The Part‐Time Wage Gap in Norway: How Large is It Really?

Norwegian working‐life legislation has strict rules against discrimination between full‐time and part‐time work. Partly as a consequence of this, a large proportion of Norwegian women work part‐time. The purpose of this paper is to establish whether there are systematic differences between part‐time and full‐time workers regarding the selection process and earnings capacity. We find wage differences between part‐time and full‐time workers are small in Norway, and there is no evidence of systematic selection bias. The results may be explained by some features of the Norwegian labour market, including, equal rights for part‐time workers, strict rules against the discrimination of part‐time workers, and a generous family policy enabling women to combine work and family life.     

Good to be home? Time‐use and satisfaction levels among home‐based teleworkers

Home‐based teleworking (HbTW) has the potential to provide significant benefits to both employer and employee, but also presents considerable challenges. This paper considers HbTW among UK employees, specifically exploring distinctions in the time‐use of men and women home‐based teleworkers and the impacts of HbTW on employee satisfaction levels, using cross‐section fixed effects panel regression analysis of the British Household Panel Survey. Findings reveal that total time‐use in work activities among men and women home‐based teleworkers is relatively comparable, but the distribution significantly different. For women, housework represents a particular time constraint, reflecting continued presence of the ‘double‐shift’. Homeworkers report greater levels of satisfaction, yet they are more pronounced in respect to paid work than leisure time. Extensive hours of housework reported among women may explain these differences. Nevertheless, home‐based teleworkers report greater levels of satisfaction than other workers, suggesting considerable benefits especially for working mothers.     

High‐Involvement Work Practices and the Opportunities for Promotion in the Organization

Using the linked employer–employee component from the National Employer Survey, I examine the effect of employees’ participation in high‐involvement work practices (HIWP) on their opportunities for promotion within the organization. I find participation in HIWP to be positively related to promotion opportunities for individuals, especially for those in lower hierarchical levels and for the supervisors of these levels. In part, these findings can be explained by the new skills acquired while participating in these practices through formal training and informal on‐the‐job learning, and by the use of promotions as an incentive mechanism to motivate workers to engage in HIWP.     

Non‐Standard “Contingent” Employment and Job Satisfaction: A Panel Data Analysis

Contingent forms of employment are usually associated with low‐quality jobs and, by inference, jobs that workers find relatively unsatisfying. This assumption is tested using data from a representative household panel survey covering a country (Australia) with a high incidence of nonstandard employment. Results from the estimation of ordered logit regression models reveal that among males, both casual employees and labor‐hire (agency) workers (but not fixed‐term contract workers) report noticeably lower levels of job satisfaction, though this association diminishes with job tenure. Negative effects for women are mainly restricted to labor‐hire workers.     

New Evidence on Initial Transition from Career Job to Retirement in Japan

The interval in time between leaving a career job and exit from the labor force is especially long for Japanese employees. We examine determinants of post‐career work arrangements from two perspectives: work status and the route to a second job. We show that these determinants differ between male and female workers and that the customary function of career employers to place their workers in a second job has declined since the middle of the 1990s.     

What Types of Diversity Benefit Workers? Empirical Evidence on the Effects of Co‐worker Dissimilarity on the Performance of Employees

This study explores the consequences of grouping workers into diverse divisions on the performance of employees using a dataset containing the detailed personnel records of a large U.S. firm from 1989 to 1994. In particular, I examine the effects of demographic dissimilarity among co‐workers, namely differences in age, gender, and race among employees who work together within divisions, and non‐demographic dissimilarity, namely differences in education, work function, firm tenure, division tenure, performance, and wages among employees within divisions. I find evidence that age dissimilarity, dissimilarity in firm tenure, and performance dissimilarity are associated with lower worker performance, while wage differences are associated with higher worker performance. My analysis also reveals that the effects of certain types of dissimilarities get smaller in magnitude the longer a worker is a part of a division. Finally, the paper provides evidence that the relationships between performance and the various measures of dissimilarity vary by occupational area and division size.     

