Time to care: does law offer an avenue to quality part-time work?

Still Falling Short on Hours and Pay: Part-Time Work Becoming New Normal

This paper analyses the difference between part-time and full-time wages in Canada using the 1981 Survey of Work History. Since part-time and full-time workers are distinguished by hours worked and since hours worked and wages are interdependent, selectivity bias occurs if ordinary least squares regression is used. A modification of Heckman's procedure, to account for the fact that part-time hours are doubly truncated, is used to correct this problem. The results indicate that, adjusting for differences in characteristics, the wage differential between part-time and full-time workers is 10 per cent, or one-third the unadjusted differential. Results vary somewhat by sex and marital status. Analyse de la remuneration du travail d temps partiel au Canada. Ce memoire analyse les differences entre les salaires pour le travail a temps plein et a temps partiel au Canada a partir des resultats de l'Enquete sur l'activite en 1981. Puisque les travailleurs a temps plein et A temps partiel sont definis par le nombre d'heures de travail, et puisque le nombre d'heures de travail et les niveaux de salaire sont interdependants, il y a biais de selectivite quand on utilise la methode des moindres carres ordinaires dans l'analyse de regression. L'auteur utilise une modification de la technique de Heckman (pour tenir compte du fait que le nombre d'heures de travail a temps partiel est doublement tronque) pour corriger le probleme. Les resultats montrent que, apres avoir tenu compte des differences dans les caracteristiques des personnes, on observe un differentiel de niveau de salaire de 10 pourcent entre les travailleurs a temps plein et a temps partiel, soit le tiers du differentiel brut avant les ajustements pour tenir compte de caracteristiques differentes. Ces resultats varient quelque peu selon le sexe et selon la situation familiale. The trend towards part-time employment has generally escaped the attention and scrutiny of economists.' Part-time employment in Canada grew at an annual rate of 4.1 per cent between January 1972 and January 1984, compared 1 One exception is Nakamura and Nakamura (1983), who examine related labour supply issues for married females. Canadian Journal of Economics Revue canadienne d'Economique, xix, No. 4 November novembre 1986. Printed in Canada Imprim6 au Canada 0008-4085 / 86 / 798-807 $1.50 ?0 Canadian Economics Association This content downloaded from 207.46.13.159 on Sat, 22 Oct 2016 04:29:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Analysis of part-time pay in Canada 799 with a growth rate of only 2.4 per cent for full-time employment. As a result 15.4 per cent of jobs were part-time as of January 1984 compared with 13 per cent in January 1972.2 The growth of part-time employment raises a number of issues. In particular, Labour Canada (1983) argues that the hourly wage differential between full-time and part-time workers reached 26.3 per cent in 1981. It is not clear, however, that this gross wage differential between full-time and part-time workers is a useful figure. A number of accepted, measurable characteristics that determine wage differentials among workers may confound this comparison unless full-time and part-time workers have identical characteristics. It would therefore be useful from a policy standpoint to eliminate these effects to identify part-time effects, and the gravity of the part-time pay problem, per se. This paper analyses the differences between part-time and full-time wages to try to distinguish part-time effects, whatever the source, from other established bases for differentials. In the first section a standard model for wage comparison among workers is considered. The source of selectivity bias is identified and a consistent estimation technique is described. The second section uses this technique to analyse the differences in part-time and full-time wages using microdata from the 1981 Survey of Work History used by Labour Canada (1983). The third section summarizes the results and provides suggestions for further research. A MODEL FOR WAGE COMPARISON WITH SELECTIVITY BIAS Consider a standard model used extensively for union and non-union wage comparisons (Lee, 1978; Duncan and Leigh, 1980; Robinson and Tomes, 1984; Simpson, 1985). Let Wf be a vector of observations on the natural logarithm of hourly wages paid to full-time workers and let X be a matrix of observations on measurable worker characteristics commonly used in such models, namely, educational attainment, age, sex, union status, public (vs. private) sector status, and region. Let wp and X be the corresponding observations for part-time workers. Let h* be the maximum hours of work permitted for classification as a part-time worker. Then we specify Wf Xff3f ? If if h > h* (1)

