Part-time work, gender and economic distribution in the Nordic countries. A descriptive report to NIKK

Transcription

1 Part-time work, gender and economic distribution in the Nordic countries. A descriptive report to NIKK by Alma Wennemo Lanninger* and Marianne Sundström** Acknowledgements: We thank Ole Beier Sørensen, Suvi Ritola, Steinunn Rögnvaldsdottir and Fredrik Haugen for their assistance in calculating forecasted pensions for the typical cases for Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, respectively, and Ann-Charlott Ståhlberg for valuable advice on our calculations for Sweden. We are grateful for valuable comments and suggestions from Cathrine Egeland, Laura Hartman, Helle Holt, Johanna Lammi-Taskula and Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir. We also thank Edda Björk Kristjánsdóttir for computing the tables for Iceland in Section 5. * Master student in Demography, Stockholm University alma.lanninger@sociology.su.se ** Professor of labour economics, Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University marianne.sundstrom@sofi.su.se

2 Contents Page 1. Introduction Purpose and motivation Definition of part-time work Limitations Outline 5 2. Trends in part-time work in the Nordic countries Full-time and part-time work among women and men in Involuntary part-time work among part-time working women and men Reported reasons for working part time Introduction Women s reported main reasons for working part time Men s reported main reasons for working part time Forecasted pensions for typical cases of full-time and part-time workers Typical cases--construction and assumptions Results Compositional differences Introduction Gender Age-distribution Education Feelings about economic situation and work Satisfaction with pay Economic problems Job satisfaction and life satisfaction Concluding discussion 37 References 41

3 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose and motivation The purpose of this report is to provide a description of part-time employment among women and men in the Nordic countries with particular regard to the labour-market and economic situation of part-time workers as compared to full-time workers. This is motivated from the perspective of gender equality since in these countries part-time work is much more common among women than among men. Also, it should be interesting to compare the Nordic countries in this regard since they are generally seen as forerunners when it comes to gender equality. This should be particularly valuable since to our knowledge there is no previous comparative study of full-time and part-time work among women and men in all the five Nordic countries. 1 Moreover, we know of no study, for any country, comparing male part-time workers with male full-time workers as well as with female part-time workers. With this aim we begin by providing an overview of the levels and developments of fulltime and part-time work among women and men in the five Nordic countries over the period using group-level data from Eurostat. 2 We then present the trends and extent of involuntary part-time work, that is, those who declare that they work part time because they could not find a full-time job, and relate these to the changes in the rate of unemployment in the same period. We do so because involuntary part-time work has previously been found to be correlated with unemployment. Next, we turn to the reported reasons could not find a fulltime job as well as other reasons for working part time among women and men and investigate whether these reasons changed between 2007 and 2012 in the five countries. After that we examine the long-term economic consequences of part-time work in terms of forecasted total pensions, analysing how part-time work during a period of life affects total pensions as compared to life-long full-time work. In order to obtain comparable cases for the five countries we constructed a couple of typical cases of full-time and part-time employees, the 1 Studies comparing some of the countries have been made for subgroups of the population; see for example Rønsen and Sundström (2002) which compares Finland, Norway and Sweden with regard to women s return to fulltime and part-time work after the birth of the first and second child, respectively. 2 Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union. Its aim is to compile comparative statistics from the European countries. 3

