Occupational segregation by hours of work in Europe

• Date: 01 March 2018
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12017
• Author: Theo SPARREBOOM

International Labour Review, Vol. 157 (2018), No. 1

Copyright © International Labour Organization 2018

Journal compilation © International Labour Organization 2018

Occupational segregation

by hours of work in Europe

Theo SPARREBOOM*

Abstract: This article quanties the levels of occupational segregation between

part-time and full-time work using data from the European Labour Force Survey

for 15 European countries. It also attempts to identify some of the determinants of

segregation through regression analysis using three groups of indicators (quantity

of employment, quality of employment and institutional factors). Occupational

segregation by hours of work is generally higher for males than for females and is

also higher for young workers versus adult workers. It is also found that segrega-

tion for men is correlated with the quantity of employment, while variables from

all three groups of indicators are important for adult women and young workers.

Women and young workers are two of the most prominent groups

facing systematic disadvantages in the labour market. Female labour

force participation rates, for example, are lower than male rates in virtually all

countries, and women often receive lower wages. In a sample of countries used

in the Global Wage Report 2014/15, the gender wage gap ranged from 35.8 per

cent in the United States to 4.0 per cent in Sweden (ILO, 2015a), while in the

European Union (EU) women’s gross hourly earnings were on average 16.4

per cent below those of men in 2013.1 The position of youth in labour mar-

kets around the world is reected in youth unemployment rates – which are

usually at least twice as high as adult unemployment rates – but also in job

quality indicators (ILO, 2013).

Occupational segregation by sex accounts for a signicant part of the

observed wage gap between men and women (World Bank, 2011),2 and

* International Labour Ofce; email: sparreboom@ilo.org. The author would like to

acknowledge the valuable research assistance provided by Pinar Hosafci, ILO consultant.

Responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles rests solely with their authors, and

publication does not constitute an endorsement by the ILO.

1 See http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Gender_pay_gap_statistics

[accessed 4 January 2018].

2 Other factors that have been put forward by researchers include the undervaluation of

women’s work, workplace characteristics and the overall wage structure in a country, which may

reect wage-setting mechanisms designed with a focus on workers in male-dominated sectors (see

ILO, 2015a, and the references therein for overviews).

International Labour Review66

it is also an important factor in explaining part-time pay penalties. Manning

and Petrongolo (2008) showed that, in the United Kingdom, the part-time pay

penalty became very small if occupational differences between part-timers and

full-timers were controlled for. Based on a double decomposition of the gender

wage gap (between men and women employed full time, as well as between

full-time and part-time working women), Matteazzi, Pailhé and Solaz (2013)

found that labour market segregation was more important than the prevalence

of part-time employment per se in explaining gender wage gaps.

This article quanties levels of occupational segregation between full-time

and part-time work and attempts to identify some of the determinants of this

segregation. In the rst part of the analysis, segregation between full-time and

part-time work is measured for all workers, as well as within subgroups of the

employed population (men, women, youth and adults) for 15 European coun-

tries. The extent to which segregation is driven by constituent subgroups is also

analysed. We show that occupational segregation by hours of work is generally

higher for males than for females, thereby suggesting that part-time pay pen-

alties may be more considerable for men than for women, and we show that

occupational segregation is higher for young workers than for adult workers.

We also use regression analysis across countries to identify factors that

drive segregation by hours of work. Three groups of variables are considered,

which are related to (1) quantity of employment, (2) quality of employment,

and (3) institutional factors. Segregation by hours of work for subgroups of

the employed population is found to be driven by different factors. In particu-

lar, segregation for men is correlated with the quantity of employment, while

variables from all three of the abovementioned groups are important for adult

women and young workers.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows. Literature related to

segregation by hours of work is reviewed in the rst section, which also pro-

vides a discussion of some of the theoretical background related to segrega-

tion between part-time and full-time work. The second section documents such

segregation by gender and age groups across European countries, and the third

section shows an empirical analysis of the drivers of segregation by hours of

work. Finally, the conclusions are presented in section four.

Literature review:

Explaining segregation by hours of work

Part-time work is an important “non-standard form of employment”, given

that the standard employment relationship is often understood as full-time

work (ILO, 2015b). Similar to other forms of non-standard employment, part-

time work has become more common over the past several decades. In the

European Union of 15 Countries (EU15), the share of part-time employment

in total employment increased from 17.5 per cent in 2000 to 21.4 per cent