Using data from the first 2 phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, we examine the links between maternal employment in the first 12 months of life and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children at age 3, age 4½, and first grade. Drawing on theory and prior research from developmental psychology as well as economics and sociology, we address three main questions. First, what associations exist between first-year maternal employment and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children over the first seven years of life? Second, to what extent do any such associations vary by the child's gender and temperament, or the mother's occupation? Third, to what extent do mother's earnings, the home environment (maternal depressive symptoms, sensitivity, and HOME scores), and the type and quality of child care mediate or offset any associations between first-year employment and child outcomes, and what is the net effect of first-year maternal employment once these factors are taken into account? We compare families in which mothers worked full time (55%), part time (23%), or did not work (22%) in the first year for non-Hispanic white children (N=900) and for African-American children (N=113). Comparisons are also made taking into account the timing of mothers' employment within the first year. A rich set of control variables are included. OLS and SEM analyses are constructed. With regard to cognitive outcomes, first, we find that full-time maternal employment in the first 12 months of life (but not part-time employment) is associated with significantly lower scores on some, but not all, measures of cognitive development at age 3, 4 ½, and first grade for non-Hispanic white children, but with no significant associations for the small sample of African-American children Part-time employment in the first year is associated with higher scores than full-time employment for some measures. Employment in the second and third year of life is not associated with the cognitive outcomes. Second, we examine the role of the child's gender and temperament and the mother's occupation in moderating the associations between first-year maternal employment and cognitive outcomes, but find few significant interactions for either child characteristics or mother's occupation. Third, we examine the role of an extensive set of potential mediators - the mother's earnings, the home environment, and the type and quality of child care. We find that mothers who worked full time have higher income in the first year of life and thereafter, that mothers who worked part time have higher HOME and maternal sensitivity scores than mothers who did not work or worked full time, and that mothers who worked either full time or part time were more likely to place their children in high-quality child care by age 3 and 4 ½ and their children spent more time in center-based care by age 4 ½ than in families where mothers did not work in the first year of life. However, we also find some links between first-year maternal employment and elevated levels of maternal depressive symptoms thereafter. Turning to results from structural equation modeling, we find that the overall effects of first-year maternal employment on the cognitive outcomes are neutral. This occurs because significantly negative direct effects of full-time first-year employment are offset by significantly positive indirect effects working through more use of center-based care and greater maternal sensitivity by age 4 ½. Regarding social and emotional outcomes, several findings, again limited to non-Hispanic white children, stand out. First, we find no significant associations between first-year maternal employment and later social and emotional outcomes (including attachment security) when comparing children whose mothers worked full-time or part-time in the first year with the reference group of children whose mothers did not work in the first year, although in models that take the timing of employment within the first year into account, we find some significant associations between full-time maternal employment in the first year and higher levels of caregiver- or teacher-reported externalizing problems at age 4 ½ and first grade. Second, part-time maternal employment by 12 months tends to be associated with fewer externalizing problems at age 4 ½ and first grade than full time maternal employment by 12 months. These results are unchanged when we allow for the possibility of moderation by child characteristics or maternal occupation. Third, the results from SEM models indicate that, while neither full-time nor part-time first-year employment has significant total effects on children's externalizing behavior problems at age 4 ½ or first grade, part-time first-year employment has indirect positive effects, working primarily through differences in the home environment and maternal sensitivity. Another important finding from the SEM models is that center-based care, which is often associated with maternal employment, is not significantly associated with elevated levels of child behavior problems. Taken together, our findings provide new insight as to the net effects of first-year maternal employment as well as the potential pathways through which associations between first-year maternal employment and later child outcomes, where present, come about. Our SEM results indicate that, on average, the associations between first-year maternal employment and later cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes are neutral, because negative effects, where present, are offset by positive effects. These results confirm that maternal employment in the first year of life may confer both advantages and disadvantages and that for the average non-Hispanic white child, those effects balance each other.

