a striking picture: in 1987 over 30% ( and currently over 40%) of all employees in other services in the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdomare women working part time.
The traditional industrial sectors have in ail countdes considered a part- time employment share of less than 5%. In the FRG, France and Belgium female part-timers account for less than 10% of employment in the most sectors. Employment shares are more evenly distributed in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Denmark.
Referring this picture back to the hypotheses forrnulated in the Introducdon the industry-mix observed here provides an illustration of the structural differences between the countries. The common feature is the importance of part-time employrnent in other services and trade/hotel and catering, although the extent to which they rely on part-time employment varies. These two branches employ both women and men on a part-time basis. This indicates that workload fluctuations in these sectors are particularly advantageaus for part-time employment. Except in Denmark and France, public administration with its wide variety of occupations and
activities is shown not to be particularly part-time orien~ed.
Further study of these sector-specific differences is needed (for example the sharp differences in part-time shares in banking and insurance) in order to pursue further the hypothesis that skill Ievel and external and internal training requirements are decisive factors for the attractiveness of part-time employment from a management point of view. This, however, would be to go beyond the limits of this analysis. Nevertheless, it does seem plausible that the high part-time employment shares in trade/hotel and catering and other serviceß can be explained to a considerable extent by the fact that in these sectors jobs can be designed in a way that they have low skill and high flexibility requirements. In terms of remuneration these jobs are attractive only for women workers ( or young persons in education earning additional income). In traditional male sectors, on the other. hand, neither low skill requirements nor high flexibility requirements result in significant part-time sharesformale workers.
Table 6 summarizes the distribution of part-time workers by activity and occupation. The results need tobe interpreted with great care because the definitions used vary extensively between countries. Leaving aside, for a momen.t, the differences between men and warnen, a common feature - the concentration of part-time employment in the trade and service occupations - is immediately apparent. Due to inconsistencies in national definitions, the nature of the remaining differences between countries is difficult to interpret in a precise manner. More significant are the differences between men and wornen. In all the countries under study more male part-tirners are working in production related and in administrative and agricultural occupations than female part-tirners. In the FRG, France and the Netherlands more male than female part~timers
also ascribe themselves to the professional and technical occupations, a heterogeneaus mix of scientists, teachers, journalists and doctors. The majority of part-time working women are to be found in the group containing sales personnel, service and administrative workers. The difference is particularly striking in administrative and rnanagerial positions: although in absolute terrns the nurober of part-tirners in this
group is very low, the percentage share of male workers 1s here consistently high er than that of women.
These national distributions may conceal important vertical lines of segregation: it was, however, not possible to pursue these further on the data set available as we did not have detailed figures for the occupational distribution of employees as a whole6. It is weil known that male and female employment is characterised by strict vertical segregation ( cf.
Maier 1990), and that women are more likely than men to be employed in low-status occupations. On the basis of the available data it is not possible to ascertain the degree to which part-time employment reinforces such occupational segregation. Several empirical studies confirm the concentration of part-time employment in low-skill occupations. It is known that employees searching a part-time employment relation often have to accept employment in positions with a lower occupational status than they formerly had. An internationally comparative study, considering the occupational status of part-time employees in France, the United Kingdom and the USA found the qualification level of part-time jobs being lowest in the United Kingdom, whereas in France and the USA part- time employees were more likely to work in high-skilled occupations ( cf.
Dex/Walters 1989). But only in Sweden is the occupational distribution of part-time jobs nearly equal to that of full-time positions. This is due to the fact that all full-time employees have the legal right to reduce their individual working time for reasons of child-care and further training ( cf.
Maier 1991). ·
6 Eurostat collects data on occupations but do not publish them because of significant differences in the definitions used by the member states.
2.4 Structural Shifts
Generaltrends
For the period 1983-88 for which the Eurostat data · can be considered relatively consistent across the six countries in our study (but see the notes on the Netherlands in the Appendix), a net increase in the nurober of part- time workers was registered. The composition of this increase, however, varies from country to country in terms of both industry and gender-mix.
National trends in the six countdes are presented in Table 7, revealing some significant national differences:
~ in West Germany the small rise in male part~time employment is concentrated (to the tune of 96%) in three sectors (other services, banking and insurance and transport and communication), while the increase in female part-timers was spread rather mote equally across
I
the sectors. For the latter the most important sectors are other services, banking and insurance and trade/hotel and catering. Whilst the increase in other services and trade/hotel and catering represents a continuation of a trend which began before 1983, the increase in banking and insurance is a relatively new development. From Table 5a it will be recalled that this sector still accounted for a relatively small proportion of women part-timers in 1987, but the considerable absolute increase between 1983 and 1988 does point to a change in employers' use of part-time employment.
- In France the increase in male part-time employment is moderate but much more widely distributed across sectors than in West Germany.
Here, too, the largest share is tobe found in other services, followed by . public administration and transport and communication. As in West Germany, female part-timers are concentrated in the other services and trade/hotel and catering sectors, while, additionally, French public administration has played a much more prominent role in the rise in part-time employment than in West Germany.