4 same for all countries, and made a minimum number of simplifying assumption. We have computed the forecasted pensions for Sweden but have had help from national experts to compute pensions for the other countries. Finally, we use individual-level data from the European Social Survey (ESS) to study how full-time and part-time working women and men in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden experience and feel about their income level and economic situation. 3 For Iceland we present similar information on two questions based on another data source. This examination is preceded by a section describing the composition of our ESS-sample in terms of gender, age and education. The advantages for our purpose of using the ESS-data are that the respondents in the four countries have been asked exactly same questions, data are relatively recent and we can define full-time and part-time work in the same way for the four countries. 1.2 Definition of part-time work At first glance defining part-time employment seems simple; one could, for example, classify all those who do not work full time as part-time workers. However, in a cross-country study one is faced with the problem that the standard workweek differs across countries. Thus, in Denmark the standard workweek is 37 hours and in Norway 37.5 hours while it is 40 hours in Finland, Iceland and Sweden. Also, when we use data from Eurostat we have to use its definitions. Thus, for Iceland, Norway and Sweden, Eurostat defines part-time employment as work of 1-34 contracted hours per week, while for Denmark and Finland the distinction between part-time and full-time work is based on the respondent s answer to the questions Do you work full time? Do you work part time? However, as mentioned, when using the ESS-data we can define part-time work in the same way for the four countries and have chosen to follow the ILO standard of classifying those who had contracted weekly hours of 35 or more as full-time workers and those who had contracted weekly hours of less than 35 as part-time workers. 4 This 3 ESS has collected data for several European countries but not all, for example, not for Iceland. ESS was established in The first survey was conducted in 2002 and since then it has been held every second year. The survey is directed by a scientific board and has been used in much research. The aim of the cross-national surveys is mainly to explain interactions between changing institutions and behavioural patterns as well as attitudes and beliefs in the European population. 4 Contracted hours are the number of hours of work per week that the employee ordinarily works. Thus, overtime is excluded. 4

5 means that in Denmark and Norway some persons who are classified as part-time workers are working nearly full time. On the other hand, in Finland and Sweden some part-time workers may be classified as full-time workers. 1.3 Limitations Our study focusses on the labour-market and economic situation of individual women and men, not on the implications of part-time work for social groups or society as whole. Further, while there is a large Nordic and international literature on various aspects of part-time work, it is not within the scope of this report to survey that literature (interested readers may see, for example; the country reports in Blossfeld and Hakim 1997; Halldén, Gallie and Ying 2012 and the references in there). Neither is it within the scope to summarise what we already know about part-time work in the Nordic countries (for a survey of some aspects of Nordic part-time work, see Albertsen et al 2008). Furthermore, when it comes to the economic situation of parttime workers, some immediate aspects are rather obvious, for example, lower earnings than full-time workers in the same job and lower sick pay. But part-time workers also have more leisure and time for household production, possibly resulting in lower expenditures on, for example, child care and food, which we cannot investigate. How the wages of part-time workers change over time compared with those of full-time workers is an interesting issue, but answering it requires the use of panel data and, thus, a much more ambitious approach than ours. 1.4 Outline The outline of the report is the following: In the next section we discuss the levels and trends in full-time and part-time work among women and men in the Nordic countries in Trends in involuntary part-time work in the same period are also described as well as the reported reasons for part-time work among women and men in 2007 and Section 3 presents and compares the forecasted pensions for the typical cases in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Section 4 describes the characteristics of female and male fulltime and part-time employees in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden using data from the ESS. In Section 5 we present our findings on how female and male full-time and part-time 5

6 employees in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden experience their economic situation using data from ESS. The report ends by a concluding discussion (Section 6). 2. Trends in part-time work in the Nordic countries 2.1 Full-time and part-time work among women and men in In this section we examine the levels and trends in part-time work among employed women aged years in the Nordic countries from 1995 to 2012 using data from Eurostat. 5 The computed percentages are annual averages and include only employees, except for Sweden where data come from the Swedish labour force surveys 6 and for the years include only employees but for also self-employed persons. We focus on the population in active working ages, that is, persons aged years, because we do not want the trends to be influenced by changes in work patterns among students and persons of retirement age. We start by looking at the situation in 2012 when it comes to percentages of part-time workers among employed women and men in the Nordic countries in Figure 1A. The wellknown gender difference is evident in all countries but is smallest in Finland. Thus, we see that the fraction of female part-time workers was highest in Norway, about 36 per cent, followed by Sweden at about 31 per cent and Denmark at about 29 per cent, Iceland at 26 per cent and Finland at a much lower level, about 15 per cent. Among employed men Norway also had the highest fraction of part-time workers, about 10 per cent, and Iceland had the lowest, about 6 per cent. 5 The definition of part-time work used by Eurostat is discussed in Section We use the labour force surveys for Sweden since there seems to be mistakes in the Eurostat-data for Sweden in

