Working Part-Time in the British, German and Dutch Labour Market: Scarring for the Wage Career?

Abstract

The paper studies the long-term effect of part-time employment on the wage career using panel data for three countries. The main idea is to study the possible 'scarring' effects of part-time employment on future hourly wages up to ten years later in the career. Fixed effects panel wage regressions show the existence of a part-time wage penalty for females in all three countries and for males in the UK. Longer durations of part-time result in stronger negative wage effects. In the UK, a negative effect of past part-time employment is also found to persist even after a lasting transition to a full-time job. The fact that the effect of part-time on wage is larger in the UK suggests that wage penalties, contrary to what could be expected, are smaller in regulated labour markets with a specific skills regime.