Executive Summary

...our way of working is leading to low pay for women, stress, illness and wider social costs, including a lack of time for caring. Instead of looking towards flexibility, many employers, faced with the productivity gap with other countries, seek longer hours or work intensification. There remains a time/pay gender divide. (Equal Opportunities Commission, 2007, p.10)

This report aims to identify the characteristics, pay and working issues for prime-aged (25-54) female employees who work less than full-time in low-paid jobs - in particular, in low-paid jobs in retail, cleaning and residential care. It aims to identify:

• what helps and hinders progress at work
• practical mechanisms or best practice that supports progression at work
• broader issues that could be considered by industry, unions and government.

The study used data from the Survey of Working Life (SoWL) and the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) March quarter 2008. At that time, there were 559,500 prime-aged female employees and 579,400 prime-aged male employees.

Low pay was defined as two-thirds of the mean hourly wage of all workers ($22.90) = $15.30 - 154,000 prime-aged female employees and 80,100 prime-aged male employees earned less than this per hour.

Less than full-time hours were defined as less than 37 hours a week - 243,600 prime-aged female employees and 46,300 prime-aged male employees worked less than full-time hours (43.5% and 8% of all prime-aged employees respectively).

Low pay and low-paid workers

As is the case in other developed countries, low-paid jobs predominate in industries that new firms can easily enter and in occupations with no or few qualification barriers that are low-skilled or use skills that have historically been undervalued.

Low-paid workers disproportionately:

• lack formal skills and qualifications
• have little or no prior work experience
• are migrants
• are women
• work part-time
• are re-entering employment following time caring for children or have lost jobs.

While one in nine prime-aged female employees who worked less than full-time was paid $30 or more an hour, many more were low paid - 38.7% of women and 40% of men employed less than full-time were low paid.

Rates of low pay were higher than average for female employees of non-European ethnicities.

Low-paid prime-aged employees were more likely to be temporary employees and less likely to receive employer-funded training than full-time employees.

Of the prime-aged employees wanting to work more hours, 47,100 were female and 44,300 male.

Prime-aged female employees working less than full-time were also more likely to be receiving financial support from Work and Income.

Prime-aged women employed as personal care workers, sales workers and cleaners/caretakers

One in eight (12.6%) prime-aged female employees worked as personal care workers (24,100), sales workers (31,400) or cleaners and caretakers (15,100). European women were over-represented as sales workers - Maori and Pacific women were very over-represented as cleaners/caretakers and personal care workers.

Three in four (74.3%) female employees working as cleaners/caretakers, 64.9% of sales workers and 64.1% of personal care workers were low paid. On average, female cleaners worked shorter hours than sales workers or personal care workers and were much more likely to want to work more hours. One in five prime-aged women employed as a cleaner was a temporary employee.

Around a third of prime-aged females in these occupations had been in their jobs for less than a year. However, 20-30% had been with the same employer for 5 years or more. Longer-tenured workers received much the same pay as newly employed workers in these occupations.

What helps and hinders progression at work

Quitting work and working shorter hours curtail career progress and reduce wage progression. While employment programmes can assist low skilled women back into work, into more hours of work and into training, there is little evidence of women advancing into better paid jobs.

Little attention appears to have been paid to career advancement issues for women in the three occupations, and currently all these occupations have shallow wage structures. Apart from personal care work where it looks likely an advanced skilled work tier will be established in the future, progress for women in these occupations means changing occupations.

There are acknowledged difficulties in achieving more training in firms that have a high volume/minimised costs business strategy, as well as in small to medium-sized enterprises. In addition, employees are less motivated to train if there are no financial rewards for doing so.

The literature indicates little current practice or knowledge about what works to improve women's progression into better paying jobs.

Conclusions

Nearly four in 10 prime-aged women who work less than full-time are low paid. Whilst some of this low pay may represent a lifestyle choice, the extensiveness of low pay for this group, in comparison to other prime-aged workers, suggests significant wastage of women's skills and potential. The one in nine prime-aged women working less than full-time who earn $30 or more an hour is a positive sign that shorter hours of work does not need to mean poor quality work. There is, however, a long way still to go.

Cleaners/caretakers, care and support workers and sales workers - the three common low-paid occupations for women - are low paid for women working full-time as well as less than full-time hours. Longer tenure offers almost no increase in pay in these occupations. Women need to shift out of these occupations to gain skills and better pay.

 

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