7 Figure 1A. Part-time work among employed women and men years in the Nordic countries in Per cent. 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% Females Males 10% 5% 0% Denmark Finland Sweden Iceland Norway Source: Eurostat & The Swedish Labour Force Surveys, own computations. Turning to the trends in part-time work among women we see that these vary considerably across countries (Figure 1B). Since year 2002 the level of female part-time employment has been highest in Norway, and although the fraction declined slightly in that country, the decline was stronger in Iceland and Sweden. By contrast, in Finland where the fraction is lowest, it has risen slightly since In Denmark the level has remained almost constant throughout the period. 7

8 Figure 1B. Trends in part-time work among employed women years in the Nordic countries in Per cent. 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Norway Sweden Denmark Iceland Finland 0% Source: Eurostat, own computations. When it comes to part-time work among men, we see that the levels do not differ as much across countries as they do among women (Figure 1C). (Note the change of scale). For example, in 2000 the fractions working part time among employed men varied from about 5 per cent in Denmark and Finland to about 9 per cent in Sweden. Since then the percentages have risen slightly in all countries. 8

9 Figure 1C. Trends in part-time work among employed men years in the Nordic countries in Per cent. (Larger scale than in Figure 1B) 15% 13% 10% 8% 5% Norway Sweden Denmark Finland Iceland 3% 0% Source: Eurostat & The Swedish Labour Force Surveys, own computations. Finally, although it is not within the scope of this report to explore the explanations for the country differences in levels and trends, a few comments on the striking differences between Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, on the one hand, and Finland, on the other, in part-time work among women may be in order. In fact, Finland differs from the other Nordic countries by having a longer tradition of female employment, mainly full time; female labour force participation rates were high already in the 1950s and 1960s when few married women and mothers worked for pay in the other countries (Rønsen and Sundström 2002). For example, as recent as 1978, 73 per cent of Finnish mothers of children 0-6 years were employed compared to 69 per cent among Swedish mothers and only 48 per cent among Norwegian mothers (The labour force surveys of the countries). This longer tradition in Finland may be the result of its lower per capita income after the Second World War and of differences in countryspecific cultural norms and values generated by the way industrialisation took place, among other factors (Pfau-Effinger 1993). Another contributing factor, pointed out by Nätti (1995), was the lower fraction of rental flats with accompanying higher housing costs in Finland. 9

10 Clearly, there are aspects of the trends in part-time work which we have not examined in this section, such as the numbers of hours worked by part-time workers, the fractions employed on temporary contracts and country-differences in involuntary part-time work. In the next section we investigate the latter of these aspects. 2.2 Involuntary part-time work among part-time working women and men Among the individuals working part time there are those who declare that they work part time because they are unable to find full-time work. Eurostat defines these persons as involuntary part-time workers. The question does not distinguish between those who could not get full-time work at their current place of work and those who could not get a full-time job anywhere else. In this section we describe the trends and country-differences in the fraction of involuntary part-time workers among all part-time working women and men aged years in using group-level data from Eurostat. We relate the percentage of involuntary part-time work to the rate of unemployment since involuntary part-time work has previously been found to be highly correlated with unemployment in Sweden (Sundström 1987 pp 159) and we want to examine whether this is still the case and whether the countries differ in this respect. Comparing the graphs in Figure 2 we see that there are considerable country-variations in the fraction of involuntary part-time work; the percentages being highest in Finland and Iceland (about 30 per cent in 2012) and lowest in Denmark and Norway (about 20 per cent in 2012) with Sweden in the middle. The developments in also differ quite much but seem to follow the changes in unemployment quite closely. Thus, Finland had a very high fraction of involuntary part-time work among its part-time workers in the mid-1990s (almost 50 per cent) when unemployment was high but as unemployment declined so did the fraction of involuntary part-time work. In the mid-1990s Sweden had a high percentage of involuntary part-time work, particularly among men, which reflects its recession in We also see a sharp rise in involuntary part-time work and unemployment in Iceland after 2007 following the financial crisis. Although Iceland was the Nordic country hit most hardly by the financial crisis, the impact of the crisis can be observed also in Denmark and Sweden. In Norway, by contrast, the unemployment rate has remained low and stable during the period and, consequently, involuntary part-time work does not seem to be as linked to unemployment as in the other 10

