The Part-Time Wage Penalty for Women: Are there Differences between Voluntary and Involuntary Part-Time Workers?

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Inequality in the Workplace I

Abstract

In the current study, we explore the part-time wage penalty for U.S. women, and we focus on differences among women by (1) their reasons for part-time work, (2) their educational attainment, and (3) the time period. We draw on data from the Current Population Survey and find that women working part-time earn between 9% and 13% less per hour than full-time workers who hold similar occupations and have similar socio-demographic characteristics. Moreover, we find that the part-time wage penalty increases with women’s educational attainment. Women with a high school degree or less do not pay a wage penalty for working part-time involuntarily, whereas women with some college pay a 19.6% wage penalty for working part-time involuntarily, and women with a college degree pay a 32.1% wage penalty for working part-time involuntarily. In other words, controlling for race, age, marital status, motherhood, and a number of other important socio-demographic factors, women with a college degree who work part-time because they cannot find full-time work earn nearly one-third less per hour than women who work full-time. We also find that the wage penalties associated with voluntary part-time work increase with education, although to a lesser degree than the wage penalties associated with involuntary part-time work. In general, we find fewer meaningful differences between voluntary and involuntary part-time workers than we would have expected. We conclude our paper with a discussion about part-time work, the potentially problematic distinction between “voluntary” and “involuntary” reasons for part-time work, and women’s constrained work-family decisions.

Authors

• Kristin Smith, University of New Hampshire

• Rebecca Glauber, University of New Hampshire