INWORK Issue Brief No.9
Women in Non-standard Employment
*
*
This document was prepared by Mariya Aleksynska, with guidance
and comments by Philippe Marcadent, Shauna Olney and Janine Berg.
1
Unless stated otherwise, this policy brief draws on ILO, 2016a.
2
ILO, 2016b.
Non-standard employment (NSE), including temporary employment, part-me and on-call work, mulparty
employment arrangements, dependent and disguised self-employment, has become a contemporary feature of
labour markets across the world. Its overall importance has increased over the past few decades, and its use has
become more widespread across all economic sectors and occupaons.
However, NSE is not spread evenly across the labour market. Along with young people and migrants, women are
oen over-represented in non-standard arrangements. This policy brief examines the incidence of part-me and
temporary work among women, discusses the reasons for their over-representaon in these arrangements, and
suggests policy soluons for alleviang gender inequalies with respect to NSE
1
.
Women in part-me work
Part-me employment (dened stascally as
employees who work fewer than 35 hours per
week) is the most widespread type of non-standard
employment found among women. In 2014, over 60
per cent of women worked part-me hours in the
Netherlands and India; over 50 per cent in Zimbabwe
and Mozambique; and over 40 per cent in a handful
of countries including Argenna, Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mali,
Malta, New Zealand, Niger, Switzerland, and United
Kingdom (gure 1). Where casual work is widespread,
such as in India and Australia, part-me work is
common. In nearly all countries of the world, women
are also more likely to be found in part-me work than
men. While women make up less than 40 per cent of
total employment, their share of all those working
part-me is 57 per cent.
2
Gender dierences with
respect to part-me hours are over 30 percentage
points in the Netherlands and Argenna. There is
at least a 25 percentage point dierence in Austria,
Belgium, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Niger, Pakistan,
and Switzerland.
Moreover, marginal part-me work – involving
less than 15 hours per week – features parcularly
sizeable gender dierences (gure 2), including
in Brazil, Germany, India, Mozambique, the
Netherlands, Niger, and Switzerland, even though in
Brazil and Mozambique marginal part-me work is
also prominent among men.
2
Note: Upper panel: percent of part-mers among male wage employees; lower panel: percent of part-mers among female wage employees.
Data correspond to the year 2014 or nearest available year, in the range 2011-2014.
Source: ILO (2016a) on the basis of ILOSTAT.
Figure 1. Distribuon of part-me work (fewer than 35 hours per week) among male and female wage
employees, 2014
3
Schmid and Wagner, 2016; calculaons based on ELFS.
4
Euwals and Hogerbrugge, 2006; Fallick, 1999; Thévenon, 2013.
5
Eurofound, 2012.
By far the main reason for women being over-
represented in part-me work is their tradional
role as caregivers. In Europe in 2014, 27 per cent of
all female part-mers reported choosing this type
of work because of the need to look aer children
or incapacitated adults, against only 4.2 per cent
of male part-mers.
3
This reason also echoes the
unequal distribuon of unpaid work that women
undertake in the home and the consequences of this
inequality on the likelihood of obtaining standard
jobs in general – given the hours and availability
that some standard employment requires – as well
as the reservaon that some employers have in
hiring women because of other demands on them
outside work.
Another set of reasons reect dierent cultural
and instuonal sengs, as well as occupaonal
segregaon. While manufacturing is generally
characterized by full-me hours, the services sector,
where most women work, relies heavily on part-
me work.
4
As the demand for workers in services
connues to grow, it is ancipated that more women
than men will connue to be found in part-me jobs.
In Europe, in services such as health and social work,
educaon, and in hotels and restaurants over 20 per
cent of workers are employed part-me,
5
and these
sectors are likely to connue to expand. Low-skill jobs
in retail sales and cleaning employ very high numbers
of female part-mers, with the incidence surpassing
over 70 per cent among women in Germany and a
handful of other EU countries (gure 3).
Male
Female
3
6
Eurofound, 2015.
7
Brinkley, 2013.
8
ILO, 2016b.
