Vera Baird, Solicitor General and lead Minister for the Equality Bill, has called for an end to the outdated assumption that the 40/40/40 model – where we work forty plus hours per week, for forty plus weeks, over forty plus years – is the top career choice.
More women than ever before are working part-time (42 per cent of working women or 5.8 million) but too many have to downgrade when they leave full-time employment.
According to the new cross-government women’s employment strategy launched today, more than half of all women in part-time employment are working below their potential, and a shortage of suitable opportunities means that women are crowded into a narrow range of lower paid part-time jobs.
Ms Baird said: ‘By not opening up more senior roles to part-time work, business is missing a trick. We can’t miss tricks when our economy needs vigorously to re-grow after the recession.’
New research published alongside the strategy found this was a major reason behind differences in women’s and men’s pay.
The overall pay gap between men and women is 22 per cent. But the gap is much wider for women working part-time. Median hourly earnings for part-time workers are 36.5 per cent less than full-time workers, which has a negative impact on the household income for many families.
Ms Baird said: ‘Today’s strategy contains a range of non-statutory measures that will support more businesses in offering flexible working. It is time to move our labour market assumptions on into the modern era. Working and caring are not separate spheres now. We need a labour market framework which encourages them to be flexibly mixed so that individuals have maximum choice and businesses have satisfied employees.’
Angela Eagle, Work and Pensions Minister, said: ‘It is important for women to be able to balance work and family life. We want them to be able to care for their children and progress their careers, which is why we have established a Family Friendly Working Hours Taskforce with employers, to look at how we can encourage more organisations to create high quality, flexible part-time jobs.’
Key facts:
In the three months to November 2009, 5.8 million women were working part-time.
42 per cent of women work part-time compared with 12 per cent of men.
Part-time employment is expected to continue to increase in prevalence for both men and women.
Women work part-time mainly because of caring responsibilities.
A high proportion of those working part-time work below their potential.
A shortage of ‘quality’ part-time work across sectors and occupations means many women are crowded into a narrow range of low paid part-time jobs.
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Tags: equal pay, Equality Act, part-time, working mums
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