The Part-Time Wage Penalty: A Career Perspective

Giovanni Russo () and Wolter Hassink ()
Additional contact information
Giovanni Russo: European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)
Wolter Hassink: Utrecht University

No 1468, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Part-time employment has become an extremely popular work arrangement in the Netherlands because it renders employment compatible with non-work activities. We posit that there may be a downside to part-time employment, which is related to its negative effects on workers’ career. This may be the case when firms use promotions to stimulate skill acquisition and human capital accumulation or when they base their work incentive schemes on performance measures that are affected by the number of hours worked or when they screen workers on the basis of the number of hours worked. Because promotions are an important source of wage growth, the low incidence of promotion among part-time workers may contribute to the emergence of the part-time wage penalty (i.e., the wage difference between a part-time worker and an otherwise equal full-time worker) in due time. Consistent with this view, we find that (male and female) workers in part-time jobs are characterized by a lower incidence of promotion relative to workers in full-time jobs and that promotions account for a wage growth of eight log points. Moreover, we find that the part-time wage penalty does not arise at the onset of a career as young workers join the labor market but that it tends to develop over time as labor market experience and the effect of missed promotions cumulate.

Keywords: part-time employment; wage gap; wages; promotions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2005-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eec, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published - published as "The Part-Time Wage Gap: a Career Perspective" in: De Economist, 2008, 156 (2), 145-174

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