Figure 2. Distribuon of very short hours work (fewer than 15 hours per week) among male and female wage
employees, 2014
Note: Upper panel: percent of part-mers among male wage employees; lower panel: percent of part-mers among female wage employees.
Data correspond to the year 2014 or nearest available year, in the range 2011-2014.
Source: ILO (2016a) on the basis of ILOSTAT.
The higher presence of women in marginal part-
me jobs can also be explained by their presence
in occupaons that commonly recruit on an on-
call basis. In Italy, 60 per cent of all employees in
the hotel and restaurant sector and 13 per cent
of all employees in educaon, health, social and
personal services are employed on an on-call
basis.
6
In the United Kingdom, many zero-hours
contracts are found in educaon, health and
public administraon (30 per cent of all zero-hours
contracts) and hospitality and retail services (27 per
cent of all zero-hours contracts).
7
This form of work
presents a challenge as it contributes to the trend
in lower earnings for women. Without minimum
hours, workers in on-call employment are at risk of
economic instability and considerable work–family
conict, as they may not be able to ancipate the
earnings they will receive.
8
Male
Female
4
Figure 3. Gender gap in part-me work, in the elementary sales and cleaning services sector, selected
European countries, 2009–10.
Note: Percentage of employees working part-me.
Source: EU SILC, 2009–10 pooled. Tabulated data from Leschke, 2015.
Part-me work is somemes seen as an important
means for enabling women to integrate into
the labour force.
9
However, whether it can help
promote gender equality, or rather reinforce
stereotypes, will depend on the quality of the
part-me work and how it is viewed by society.
For example, many higher-paid, higher-skilled
jobs leading to careers are simply unavailable on
a part-me basis, and there may be signicant
obstacles for moving from part-me to full-me
jobs, in part as a result of skill requirements,
but also because of percepons about women’s
commitment to full-me work as well as the
dicules women can face in working extended
hours at a paid job.
10
In some instances, women
wishing to switch from full-me to part-me may
have to change to a lower-skilled occupaon,
11
thus also partly explaining the high incidence of
female part-me employment in the lowest paid
jobs (gure 3).
When working part-me is voluntary, it can be
advantageous and allow for a beer work-family
balance. Yet, throughout the world, more women
than men report that they are underemployed –
meaning that they are willing but unable to work
more hours (gure 4). The involuntary part-me
employment oen results in lower wages, lower
training opportunies, and poorer career prospects
for women. Moreover, insucient hours of work may
also result in inadequate social security contribuons,
or even exclude women from social security coverage
if they work less than a specied threshold number
of hours. As a result, women may be more vulnerable
than men in face of unemployment, health problems,
and nancing rerement. In addion, in countries
such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Ghana, and
United States, women are more oen than men
obliged to hold mulple jobs in order to provide a
steady stream of work and income - once again
conrming that part me is oen an involuntary
“choice” (ILO, 2016a).
9
Fagan et al., 2012.
10
Sirianni and Negrey, 2000.
11
ILO, 2016b.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Male Female
5
Figure 4. Incidence of me-related underemployment, as a percentage of all persons in employment, 2010
Note: Data coverage: 87 countries. Denions of regions correspond to the ILO Regions; data for Arab States are unavailable.
Source: ILO (2016a) on the basis of ILOSTAT.
Women in temporary employment
Women are also oen over-represented in temporary, rather than in permanent jobs, though the situaon
varies substanally across countries. For example, in Europe, between 1995 and 2014, the incidence of xed-
term contracts (FTCs) among women remained on average two percentage points higher than that of men
(gure 5). In Japan, women are over four mes more likely than men to hold temporary jobs.
12
In the Republic
of Korea, women account for 52 per cent of temporary employment (and 59 per cent of non-renewable
temporary contract employment) despite making up 43 per cent of overall wage employment.
13
In Brazil and
South Africa, temporary employment rates are also higher for women than for men; the situaon is however
reversed in Argenna and Indonesia.
12
OECD, 2014.
13
Jung, 2010.
