5. Conclusion

A 1994 study (Davidson and Bray) found that low pay, poor conditions and little job security were the norm for women part-timers in New Zealand. A key message of this paper is that low pay is an issue for one in five prime-aged employees and for around 154,000 or over one in four prime-aged women. Moreover, the risk of prime-aged female employees being low paid is substantial, even for those with a reasonable level of education and skill. This is especially the case when they work less than full-time - nearly four in 10 prime-aged women employed less than 37 hours a week have hourly earnings that are less than two-thirds of the average wage of $15.30 an hour (March 2008).

For the one in eight prime-aged women who are employed as personal care and support workers, cleaners/caretakers and retail workers, low pay is particularly common - 74.8% of cleaners and caretakers, 65% of sales workers and 63.9% of personal care workers are low paid - and low pay is common whether employed full-time or not. On average, there is virtually no pay advantage to prime-aged women who stay in these jobs for 5 years or more compared with those prime-aged women who are new employees.

Some women, and undoubtedly some men, seek jobs with less responsibility as a strategy to balance work and family demands or for other personal reasons. This has been presented as a lifestyle choice whereby mothers happily negotiate a more modest place and pay rate in the workforce in exchange for flexible hours and arrangements (Hakim, 2002). However, over one in five (20.4%) prime-aged women with post-school qualifications are low paid - over twice the proportion of prime-aged men with post-school qualifications who are low paid (9.7%). This suggests more than a temporary mismatch of employees' skills with jobs and more than a short-term lifestyle choice. It suggests wastage - what the Equal Opportunities Commission in the UK has referred to as a cost to the nation's productivity from the wastage of women being in jobs that do not fully use their skills (Equal Opportunities Commission 2007).

There are some hopeful signs. At least in some occupations and firms, there is evidence that women working less than full-time earn significantly above average pay. In March 2008, more than one in nine prime-aged female employees (11.7%) earned $30 or more an hour compared with around one in seven (14.1%) of all prime-aged female employees but more than one in four (25.5%) of all prime-aged male employees. Quantitative studies here and internationally show that some well qualified employees negotiate shorter hours within their current occupation. However, the high proportion of low-paid prime-aged female employees with a post-school (including tertiary) qualification suggests there is a long way to go.

Enabling low-skilled women to access a career pathway to better paid work, however, is difficult. Evidence in New Zealand and elsewhere indicates that many low-skilled women cycling in and out of work rely on income support to bolster their income.

While employment programmes can assist low-skilled women back into work and into more hours of work and training, being back in work does not then tend to result in any advancement. The problem of low pay exists whether full-time or not and whether a long-tenured employee or not. New strategies are needed to enable these women to gain better jobs to enhance their skills, responsibilities and better pay.