11 countries. The fact that involuntary part-time work is correlated with unemployment is interesting because it suggests that it could be influenced by similar policies as unemployment, for example, measures aimed at improving matching and increasing mobility in the labour market. Finally and interestingly, the fractions of involuntary part-time work as well as the trends are very similar among female and male part-time workers in all countries, except in Norway, which is a bit surprising since the overall gender differences in part-time employment are large. Figure 2. Fractions of involuntary part-time workers among female and male parttime workers years and the rate of unemployment among women and men in Per cent. Denmark 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Women's involuntary parttime employment Women's unemployment rate Men's involuntary part-time employment Men's unemployment rate 0% Source: Eurostat, own computations. 11

12 Finland 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Women's involuntary parttime employment Women's unemployment rate Men's involuntary part-time employment Men's unemployment rate 0% Source: Eurostat, own computations. Iceland 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Women's involuntary parttime employment Women's unemployment rate Men's involuntary part-time employment Men's unemployment rate 0% Source: Eurostat, own computations. Data are missing for involuntary part-time work in and for unemployment before

13 Norway 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Women's involuntary parttime employment Women's unemployment rate Men's involuntary part-time employment Men's unemployment rate 0% Source: Eurostat, own computations. Sweden 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Women's involuntary parttime employment Women's unemployment rate Men's involuntary part-time employment Men's unemployment rate 0% Source: Eurostat, own computations. 13

14 2.3 Reported reasons for working part time Introduction To get a fuller picture of the situation of part-time workers, we now turn to the reported main reasons for working part time among women and men, thereby supplementing the reason could not find a full-time job discussed above. We use data from Eurostat for women and men aged years and the years 2007 and 2012 since we want to compare the situation in a recent year with that a year prior to the financial crisis. Eurostat has classified the respondents answers the question of main reason for working part time into the following six categories: (1) Could not find a full-time job, (2) Own illness or disability, (3) Other family or personal responsibilities, (4) Looking after children or incapacitated adults, (5) In education or training or (6) Other reasons. Since we have no further information about the difference between alternatives 3 and 4, in the following we have added them together to Family and personal activities. Also, we have no knowledge about the reasons classified as others but we believe it may include reasons such as having more than one part-time job, having a pension and wanting to have more leisure among others Women s reported main reasons for working part time It is clear from Figure 3 that in all countries family or personal activities is the most frequently reported reason for working part time among women. In 2007 the percentage giving that reason ranged from about 36 per cent in Iceland to about 56 per cent in Denmark, while in 2012 it ranged from about 30 per cent in Norway to 48 per cent in Finland. In addition, a substantial fraction report could not find a full-time job and, as seen above, that fraction rose especially in Iceland but also in Denmark and Sweden from 2007 to We also observe that there are non-negligible percentages which state own illness as the main reason for working part time, particularly in Norway, and these percentages have been stable in all countries except in Finland where they increased. Furthermore, a rather stable fraction, ranging from about 4 per cent in Sweden to 12 per cent in Iceland, report that they are in education or training. The fraction with other reasons is particularly high in Iceland but has declined after the financial crisis; possibly it 14

