Full- and part-time wage differences in Spain: an analysis along the wage distribution

Abstract

Abstract:Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine wage differences between part-and full-time workers distinguishing by gender by using a large Spanish matched employer-employee data set and an econometric decomposition that permits to decompose wage differences by quantiles of the wage distribution.Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on cross-section matched employer-employee microdata from a large representative survey (the Encuesta de Estructura Salarial) which is carried out with a harmonised methodology common to all European Union member countries and that has been designed specifically to provide reliable evidence about characteristics of the wage distribution such us wage differentials associated with the type of working time. From a methodological point of view, the econometric decomposition technique proposed recently by Fortin et al. (2011) to decompose wage differences between part-time and full-time workers by quantiles of the wage distribution is applied. This methodology has the advantage over similar techniques that provides a detailed decomposition of wage differentials and has not been used before to examine the wage impact of part-time jobs. Findings:The results show that the significant raw wage gap that part-time workers experience in Spain differs substantially along the wage distribution. In the case of part-time females, the wage disadvantage is mostly explained by their relative endowments of characteristics (and particularly by their lower endowments of human capital and their segregation into low-wage sectors) but a significant wage penalty still persists, increasing along the wage distribution. In the case of males the wage disadvantage is only found in the lower part of the distribution and it is due both to their worst endowments of characteristics and a significant wage penalty. Research limitations/implications:The evidence for Spain shows that the part-time work tends to affect differently to the wages of males and females, with a higher part-time penalty for males, as predicted by the "flexibility stigma" hypothesis, and penalising low-qualified men in the lower part of the wage distribution and highqualified women in the upper part of the distribution the most. Originality/value:The analysis contributes to the literature by examining wage differences along the wage distribution for both genders using econometric decomposition methods, an aspect that to the authors' knowledge has been examined only scarcely in the international literature with non-conclusive evidence and has not been examined in previous studies for the Spanish case. In this vein, Spain is a particularly interesting analysis case from an international perspective of the wage consequences of part-time jobs, given that in contrast with most other advanced countries a majority of part-time employment in this country is involuntary and this phenomenon is especially affecting disadvantaged groups.

Insights into life after sport for Spanish Olympians: Gender and career path perspectives

“…Only athletes who followed a DC with studies showed the wage gap associated with gender. Although gender discrimination was found to be a less serious problem for the most highly educated women, there is a wage penalty associated with part-time jobs, especially for highly-qualified women [33]. It is important to remark that in our findings among those that had followed a DC with studies, more women (18.6%) than men (1.3%) had part-time jobs.…”

Revisiting interregional wage differentials: New evidence from Spain with matched employer‐employee data

“…Specific analyses on the influence of these factors on wages in Spain can be found in Simón, Sanromá, and Ramos (), Simón, Sanromá, and Ramos () and Simón (, ).…”

Why do firms (dis)like part-time contracts?

“…3 Some papers have departed from estimating average effects and tested whether parttime/full-time wage differentials vary across the wage distribution. Simon et al (2017) have performed quantile regressions using survey data for Spain and found that part-time work tends to penalize low-qualified men located in the lower part of the wage distribution and high-qualified women located in the upper part of the distribution. Gallego Granados (2019) has instead found an opposite result from survey data on German women, whereby a parttime wage penalty emerges at the lower end of the wage distribution and a premium at the top of the distribution, while for workers that earn median wages they found no discernible difference between part-time and full-time pay.…”

“…These studies were mainly interested in assessing the determinants of part-time/full-time wage differentials, and how the part-time status influences future earnings and career trajectories of workers. Particular attention has been devoted to gender issues, either by concentrating the analysis on women or by juxtaposing part-time earnings differentials and gender wage gaps (Manning and Petrongolo, 2009;Matteazzi et al, 2018;Mumford and Smith, 2009;Pacelli et al, 2013); to the impact of switching to a part-time contract on future earnings and career prospects of workers (Connolly and Gregory, 2009;Fernández-Kranz and Rodríguez-Planas, 2011;Paul, 2016); and to the presence of a possible heterogeneity of part-time wage differentials along the wage distribution (Gallego Granados, 2019;Nightingale, 2019;Simon et al, 2017).…”