Qualité de l’emploi et des conditions de travail des professionnel-le-s de la petite enfance.

Abstract

Since the 1990s, there has been a big increase in early years professions (childminders and nursery assistants in particular) which have also seen many changes. However, the quality of employment (i;e employment circumstances in terms of pay, stability and working conditions) has still not been analysed very closely. The objective of this article is to study the working and employment conditions of these professions using the same grids as those normally used (Employment survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies and Working conditions survey by the Directorate for Research, Studies and Statistics) by comparing them to other similar professions. Specific features in career paths should first be highlighted and a more precise analysis of the quality of employment should be performed by paying particular attention to four additional aspects : level of pay, job stability, physical, mental and temporal working conditions and finally, the extent of the resources available for the worker. This approach also means that ambiguities can be highlighted in the status of childminders who fluctuate between being employees and self-employed.