Women and work in the UK in comparative perspective

1
Women and work in the UK in comparative
perspective

• Professor Jill Rubery
• Manchester Business School
• Coordinator of the European Commissions Expert
  Group on Gender, Social Inclusion and Employment

2
25 years on from the Women and Employment Survey
matching the labour market and welfare system to
women's aspirations and potential

• 25 years since WES, 11 years since the OECD
  called for a new gender contract
• Still in need of change in labour market and
  welfare institutions to ensure that
• women can realise their aspirations
• The economy can benefit from womens full
  potential productivity
• society can benefit from reduced risks of poverty
  and social exclusion

3
Identifying needs for policy change through
international comparisons

• Consider five areas ( access to employment,
  careers, pay and job quality, tax and benefits,
  support for parenthood)
• Limits to the use of comparisons
• No country has achieved gender equality
• UK has strong as well as weak points
• Transfer of policies difficult due to differences
  in environment- but highlights impact of UK
  environment on equality

4
Access to employment

• Do well
• High employment rate
• (4th highest in EU15/25)
• Low unemployment rate
• (2nd lowest EU15/25)

• Do badly
• Large gender gap in full-time equivalents
• (above EU25 average)
• Female unemployed/ inactive often have no access
  to unemployment benefits/ New Deal- few options
  other than low paid part-time jobs

5
Possible policy options

• Right to return to full-time working from
  part-time (e.g. Netherlands, Germany)
• Ensure full-time jobs do not require long hours
  of unpaid overtime
• Extend women's eligibility to unemployment
  benefits (change/remove lower earnings threshold
  etc)

6
Education and careers

• Do well
• High proportion of university students
• Early graduation allows for early establishment
  of careers prior to childbirth
• Doing better
• Higher education plus more rights to stay in own
  job (leave plus flexible working request) may
  reduce supply to low paid part-time jobs

• Do badly
• Limited opportunities for continuous primarily
  full-time careers even for higher educated
• (70 UK higher educated worked continuously 94-98
  compared to 77 EU15- OECD)
• Strong age discrimination- need to make it up
  career ladder by 35 or 40.
• Poor career prospects for lower educated and
  returners-scarring effects of labour market quits
  and part-time work

7
Possible policy options

• Adjust to changing career patterns of women e.g.
  raise pay for care workers or face permanent
  labour shortage due to reduced supply of women
  returners
• Address interactions between gender and age
  discrimination- more opportunities for women to
  make careers after childcare

8
Pay and job quality

• Do well
• Trade union awareness of equal pay issues
• Equal pay initiatives in public sector
• Legal system for processing equal pay claims ( at
  least in comparison to other EU countries)

• Do badly
• Large gender pay gap- especially for part-timers-
  highest in Europe
• Wide income inequality- higher penalties for
  being at the bottom of the pay hierarchy
• Wide pension inequalities- interrupted carers,
  part-time work plus lack of access to
  occupational pensions
• (UK 16 women qualify for a full state pension
  compared to 78 of men women receive 32p for
  every 1 of pension income received by men.
• Belgium- women's pension 740 compared to 1000
  for men)

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Variations in extent of pay penalties in female
jobs
Table 3.1 Relative pay in female-dominated
jobs an OECD comparison
Full-time Sales /shop assistants Full-time Nursing assistants/ auxiliaries Full-time Professional nurses
Australia 58.8 102.6
Canada 55.6 62.6 94.4
France 59.0 72.9
Germany 46.4 51.4 75.4
Norway 64.0 73.6 86.0
United Kingdom 47.3 63.3 96.0
United States 52.2 51.8 146.4
Source OECD 1998 tables 2.4 and 2.5 based on
Grimshaw and Rubery 1997, tables 13,14 and
appendix table 5
10
Possible policy options

• Continue to improve minimum wage- including
  promotion of living wage
• Promote sharing of both work and income among
  higher level job holders
• Policies to moderate cost-cutting incentives for
  outsourcing ( e.g. higher minimum wage for
  contractors agreed for NHS)
• Policies to promote transparency in pay systems
  at workplace level
• Extend equal pay comparisons outside of the
  employer/workplace
• New policies to address the shortfall in womens
  pension- both state and occupational- plus ending
  of sex-based annuity system

11
Tax and benefits

• Do well
• Independent taxation

• Do badly
• Limited entitlements to benefits for low earners
  due to lower earnings threshold
• Household means-testing for benefits- women in
  couple households have low entitlements and face
  disincentives for entering employment

12
Possible policy options

• Individualise working tax credits (e.g. Belgium)
  (combined with higher minimum wage)
• Extend social protection to all employees
• Address the cost of childcare in make work pay
  policies (e.g. Sweden has reduced the marginal
  tax on returners by varying childcare costs)

13
Work-life balance

• Do well
• Opportunities to work part-time
• (2nd highest part-time rate in EU15/25)
• Doing better
• Work-life balance policies now more on the
  political and employer/trade union agenda

• Do badly
• WLB through unequal gender division
• Economic dependence embedded in approach to
  motherhood (low maternity pay expectation of
  working part-time without income compensation no
  right to return to full-time work high cost of
  part-time work on pensions and careers)
• No policies yet to encourage fathers to
  participate
• High cost of childcare

14
Possible policies

• Right to return to work flexibly and right to
  return to full-time work
• Paid leave taken as compensation for reduced
  hours (Sweden)
• Policies to address long working hours- e.g.
  scheduled period of responsibility for managers
  should not exceed 48 hours even with opt out
• Policies to encourage male participation (e.g.
  father months and raising the income upper
  threshold on parental leave benefits in Sweden)
• Promote rights of those needing care- children or
  elderly- instead of rights of parents/carers
• Address issues of affordability of care

15
Conclusions

• Need to evaluate existing structures for fitness
  for purpose-ability to meet current economic,
  social and equality objectives
• Major progress made towards a dual earning and
  more gender equal society but many areas of
• mismatch- between the labour market and welfare
  institutional arrangements on the one hand and
  the requirement of a more gender equal dual
  earning society on the other
• missed opportunities- to realise women's talents
  and potential contribution to productivity and
  social cohesion.

16
Conclusions

• To make progress need a more comprehensive or
  joined up- evaluation of policy
• For example
• Investing in women through education
• but
• costs of adjusting welfare systems and workplaces
  to retain, develop women's talents regarded as
  too high
• cost of waste of investments in education and
  costs of women's dependency (on partners and then
  often on state) ignored
• Learning/borrowing from Europe/US
• Useful to explore range of potential policies
  but options constrained by unwillingness in UK to
  ask employers to change behaviour