Job Tasks, Computer Use, and the Decreasing Part-Time Pay Penalty for Women in the UK

Ahmed Elsayed (), Andries de Grip and Didier Fouarge

No 8069, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using data from the UK Skills Surveys, we show that the part-time pay penalty for female workers within low- and medium-skilled occupations decreased significantly over the period 1997-2006. The convergence in computer use between part-time and full-time workers within these occupations explains a large share of the decrease in the part-time pay penalty. However, the lower part-time pay penalty is also related to lower wage returns to reading and writing which are performed more intensively by full-time workers. Conversely, the increasing returns to influencing has increased the part-time pay penalty despite the convergence in the influencing task input between part-time and full-time workers. The relative changes in the input and prices of computer use and job tasks together explain more than 50 percent of the decrease in the part-time pay penalty.

Keywords: pay penalty; part-time work; computer use; job tasks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-ger, nep-lab and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - revised version published in: British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2017, 55 (1), 58-82

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Related works:
Working Paper: Job tasks, computer use, and the decreasing part-time pay penalty for women in the UK (2014)
Working Paper: Job tasks, computer use, and the decreasing part-time pay penalty for women in the UK (2014)
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