Fixed-term contracts—the new European inequality? Comparing men and women in West Germany and France

Abstract

This paper seeks to reveal whether temporary contracts are the new European inequality and does so in a comparative analysis of two countries typically regarded as eurosclerotic: Germany and France. We compare the wages, wage growth and labour market outcomes of fixed-term contract workers relative to a matched sample of permanent workers with similar characteristics. Using seven waves of the ECHP we find evidence of wage penalties, increased exposure to unemployment and repeat spells of temporary employment. However, these tendencies vary significantly by country and by gender. The main finding of this paper is the extent to which temporary contract employment is of considerable disadvantage for French women. This is important, as previous research on female employment in the United-Kingdom and in West-Germany (Booth et al 2002; Giesecke and Gross 2003), two countries with intermittent female employment, did not find evidence of temporary worker disadvantage. Our findings, however, suggest that in countries where female employment tends to be full-time and continuous, women will experience disadvantage on the introduction of temporary contracts. The impact of temporary contract employment was not as damaging for our matched male sample, however, and contrary to our expectations, we found a slight tendency for greater male disadvantage in West Germany relative to France.