Figure 5. Employees with xed-term contracts as a percentage of the working populaon aged 15 to 64,
total and by sex, selected European countries, 1995–2014
Note: Quarterly data for 1995 excludes Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Source: ILO (2016a), on the basis of European Union Labour Force Survey 1995–2014 (Eurostat). Countries included: Belgium, Germany, Estonia,
Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom; yearly data used except for 1995
(only quarterly data available) and weighted for annual esmates.
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
18.0
Total temporary Male Female
6
14
Rubery and Grimshaw, 2009; Grimshaw, 2011.
15
Azmat et al., 2004.
16
The Guardian, 2014, describes the results of a survey of 500 Brish managers and shows that 40 per cent of them
generally avoided hiring young women to avoid maternity costs.
17
Lee and Eun, 2014; OECD, 2015; Dixon, 2011.
One of the reasons for the higher incidence
of women in temporary work is to be found in
the reforms to liberalize the use of xed-term
contracts that some countries undertook with
the stated goal of smulang or accommodang
women’s increased parcipaon in the labour
market (for example, in Italy). Another reason is
that in many countries, the tradional posion of
women in sociees and their unequal care-giving
responsibilies may undermine their bargaining
power, making them more likely to accept jobs
with less stability.
14
The percepon that women
are parally dependent on family income –
and thus less dependent on waged work – may
result in lower remuneraon oered to women
(ILO, 2016b). In contrast to this percepon, the
recent ILO-Gallup study shows that most women
consider their income from work to be at least a
signicant contribuon to the household income
(ILO and Gallup, 2017). In addion, women tend to
receive less support in the form of unemployment
benets as a result of gaps in contribuon periods,
thus perpetuang their need to accept jobs of
inferior quality as compared to men.
15
Regarding
young women, there is some anecdotal evidence
that managers may be reluctant to hire them
on permanent contracts in order to avoid costs
associated with maternity leave.
16
Like part-me work, temporary employment may
have its advantages and disadvantages, and a key
queson is to what extent it is voluntary or not.
In Europe, sixty-three per cent of women state
that they engage in temporary jobs because they
could not nd a permanent one. This incidence
is slightly higher than for men; moreover,
empirical evidence shows that for women,
there is a higher probability that temporary
jobs will not lead to permanent employment,
but rather conne women to temporary jobs or
result in unemployment or inacvity. Temporary
jobs are also oen characterized by lower pay,
as compared to permanent jobs in the same
sectors and occupaons. For example, women in
temporary jobs face wage penales, as compared
to women with similar personal characteriscs
and in similar though permanent jobs, reaching
15 per cent in the Republic of Korea, 13 per cent
throughout EU-15 countries, and 7 per cent in
New Zealand.
17
Temporary jobs also oen result
in poorer social security outcomes; longer hours
of work including unpaid over-me; poorer health
outcomes, including in terms of stress and exposure
to harassment; poorer training opons; higher risks
of exclusion from collecve bargaining and freedom
of associaon (whether in law or in pracce) and
higher risks of workplace discriminaon. All of these
issues contribute to low-pay and poor skill upgrading
of women, exacerbang gender inequalies in the
labour market. Moreover, they also pose societal
challenges, as couples in unstable jobs oen delay
marriage and child-bearing unl they nd stable
employment, thus contribung to demographic
decline.
Addressing work decits for women in NSE
As with other working arrangements that may pose
challenges and result in unequal outcomes, the point
is not to forbid non-standard jobs, but rather to render
them decent. Also, many women aspire to working
part-me, and some prefer having a temporary job
at some point in their life. Thus, the key quesons
are how to create good-quality non-standard jobs
that will be voluntarily taken up by both women and
men, how to improve the quality of those NSE jobs
that exhibit decits in working condions, and how
to improve transions towards beer-quality jobs,
including standard jobs. While some of the policies
aimed at achieving these goals are clearly specic
to the nature of the NSE jobs, it is also important to
have policies that concern the general improvement
of social outcomes for women and for their families.