15 includes persons who have more than one part-time job which was rather common in Iceland before the financial crisis. 7 Figure 3. Reported main reasons for part-time work among part-time working women in the Nordic countries in 2007 and Per cent. percent Denmark 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Own illness Education or training Other ,9 16,9 10,2 7,6 9, ,8 23,7 10,6 8,7 10,3 Source: Eurostat, own computations. percent Finland 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Own illness Education or training Other ,0 30,5 4,2 10,7 4, ,0 28,8 14,0 9,1 0,0 Source: Eurostat, own computations. 7 Personal communication with Guðbjörg Linda Rafnsdóttir. 15

16 percent 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Iceland Own illness Education or training Other ,5 8,1 5,7 10,0 40, ,4 27,3 6,9 12,1 22,3 Source: Eurostat, own computations. percent 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Norway Own illness Education or training Other ,3 19,6 15,3 5,2 18, ,7 18,9 16,9 8,8 25,8 Source: Eurostat, own computations. 16

17 percent 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Sweden Own illness Education or training Other ,6 23,0 14,5 3,5 16, ,7 24,9 11,5 4,1 19,7 Source: Eurostat, own computations Men s reported main reasons for working part time Figure 4 shows the reported main reasons for working part time among men in the Nordic countries. As expected, the distribution differs a great deal from that among women. First of all, family or personal activities is not as dominant a reason, except among Finnish men for which it is an important reason. We also see that own illness and education and training are more frequently reported reasons than among women. In particular, it is interesting to note that the increase from 2007 to 2012 in the percentage reporting the reason own illness that we observed above for Finnish women can be seen also for Finnish men. Similar as for women, we see a rather high fraction of Icelandic men reporting other reasons, possibly reflecting a high but declining fraction with more than one part-time job. Among Norwegian men we also see a rather high but increasing fraction giving other reasons which perhaps includes persons who have a pension or simply want to have more leisure. 8 8 Personal communication with Cathrine Egeland. 17

18 Figure 4. Reported main reasons for part-time work among part-time working men in the Nordic countries in 2007 and Per cent. percent 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Denmark Own illness Education or training Other ,8 14,7 25,4 21,0 15, ,9 19,9 20,5 23,0 13,4 Source: Eurostat, own computations. percent 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Finland Own illness Education or training Other ,7 26,5 5,0 12,9 9, ,2 25,6 17,5 15,6 0,0 Source: Eurostat, own computations. 18

19 percent 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Iceland Own illness Education or training Other ,0 0,0 22,1 17,1 56, ,0 31,6 14,3 26,2 20,7 Source: Eurostat, own computations. percent 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Norway Own illness Education or training Other ,3 15,6 36,4 14,0 23, ,3 17,1 25,5 19,8 31,8 Source: Eurostat, own computations. 19

20 percent 60,0 50,0 40,0 30,0 20,0 10,0 0,0 Family or personal activities Could not find a fulltime job Sweden Own illness Education or training Other ,6 23,2 27,0 7,3 21, ,1 26,6 16,9 8,7 24,6 Source: Eurostat, own computations. 3. Forecasted pensions for typical cases of full-time and part-time workers in the Nordic countries 3.1 Typical cases--construction and assumptions 9 To obtain rough but comparable estimates for the Nordic countries of how much part-time work affects pensions we constructed a couple of typical cases, the same for all countries. We made some simplifying assumptions and a minimum number of assumptions necessary to do the computations with the aim of obtaining cases that, within each occupation and country, differ only in the extent to which they work part time. 10 Thereby, the differences in impact of parttime work on pensions across the Nordic countries will depend mainly on the design of the pension systems. We compute and add up all public pensions of the countries, including basic pensions, earnings related public pensions and occupational pensions. Since the pension systems differ across countries, these different types of pensions make up different shares of the forecasted pensions in the countries The forecasted pensions for Denmark have been computed by Ole Beier Sørensen, those for Finland by Suvi Ritola, those for Iceland by Steinunn Rögnvaldsdottir, those for Norway by Fredrik Haugen and those for Sweden by the authors. Further information about the computations can be obtained from the authors. 10 We have constructed the typical cases in much the same way as ATP faktum (2013) has done for Denmark. 11 For a short and recent introduction to the Nordic pension systems, see Lindqvist and Wadensjö (2013). 20