This study investigated differences in organizational commitment among part‐time workers. This contrasts with the traditional comparison of differences between part‐time workers and their full‐time counterparts. The most significant predictors of organizational commitment among part‐timers were their perceptions of relative equity and job satisfaction, compared with full‐timers. Neither demographics nor work status were significant after controlling for relative equity and satisfaction. Satisfaction acted as a partial mediator between the independent variable, relative equity, and the dependent variable, organizational commitment. This research indicates that organizations need to recognize that part‐timers' attitudes toward their jobs depend a good deal on their perceptions of their treatment relative to full‐time employees.RésuméCette étude analyse les differences d'engagement envers l'employeur chez les employés à temps partiel seule‐ment, au lieu de la comparaison traditionnelle entre les employés à temps partiel et les employés à temps plein. Les prédicteurs les plus significatifs de I'engagement envers I'employeur chez les employés à temps partiel sont la perception de l'équité relative de leur traitement par rapport aux employés à temps plein, et la satisfaction associée à leur travail. Ni les critères démo‐graphiques, ni le rang dans la hiérarchie sur le lieu de travail ne s'avèrent significatifs après normalisation, compte tenu des variables équité relative et satisfaction. La satisfaction joue le rôle de médiateur partiel entre la variable indépendante, équité relative, et la variable dépendante, engagement envers I'employeur. Ces résul‐tats indiquent que les employeurs ont besoin de reconnoitre que les attitudes de travail des employés à temps partiel dépendent beaucoup de la faeon dont ceux‐ci ont I'impression d'ětre traités par rapport aux employés a temps plein.

The share of part-time employment in total employment has risen in most OECD countries over the past decades. While this is often associated with increased female labour force participation and the desire of many workers to achieve an improved work-life balance, there has been a significant decline in the average earnings of part-time workers relative to full-time workers, as well as an increase in involuntary part-time employment in a number of countries. This paper presents a summary of the taxation of part-time work in OECD countries. It includes new calculations of the effective tax rates on part-time work including those for male and female part-time workers and for different household types. These indicators provide an evidence base for policymakers looking to understand the impact of the tax system on the choice of employment form. The analysis shows that average tax rates for part-time workers are lower than those applied to full-time workers in almost all OECD countries, reducing post-tax gender wage gaps, although marginal tax rates are often higher for part-time workers. These differences between the taxation of part-time and full-time workers are largely due to differences in earnings levels, and therefore to the progressivity of countries’ tax systems, rather than to differences in the tax treatment applied to part-time workers relative to full-time workers.

BackgroundSickness absence (SA) is becoming a major economic problem in many countries. Our aim was to investigate whether type of employment, including temporary employment or part-time employment, is associated with SA while controlling for familial factors (genetic and shared environment). Differences between men and women and across employment sectors were explored.MethodsThis is a prospective twin study based on 21 105 twins born in Sweden 1959–85. The participants completed a survey in 2005 with follow-up of SA (≥15 days), using register data, until end of 2013. The data were analyzed with logistic regression, with results presented as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsTemporary employment involved higher odds of SA (OR=1.21 95% CI=1.04–1.40) compared to full-time employment. Both part-time workers (OR=0.84 95% CI=0.74–0.95) and the self-employed (OR=0.77 95%CI=0.62–0.94) had lower odds of SA. Stratifying by sex showed lower odds for part-timers (OR=0.82 95% CI=0.73–0.94) and self-employed women (OR=0.65 95% CI=0.47–0.90), but higher odds for men in temporary employment (OR=1.33 95% CI=1.03–1.72). Temporary employees in county councils (OR=1.73 95% CI=1.01–2.99) and municipalities (OR=1.41 95% CI=1.02–1.96) had higher odds while part-timers employed in the private sector had lower odds (OR=0.77 95% CI=0.64–0.93). Familial factors did not confound the association between employment type and SA.ConclusionsEmployment type is associated with SA, with temporary employment involving a higher risk compared to permanent full-time employment while both part-time employment and self-employment involved a lower risk. The associations vary between women and men and across sectors.

Most British school students now work part-time but part-time working remains a contested issue, especially in relation to its impact on school performance. This article suggests that the debate needs to be widened and that much of the discussion appears to consider school students’ part-time work as if it were the only source of out-of-school activity that might compete with school work. It aims to contribute to a wider picture by examining the relationship between students’ part-time employment, their educational commitments, social life and family roles and how this varies in respect of gender, ethnicity, social class and location. The findings suggest part-time work is not in itself inimical to educational engagement or to involvement in social and other activities. The article puts forward the idea of the ‘active student’ who not only works part-time but also participates in a range of other activities.