With respect to part-me and temporary work, it is
essenal to ensure equal treatment for women and
men alike, and also in comparison with standard
workers. This is important not only to avoid
discriminaon based on occupaonal status but also
as a way of ensuring that NSE are not used solely to
lower labour costs by oering worse condions. Given
the over-representaon of women in NSE, ensuring
equal treatment for non-standard workers helps
to combat gender discriminaon at the workplace.
Establishing minimum guaranteed hours and liming
the variability of working schedules is an important
safeguard for part-me, on-call and casual workers.
Policies to support transfer from full-me to part-
me work and vice versa should be instuted more
widely. Establishing limits on temporary work, such
as allowing their use only for genuinely temporary
but not for permanent tasks, can help prevenng
abusive hiring on temporary contracts.
7
18
Fultz, E. 2011.
19
Blau and Kahn, 2013; Leschke, 2015.
20
ILO, 2014.
Countries should also strengthen, and somemes
adapt, their social protecon systems to ensure that
all workers benet from social protecon coverage.
Of parcular relevance for women, this may include
eliminang or lowering thresholds on minimum
hours, earnings or duraon of employment so that
workers in NSE are not excluded; or making systems
more exible with regards to contribuons required
to qualify for benets, allowing for interrupons
in contribuons, and enhancing the portability of
benets between dierent social security systems
and employment statuses. Such policies can be
complemented by measures to recognize care work
(e.g. child rearing) as contribuon periods counng
towards social security entlements, which can
facilitate the access of women to social security
benets and reduce gender inequalies in social
insurance systems, as is the case in Chile, Germany,
Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
18
These
changes should be complemented by eorts to
guarantee a universal social protecon oor. Many
of the NSE jobs that women perform, especially
the involuntary ones, are informal and oer low
pay. Many also are disproporonally found in
occupaons and sectors that are somemes not
covered by minimum wage policies and collecve
agreements, such as the domesc work sector. It
is thus important to make minimum wage policies
and collecve bargaining more inclusive of women
in general, but especially in sectors that pose
parcular risks in terms of quality work. Promong
formalizaon of such sectors should also be a
priority.
Broader public policies aimed at women in
non-standard work can either reinforce gender
stereotyping – and its subsequent ramicaons in
the labour market – or remedy it. Indeed, dierences
in labour force parcipaon rates frequently reect
prevailing social welfare policies, tax policies and
the provision of public services. In this regard, it is
important to instute policies aimed at increasing
overall labour force parcipaon of women by
promong tax systems that favour second earners,
and making it easier for women and men to reach
beer work-family balance through publicly funded
and adequate care services, public transfers, and
suitable and quality workplace working me.
19
Maternity protecon remains one of the most
important policy measures allowing women to
remain aached to the labour market in general,
and it is essenal to ensure the adequate eecve
coverage of all women, regardless of employment
status.
20
References
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Further informaon:
Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relaons and
Working Condions Branch (INWORK)
Internaonal Labour Oce
4, route des Morillons
CH-1211 Geneva 22,
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 799 6754
Fax: +41 22 799 8451
E-mail: inw[email protected]
www.ilo.org/inwork
ISSN 2411-684X (print)
ISSN 2227-9334 (web)
May 2017
Rubery, J., and D. Grimshaw, 2009. Gender and the minimum wage.
Paper presented at the ILO Regulang for Decent Work
Conference (Geneva, ILO).
Schmid, G.; J. Wagner. 2016. Managing Social Risks of Non-standard
Forms of Employment: Europe Compared to Selected
Countries in Asia, Lan America, and Africa, unpublished ILO
working paper. ILO: Geneva.
Sirianni, C.; Negrey, C. 2000. “Working me as gendered me” in
Feminist Economics, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 59-76.
The Guardian, 2014. 40% of Managers Avoid Hiring Younger Women
to Get around Maternity Leave. August 12. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/12/
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[June 2016].
Thévenon, O., 2013. Drivers of Female Labour Force Parcipaon in
the OECD. OECD Social, Employment and Migraon Working
Papers, No. 145 (Paris, OECD).