FLSA Working Hours Reform: Worker Well‐Being Effects in an Economic Framework

This article discusses a model developed to predict the effects of recently proposed amendments to the FLSA workweek and overtime provisions. The model contrasts allowing compensatory time for overtime pay for private nonexempt employees to “rights to request” reduced hours. Hours demanded are likely to rise for workers who request comp time, undermining the intention of family‐friendliness and alleviating overemployment, unless accompanied by offsetting policies that would prevent the denied use or forced use of comp time and that resurrect some monetary deterrent effect. A unique survey shows that the preference for time over money and comp time is relatively more prevalent among exempt, long hours and women workers; thus, worker welfare is likely better served if comp time were incorporated into an individualized, employee‐initiated right to request.     

Why Do Employers Retrain At‐Risk Workers? The Role of Social Capital

Why are some employers willing to retrain workers who are at risk of layoff for new jobs in their organization, whereas others “churn” their workforce through layoffs and outside hiring? The question seems central to understanding why some employers and some jobs are “good,” whereas others are not and, more generally, for understanding employment security. The arguments herein use national probability data to examine this question and find that the retraining option is associated with preserving the social capital among current employees. Employers who make greater use of work systems that rely on social capital are more likely to retrain their workers. Alternative explanations—that retraining is an employee benefit associated with employee‐friendly policies or is part of overall strategy to invest in training—receive no support. These results extend our understanding of the role that social capital can play in organizations. They also suggest that being a “good” employer may have a great deal to do with other choices about systems of work organization.     

Computer Use,Job Tasks and the Part‐Time Pay Penalty

Using data from the UK Skills Surveys 1997–2012, we show that the part‐time pay penalty (PTPP) for women within low‐ and medium‐skilled occupations has decreased significantly. The convergence in computer use and non‐routine job tasks between part‐time and full‐time workers explains a large share of the decrease in the PTPP. This convergence took place mainly within occupations, and was not driven by changes in occupational segregation between the two groups of workers. The lower PTPP is also related to changes in the returns to job tasks. Relative changes in the importance of and returns to computer use and job tasks together explain more than 50 per cent of the decrease in the PTPP.     

The Wage–Health Insurance Trade‐off and Worker Selection: Evidence From the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 1997 to 2006

Key provisions within healthcare reform will likely further increase the cost of employer‐sponsored insurance. Theory suggests that workers pay for their health insurance through a wage offset. We investigate this issue using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. GMM estimates aimed at correcting for endogenous worker mobility reveal evidence of a trade‐off for workers who are offered health insurance as the only fringe benefit. On the other hand, employees in establishments with a more comprehensive set of benefits enjoy higher wages relative to employees in establishments that offer no benefits. Health also affects the wage–health insurance trade‐off.     

Paid and Unpaid Labour in Non‐Profit Organizations: Does the Substitution Effect Exist?

In non‐profit organizations (NPOs), volunteers often work alongside paid workers. Such a co‐production setting can lead to tension between the two worker groups. This article examines for the first time if and how volunteers influence the separation of paid employees, and thus it contributes to the debate over whether volunteers can substitute paid workers. Using Austrian data at the organizational level, we find a significant impact of volunteers on the separations of paid workers in NPOs facing increased competition. These findings support the assumption that a partial substitution effect exists between paid workers and volunteers.     

Barriers or Opportunities? The Causes of Contingent and Part‐Time Work Among People with Disabilities

Why are workers with disabilities about twice as likely as nondisabled workers to be in contingent and part‐time jobs? This study finds that disability income program earnings limits and employer discrimination play relatively minor roles, whereas the primary explanation is health problems that make traditional full‐time jobs difficult or impossible for many people with disabilities. Despite the lower pay and other drawbacks of many nonstandard jobs, they enable many people with disabilities to work who otherwise would not be employed. Policy implications are discussed.     

Disability and Perceptions of Work and Management

Matched employee–employer data from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey are used to examine differences in work‐related perceptions between disabled and non‐disabled employees. Even after accounting for differences in personal, job and workplace characteristics, disabled employees are found to hold more negative views on the treatment of workers by managers and, consistent with this, they express less job satisfaction and commitment towards their organization. The influence of disability is also examined across workplaces defined by sector, the presence of disability‐related policies and practices, and employee views of management to explore the role of corporate culture.     