While part-time employment is commonly discussed as a way to recruit and retain physicians, the average workload of hospital physicians has barely decreased in the past decade, and hospitals face persistent difficulties in adopting part-time work. This study aims to examine the attitudes of hospital physicians across various specialties and positions towards part-time employment, and to identify factors that hinder or facilitate the successful implementation of part-time arrangements in hospital settings. We conducted an exploratory mixed-method study, combining a qualitative interview study with reflexive thematic analysis of 19 participants, and an online quantitative survey of 553 physicians. Data were collected between August and November 2023 in seven public hospital organisations in Switzerland. The quantitative data revealed a widespread desire for workload reduction across all roles, specialties, age groups and sexes, with an average ideal workload of 81%. Contrary to some statements in the qualitative interviews, the youngest cohort of physicians reported the highest ideal workload (88%). Most respondents (60%) believed they would be granted a workload reduction, yet an equal percentage at least partially agreed that working part-time would negatively impact advancement opportunities within the hospital. Other concerns about part-time work included the additional workload it might place on colleagues (76.5%) and a potential decline in medical quality (17.5%). These concerns varied across specialties and positions. The qualitative interviews identified both organisational and cultural barriers to the implementation of part-time work for hospital physicians, such as complex scheduling, additional effort and the prevailing "ideal physician norm" that prioritises physical presence and professional obligations over personal life. Conversely, factors facilitating part-time work included a supportive culture for part-time models and flexible organisational structures and processes. Addressing current perceptions of physicians' part-time work may be an essential first step towards establishing sustainable part-time solutions in hospitals. This includes the assumption that a physician's competence depends solely on his or her availability. Furthermore, the redesign of workplace structures, including shift schedules and training programmes, may be necessary to accommodate varying workloads. When accommodating part-time solutions for hospital physicians, implementing one-size-fits-all solutions may not be expedient, given the varying circumstances of different specialties and positions. Therefore, we recommend that solutions be tailored to the specific needs of each clinic and developed through a participatory process.

This article first examines the forces behind the emergence of alternative work arrangements in Canada in the past two decades. It then focusses upon five alternative work arrangements: part-time employment, temporary or contingent employment, flextime, compressed work weeks, and teleworking. Each alternative work arrangement is discussed in terms of its prevalence and predicted future status in Canada, the existing research findings from studies using Canadian data, and the challenges that each alternative work arrangement poses for I-O psychology. In general, there is a need to develop integrative theoretical models that incorporate factors relevant to alternative work arrangements and to conduct more empirical research comparing different alternative work arrangements and assessing alternative work arrangements across different organizations and industries. I-O psychologists need to take a more proactive role in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of alternative work arrangements.We are currently witnessing a major structural change in work forms in Canada. The standard work form -- full-time, full-year permanent jobs -- is being supplanted by various forms of 'non-standard' work such as part-time work and temporary or contract work. These alternative work arrangements now account for approximately 30 percent of total employment in 'Canada and represented half of all the new jobs created between 1981 and 1986 (Economic Council of Canada, 1990). Moreover, it is predicted that the 'non-standard' job of today will become the standard job of the future (Human Resources Development Canada, 1994). It is therefore incumbent upon policy-makers, managers, and I-O psychologists to be prepared to meet the challenges that alternative work arrangements will pose for society as a whole, for organizations, and for individual workers.This article first provides an overview of alternative work arrangements in Canada, the forces that have contributed to their emergence and growth, and the concerns that have been raised about such arrangements. I then focus upon five alternative work arrangements: part-time work, temporary or contingent work, flextime, compressed work weeks, and teleworking. Each alternative work arrangement section deals with the definition of the term and the various forms that the particular work arrangement may take, a general overview which provides a selective review of the literature and issues, prevalence in Canada and predicted future status, research findings from studies using Canadian data, and the challenges posed by each alternative work arrangement for I-O psychologists. This paper is not intended to provide an exhaustive review of the five alternative work arrangements but to present a Canadian perspective based upon the Canadian experience with each of these alternative work arrangements.There are several reasons for the rapid growth of alternative work arrangements in Canada. According to Human Resources Development Canada (1994), one of the primary reasons is the current trend of organizational restructuring and downsizing and the desire of employers for greater flexibility in controlling their labour costs. The use of alternative work arrangements allows employers the freedom to bring in workers on an as-needed basis and to avoid laying off their full-time permanent employees. Another major reason for the growth of alternative work arrangements is the increase in the service economy which has traditionally relied upon non-standard employment. The dramatic growth in alternative work arrangements is not totally employer driven but also reflects the desires of employees for greater flexibility in their own lives. The increased participation of women in the labour force, especially women with children, has created a need for different working arrangements that allow women to balance their work and family responsibilities. …

The Determinants of Part-Time Work in EU Countries: Empirical Investigations with Macro-Panel Data