21 The typical cases are all born in 1975 and have the occupations Assistant nurse and Elementary school teacher. Within each occupation there is one woman who works full time all her working life and another woman who works part time--75 per cent of full time--for ten years ( ) and full time in all other years. The elementary school teachers spend longer time in education--four years--than the assistant nurses so they start working at a higher age, 24 years (in 1999) as compared to 20 years (in 1995). We have disregarded work for pay prior to these years since we have no reason to assume that it differs between full-time and part-time workers. Within each occupation and country, full-time and part-time workers work equally many years and retire at the statutory retirement age. Thus, assistant nurses retire at age 65 in Finland, Norway, 12 Iceland and Sweden but at age 71 in Denmark. 13 Elementary school teachers retire at age 67 in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden but at age 71 in Denmark. Further, we have assumed that all typical cases have two children, born in 2001 and All cases have parental leave after child birth which is not explicitly take account of since the pension systems in some of the countries compensates for childrearing in other ways which is accounted for in the forecasted pensions and discussed in the next section. Moreover, we have assumed that within each occupation parental leave has the same impact on the subsequent wages of the full-time worker and the part-time worker and have therefore not taken it into account. Average wages in the occupations in 1995 and 1999, respectively, have been obtained from the official statistics of the countries. When it comes to wage growth, we have assumed that the part-time cases get a slightly lower annual wage increase than the full-time cases because they accumulate less work experience and previous research has shown that more work experience leads to higher wage growth whereas time out from work leads to lower wage growth (see, for example, Björklund, Edin, Holmlund and Wadensjö 2006 Ch. 4; Albrecht, Edin, Sundström and Vroman 1997). Thus, the annual wage growth for the part-time cases is assumed 12 In Norway the Assistant nurses retire at age 65 but at that time they only get their occupational pension, which amounts to 66 per cent of the last wage for both typical cases, until age 67. At age 67 they get their full pension and therefore the forecasted pensions have been computed from age The Danish parliament has decided to raise the retirement age gradually for younger cohorts so for the cohort born in 1995 it will be 71 years. Denmark also has an optional system of early pension but the parliament has decided to phase out this system. 21

22 to be 1.9 per cent compared to 2 per cent for the full-time cases in Finland and Sweden, 4.24 compared to 4.34 in Norway and 6.5 per cent compared to 6.8 per cent in Iceland---during each of the ten years they work part time. 14 For Denmark all cases are assumed to have three per cent annual wage growth equally, since small differences in wage growth would not affect the pension differences. Also, in the Danish calculations inflation has been assumed to be two per cent per year but for the other countries it has been assumed to be zero. Inflation does not affect the pension differences between full-time and part-time workers as it is the same for all workers in each country each year. We have refrained from attempting to take account of the tax and transfer systems both before and after retirement. This means, for example, that to the extent that our typical parttime workers receive any transfers, such as unemployment benefits and sick pay, which contributes to pensions, the difference in pensions between full-time and part-time workers will be overstated. Finally, it should perhaps be pointed out that the main difference between our typical cases and real individuals is that our cases have uninterrupted work careers without long spells of unemployment, sick leave or unpaid absence from work and no time out of the labour force. 3.2 Results We present the forecasted pensions for the typical cases in Figure 5 below. For each country and each occupation we set the forecasted pension of the full-time worker to 100 and express the pension of the part-time worker in per cent of that. We do so because our aim is to examine how working part time for a few years affects pensions as compared to working full time all years in the different countries. We attempt to keep the presentation easy to grasp without digging too deeply into the particularities of each pension system. We see that the loss in pensions from working part time is small for our typical cases, especially in Denmark and Norway. This may be surprising but is not unexpected since the parttime cases work full time for many more years than they work part time and over their whole 14 Ideally one would of course want to investigate this empirically. 22