The Paula Principle

part-time work

If you work part-time your experience counts for nothing…

The redoubtable Institute for Fiscal Studies has published a really powerful fresh analysis of the gender pay gap.  They have used three large longitudinal datasets - ones that track people over time, and so give much greater insights into what causes what - to unpick the factors that cause the gender pay gap to develop as it does over people's working lives.  It's the kind of evidence that packs a real punch, and although it's complex the IFS gets it across about as accessibly as it can, with some really useful charts to help us out. The key, blunt and stark conclusion is this: the effect of extra part-time work…
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Going Dutch?

I've said before - many times - that we need to rethink our approach to part-time work.  This is increasingly obvious in the light of the changing nature of employment generally, and not only in relation to the PP.   Included in this rethinking should be proposals for new ways of classifying part-timers.  The simplistic binary division into full-time and part-time has to go if women's careers and competences are to get a fair shout. In the last chapter of the PP book I suggest that we might restrict 'part-time' to work that is 8 hours a week or less, i.e. that is genuinely marginal.  This may be a step…
Read More

If you work part-time your experience counts for nothing…

The redoubtable Institute for Fiscal Studies has published a really powerful fresh analysis of the gender pay gap.  They have used three large longitudinal datasets - ones that track people over time, and so give much greater insights into what causes what - to unpick the factors that cause the gender pay gap to develop as it does over people's working lives.  It's the kind of evidence that packs a real punch, and although it's complex the IFS gets it across about as accessibly as it can, with some really useful charts to help us out. The key, blunt and stark conclusion is this: the effect of extra part-time work…
Read More

Going Dutch?

I've said before - many times - that we need to rethink our approach to part-time work.  This is increasingly obvious in the light of the changing nature of employment generally, and not only in relation to the PP.   Included in this rethinking should be proposals for new ways of classifying part-timers.  The simplistic binary division into full-time and part-time has to go if women's careers and competences are to get a fair shout. In the last chapter of the PP book I suggest that we might restrict 'part-time' to work that is 8 hours a week or less, i.e. that is genuinely marginal.  This may be a step…
Read More