1. Introduction: A Comparative Perspective on Part-Time Work 2. A Sociological Perspective on Part-Time Work 3. Part-Time Work in Central and Eastern European Countries 4. Full and Part-Time Employment of Women in Greece: Trends and Relationships with Life-Cycle Events 5. Part-Time Work in Italy 6. The Family Cycle and the Growth of Part-Time Female Employment in France: Boon or Doom? 7. Part-Time Work in West-Germany 8. Female Labour Market Participation in the Netherlands: Developments in the Relationship between Family Cycle and Employment 9. Part-Time Work Among British Women 10. Women's Employment and Part-Time Work in Denmark 11. Managing Work and Children: Part-Time Work and the Family Cycle of Swedish Women 12. Part-Time Work in the United States of America 13. Women's Part-Time Employment and the Family Cycle: A Cross-National Comparison

Graduating Med-Peds Residents’ Interest in Part-Time Employment

(1998). Aesthetics and the Dialectic of Desire to Freedom: Comment on Beech and Roberts. Alethia: Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 19-22.

Part-time employment has expanded rapidly among women in many industrialised countries, particularly since the 1960s. The cause of this dramatic increase is often discussed in terms of demand and supply, or pull and push factors. The increasing demand for women workers and their wish for more flexible work arrangements, together with the growth of service industries has drawn into the workforce married women who need to combine domestic commitments and paid work. Concomitantly, the implications of participation of a large number of women in part-time employment have been extensively and controversially debated, parti cularly in relation to the question of whether or not this development has contributed to the improvement of the position of women in the labour market and/or the family. The above two books discuss the relationship between the rise of this particular pattern of employment among women and changes in the position of women in the labour market and in society more generally, while approaching these issues in very different ways. May Tarn deals with the situation of part-time women workers only in Britain, while the collection edited by Hans-Peter Blossfeld and Catherine Hakim employs a comparative approach, covering the state of part-time work in various European countries and in the USA. Despite this obvious difference, each work aims to explore an alternative perspective on part-time work by analysing not only structural elements and employers' needs, but also factors related to individual workers and their points of view, analyses of which are still relatively rare. This approach underlines the complex nature of part-time work among women, which as the titles of both books indicate cannot be understood as a straightforward 'either/or' approach. Tam explores part-time work from two perspectives as a bridge for women to combine family and paid work and as a trap holding them in the secondary workforce, and points out the shortcomings of both approaches. Blossfeld and Hakim argue that part-time work should not be regarded simply as a means of either equalisation or marginalisation of women in the labour market and/or the family. The clear recognition of the complexity of the situation surrounding part-time women workers is a strength of both works leading the authors to search for an alternative perspective on this phenomenon, and especially to reconsider the way in which part-time work is conceptualised. May Tam adopts 'a quantitative, secondary analysis of survey data' (43) as her research method and analyses the data provided by the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative, which contains information collected from both employers and employees in six localities in Britain, including such matters a$ work attitudes and histories of individual women part-time workers. From her

This paper aims to identify the relative contribution of the business cycle and structural factors to the development of part-time employment in the 15 Member States of the European Union before the 2004 enlargement (EU-15) over the 1980s and 1990s. To do so, it exploits both cross-sectional and time series variations in available data over the past two decades. Key results include the business cycle that is found to exert a short-term negative effect on part-time employment developments, although this effect fades away over the two-decade period considered. This finding is consistent with firms utilising part-time employment as a means of adjusting their labour force to economic conditions. Correspondingly, involuntary part-time employment is found to be counter-cyclical, being higher in troughs of economic activity. Splitting our sample reveals a very significant effect of the business cycle on the rate of part-time work for young and male prime-age workers. Conversely, the effect is very weak for women and insignificant for older workers. Institutions and other structural factors are also found to be significant, longer run determinants of the rate of part-time employment. Changes in legislation affecting part-time employment are found to have a strong and positive impact on part-time employment developments. Moreover, employment protection legislation is positively correlated with the part-time employment rate (PTR), which is consistent with the use of part-time work as a tool for enhancing flexibility in the presence of rigid labour markets. Less robust evidence suggests the presence of unemployment traps for some potential part-time workers. Cross-country evidence also indicates that the lower labour costs borne by firms when employing part-time workers have a large and positive influence on the PTR. Overall, a contribution analysis shows that the main structural and institutional variables generally explain the development in the part-time rate in the EU countries fairly well, while this is obviously not the case in the United States.