Is there a part-time/ full-time pay differential in Australia?. (February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Preston, Alison; Yu, Serena
• Is Part Of: Journal of industrial relations. Volume 57:Number 1(2015)
• Page Start: 24
• Page End: 47
• Publication Date: 2015-02
• Subjects: Casual -- gender pay gap -- industry -- occupation -- part-time earnings -- segmentation -- working hours; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Australia -- Periodicals; 331.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0022185614545902
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1856

Abstract

The incidence of part-time employment in Australia is high by international standards and the trend towards part-time work is on the rise. In this paper, we show that, on average, part-timers earn significantly less than full-timers. After controlling for human capital characteristics, the adjusted hourly earnings gap between men employed full-time and women employed part-time is equal to 22.5%. When comparing women only, the human capital adjusted part-time/full-time gap is equal to 8.9%. The latter falls to 1.1% when industry and occupation are controlled for, reflecting important segregation effects. These findings are consistent with international evidence. Consistent with other Australian studies, we also find that the part-time pay gap varies with casual status. In the female labour market, our human capital adjusted models show a part-time casual premium equal to 3.6% relative to the base group (women employed full-time on a non-casual basis).