New Zealand women's employment outcomes: the relationship between working shorter hours and low paid, female-dominated occupations
Introduction
The labour force participation of prime-aged women has grown steadily since the end of World War 2. Paralleling the growth of women's participation in employment has been a growth in jobs with fewer than full-time hours, defined in this study as less than 37 hours a week, particularly in retail, hospitality and other service areas.
Progression at work is more difficult for women than men, both because women are concentrated in jobs with low and shallow pay structures with little scope for progression and they are more likely than men to work fewer than full-time hours. The focus of the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW) on the progression of low-paid women who work fewer than full-time hours is complementary to a Ministry of Women's Affairs' project exploring flexible work issues for professional women.
For many in the workforce, being low paid is a short-term affair, and for most young people, being low paid is a transition period prior to gaining better paid work. This average picture, however, disguises the fact that a minority of the workforce remain low paid for long periods.
NACEW's interest is in the extent to which low wages endure for women during their prime years, defined in this study as aged 25-54, and particularly for those women who work fewer than full-time hours (less than 37 hours a week).
This project builds on NACEW's previous work on precarious employment along with a recent stocktake on women and part-time work (Dwyer and Ryan, 2008), which included the following findings:
- The four main reasons for working part-time are caring responsibilities (particularly for children), education, preferring part-time work and not being able to find full-time work.
- Around 23% of all jobs are part-time. Most growth in part-time workers is occurring amongst young people (15-24) and amongst older workers (aged over 50). Over 40% of all part-time workers at the 2006 Census were aged between 25-49, with 82% of this group being female.
- The proportion of jobs that are part-time grew rapidly in tandem with the growth of women's labour force participation. The proportion of women in the workforce who work part-time appears to have levelled off at around 35-36%. This is more than three times the rate of men's part-time work.
- By OECD standards, a relatively high proportion of women workers work part-time. However, Australia and the UK have higher rates of female part-time work than New Zealand.
- There is a close association between occupation, sex and part-time work. Three of the 10 most common occupations for women - sales assistants, cleaners and caregivers - are relatively low-paid female-dominated occupations with high proportions of part-timers.
- Women are more likely than men to be amongst the estimated 5% of the workforce that hold multiple jobs. Typically, women with more than one job work part-time.
- At an aggregate level, the average hourly earnings of part-time workers are lower than the average hourly earnings of full-time workers. The full-time/part-time wage gap in New Zealand varies by age group and tends to be lower than average for younger and older age groups.
- In the main, part-time workers are fully covered by employment legislation and government administrative policies applying to workers. New Zealand law and collective employment agreements currently provide little in the way of rights for workers to move between full-time and part-time work, although negotiated agreements may become more common with the introduction of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act.
- Qualitative studies indicate that part-time work is sometimes, but not always, associated with less access to training at work.
NACEW also decided to explore in more detail three occupations that tend to be low paid and where large numbers of women work less than full-time - sales, cleaning/caretaking and care and support work.[1] As part of this work, NACEW had hoped to identify firms where there were good practices in terms of supporting low-paid prime-aged women to advance into better-paying jobs. However, no such firms were identified.
While NACEW's focus is on women, understanding and finding solutions to their lack of progress out of low-paid work may also assist the progress of prime-aged men who work less than full-time and who are also more likely to be low paid.
Objectives
The report aims to identify:
- the characteristics and significance in the workforce of women aged 25-54 who work fewer than full-time hours in low-paid jobs
- the characteristics of women aged 25-54 who work fewer than full-time hours in low-paid jobs in large firms in retail, cleaning and residential care
- what is known about training take-up and qualification attainment by these women
- the extent to which these women access regular hours of work and are able to alter their hours of work
- what is known about pay progression, either within an existing job or through progression to a new job
- within firms, what works and what hinders the skills acquisition and advancement of these women
- practical mechanisms and best practice in supporting skills development and career progression
- broader issues that could be considered by industry, unions and government to enhance the career progression and career options for women working fewer than full-time hours.
Survey of Working Life (SoWL) and Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) March 2008 data
This paper draws primarily on data from special tables prepared by the Department of Labour from the combined Survey of Working Life (SoWL) and Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) March 2008. The HLFS samples around 15,000 private households (30,000 individuals) each quarter on a statistically representative basis across rural and urban areas. The SoWL is a supplementary survey that collected additional data on employment conditions and working patterns from all employed people in the HLFS sample in the March 2008 quarter. The data tables from which the report's figures were derived are appended.
The data analysed in this paper covers prime-aged employees aged between 25-54 with additional tables covering prime-aged women employed as cleaners, personal care workers and sales workers.[2] This age group was chosen to capture the experience of employees who are the most likely age range to have caring responsibilities. In addition, few of the group are predominantly in education or training, nor in transition from employment to retirement. The self-employed were excluded.
Rather than focus on part-time workers (the standard definition of part-time work is 30 hours or less a week), the data drew out differences for all employees who worked fewer hours than the full-time working week (37 hours or less).
Just over 8% of prime-aged women employees and 8.6% of prime-aged men employees did not report their earnings in the SoWL. In addition, approximately 1% of prime-aged employees did not report their usual hours of work. Due to non-response on these key variables, the estimates of the total number of employees who were low paid or working less than full-time that are given in this paper are likely to be under-estimated to some degree.
The characteristics of people who did not respond to the earnings and usual hours questions were examined and found to be reasonably similar to the characteristics of respondents. On the basis of this comparison, we believe it is unlikely that non-response to the earnings and hours questions has led to significant biases in our analysis of the profile and characteristics of low-paid and shorter hour employees.
The data is now over 1 year old. Since then, there have been some changes in the numbers of low-paid employees and the numbers working fewer than full-time hours and possibly some changes in their characteristics and employment arrangements. However, the patterns identified in this paper are unlikely to have changed substantially in that time.
Structure of this report
Section 1 focuses on low pay. It discusses the incidence of low pay, the factors known to contribute to low pay, the characteristics of low-paid prime-aged employees and the location and characteristics of the jobs they do.
Section 2 explores the characteristics of prime-aged employees who work fewer than full-time hours and how these are affected by gender, ethnicity and skills.
Section 3 takes a closer look at the three most common occupations where there is a concentration of low-paid women working fewer than full-time hours - care workers, sales workers and cleaners/caretakers.
Section 4 discusses the literature related to what might enable prime-aged women to advance at work.
Section 5 draws out conclusions.
[1 ]Support work refers to jobs involving personal care and support, whether in a residential home, family or community setting.
[2] The 'cleaners' occupational group represents people employed in NZSCO99 group 911 - building caretakers and cleaners. The 'personal care workers' occupational group represents people employed in NZSCO group 513, which covers hospital orderlies, health assistants, ambulance officers, nurse aides and caregivers. The 'sales worker' occupational group represents people employed in NZSCO group 521 - salespersons and demonstrators.