The Part‐Time Job Satisfaction Puzzle: Different Types of Job Discrepancies and the Moderating Effect of Family Importance

Although part‐time employment often appears as a substandard form of employment, evidence that part‐time employees are less satisfied than full‐time employees is ambiguous. To shed more light on this puzzle, I test an extended discrepancy theory framework using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel. The results help explain previous inconsistent findings: Part‐time employment increases the chances of being underemployed while it reduces the likelihood of working more hours than preferred, and the negative effects of both types of working time mismatches on job satisfaction are similar in size. Furthermore, the importance attributed to family roles mitigates the negative effect of part‐time employment on job satisfaction.     

The Role of Planning and Workplace Support in Returning to Work after Maternity Leave

The paper reports a longitudinal study of the post‐pregnancy work outcomes for full‐time working women who were pregnant with their first baby. Regression analyses revealed that women who did not return to work as intended were differentiated from those who did return to work by the amount of planning they had done in pregnancy, as well as having lower pre‐natal income and less anti‐cipated support within the workplace. Almost one third of those who returned to work part‐time reported reduced job status. The study shows the importance of workplace planning and support in return to work after maternity leave.     

Long‐Term Earnings Inequality,Earnings Instability and Temporary Employment in Spain: 1993–2000

This article provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Spanish male earnings inequality for the period 1993–2000 by decomposing the earnings covariance structure into its permanent and transitory parts. Cross‐sectional earnings inequality of male full‐time employees falls over the second half of the 1990s. Such decline was determined by a decrease in earnings instability and an increase of the permanent earnings component. Given the marked decline in temporary employment over the sample period, we also examine the effect of the type of contract on earnings variance components and find that workers on a fixed‐term contract face, on average, more instability than workers on a permanent contract. This evidence suggests that the decline in temporary employment is responsible for the decreasing earnings instability.     

Does the Life Course Savings Scheme Have the Potential to Improve Work–Life Balance?

To improve individuals' work–life balance, trade unions, employers' organizations, governments and the European Commission currently promote a life course perspective in activating labour market policies. In 2006, the Life Course Savings Scheme (Levensloopregeling) was introduced in the Netherlands, which aims to increase labour participation and to improve the work–life balance over the life course. What can we learn from the Dutch case? In 2006, actual participation in the scheme was with 6% much lower than expected. Participation rates were higher among males, full timers, older employees, the higher‐income groups and persons with a partner. However, our multivariate analyses of data for over 500,000 civil servants show that the higher participation rates of males, full timers and older employees are related to the higher earnings of these groups, and that after control for earnings, participation is higher among females, part timers and the young. This indicates that the scheme has a potential to contribute to the work–life balance over the life‐cycle.     

Evaluating the Business Case for Part-time Working amongst Qualified Nurses

A ‘new’ business case for part‐time working assumes a mutuality of benefit for employer and employees. Examining this hypothesis from the perspective of qualified nursing staff and managers in the NHS, a context in which the new business case for part‐time working is particularly strong, this study found that the full benefits are not realized for either side. Extending the findings of other research into highly skilled/professional occupations, we conclude that, without substantive change in systems of work, the expansion of the part‐time work‐force could entail the under‐utilization of the skills of an indispensable section of the working population.     

Occupational Stereotypes and Gender‐Specific Job Satisfaction

Using representative data containing information on job satisfaction and workers’ gender‐specific prejudices, we investigate the relationship between stereotyping and job satisfaction. We show that women in stereotypically male jobs are significantly less satisfied with their work climate and job content than in stereotypically female jobs but more satisfied with their income in those same jobs. Our findings indicate that women trade off their higher income satisfaction against the negative consequences of stereotyping. As long as we take into account that stereotypically male jobs are physically more demanding than stereotypically female jobs, men are generally more satisfied with stereotypically male jobs.