- In the N etherl ands a sharp rise in part-time employment is revealed
for both men and warnen, and the gender-specific distribution of the increase across the sectors is rather pronounced: less than half of the increase formale workers occurred within the three sectors trade/ hotel and catering, other services, and banking and insurance, whereas these branches account for over 88% of the growth in part-time employment among warnen. For both sexes the relatively rapid growth of part-time employment in the banking and insurance sector is striking.
- In Belgium the data for male part-timers are not expressed as a percentage because, given the small absolute number of male part-time employment, such figures would suggest a spurious degree of precision.
Significant increases in part-time employment for men are occured in only three sectors: transport and communication, the public sector and trade/hotel and catering; in all the other branches the - already very marginal - number of male part-time employment has declined further since 1983. The distribution of the - comparatively - small increase in female part-time employment is analogaus to the French pattern:
I
concentration in other services, trade/hotel and catering, and public administration. The increase is, however, more widely distributed than in the other countries.
- in the United Kingdom the increase is relatively pronounced for both sexes, concentrated, in the case of men, in the three sectors trade/hotel and catering, public administration and other services. For warnen part- timers the banking and insurance sector replaces public administration in the top three sectors. The sharp increases in trade/hotel and catering and other services, reflected in the heavy concentration of part-time employment as a whole in these two sectors ( cf. Tables 5a and 5b) was accompanied by an expansion of part-time working in banking and insurance for warnen, and public administration formen.
- Denmark, where the growth of part-time employment has been stronger among men than women, is something of a special case to the extent that both other manufacturing and other services account for a considerable proportion of the increase for both sexes; at the same time banking and insurance and trade/hotel and catering were dominant for the growth of part-time work among warnen and men respectively.
Beyond these three sectors the nurober of wome~1 part-timers fell between 1983 and 1988, while male part-time employment grew continuously.
A study of the socio-economic composition of part-time employment over the same time period reveals the following interesting changes ( cf. Tables 8a and 8b):
In all countries there has been an increase in the share of single men working part time. In Denmark the proportion of single men among male part-timers was the highest at over 80%. It was the lowest in West Germany at 46.2%. As already suggested by Table 4, this would seem to indicate a relatively high share of young men among part-time workers, a factor which is also reflected in the proportion of male part-timers still living in the parental hausehold (between 49% in the United Kingdom and 14.4% in West Germany). All three characteristics - single, under 24 and living in the parental hausehold- are correlated and confirm the view that for men, part-time employment is primarily seen as a phase in their employment biography associated with labour market entry. With the exception of West Germany the proportion of young men among male part-timers has increased rapidly in all countries.
The number of single women part-timers is also increasing, although their share of total female part-time employment is significantly below that of men (27.4% in Denmark, 26.3% in the Netherlands and 6.5% in the West Germany). The vast majority of warnen part-timers are married (up to 80
%).
Nevertheless, in absolute terms the nurober of single young women part- timers living with their parents exceeds that of men of the same category;
it seems likely that for young single women, too, labour ma:rket entry via part-time employment is common in Denmark and the Netherlands and also in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Since 1983 the share of women under 25 years in total female part~time employment has risen, and, for instance, amounts to 19% in the Netherlands.
",:
The trend towards the increasing use of part-time employment as a means of labour market entry sometimes combined with education/ training is confirmed if we look at other personal characteristics of part-time workers. Asked about their reasons for taking up apart-time job, between 11% (Belgium) and 67% (Denmark) of male part-timers answered that they were still at school or undergoing training. This group is particularly large in Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The education/training motivewas (relatively) less important for female part- time workers, although again, the absolute number of men and warnen in this category are roughly equal. Table 9 also indicates that in Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom this group of part-time workers has continued to grow in importance, while in West Germany and Belgium it is declining.
With a view to the implications of these developrnents for social policy it is of note that in all countries the share of widowed and divorced warnen in part-time employment is on the increase, as is the number of warnen (in West Germany, France and Belgium) who indicated that they are the
"head of the household",' i.e. that they are the primary or sole bread- winner7.
A number of other characteristics are also presented in Table 9. For men part-time employment for reasons of sickness or other limitations on work capacity plays a minor though not negligible role, probably mainly in the context of part-time work for older workers, although no significant differences are registered between countries with provisions for partial retirement and those without. This reason is given less frequently by warnen.
As expected, significantly morewarnen than men stated that they were not
7 A further characteristic of part-time employment revealed by Table 8a is the continued use of part-time employment above pensionable age (65 years), particularly formen. This is especially noticeable in the UK where, in 1987,22% of allmale part-timers (and 18% in West Germany) were over 65. In France, too, this category accounts for a relatively high proportion of male part-time employment. The share of older women among female patt- timers, on the other band, is rather low, although in absolute terms approximately the samenurober of men and women over 65 are still working part time.
