What Determines the Part-Time and Gender Earnings Gaps in Britain: Evidence from the Workplace

Abstract

This study examines the role of individual and workplace characteristics in accounting for differences in hourly earnings between men and women in full and part-time jobs in Britain. A four-way gender-working time split (male full-timers, male part-timers, female full-timers, and female part-timers) is analysed, and allowance is explicitly made for workplace and occupational female segregation. Within gender groups, the striking difference between full and part-time employees is that full-timers work in higher paying occupations than do part-timers. Also, female occupational segregation makes a significant contribution to the earnings gap between male and female part-time employees but not for full-time workers. A further new result is that female workplace segregation contributes significantly to the full/part-time earnings gap of both males and females. Part-time employees work in more feminized workplaces and their earnings are lower. There remains, moreover, a substantial residual gender earnings gap between male and female employees.

JEL Classification: J3, J7