Comparing the Part-time Wage Gap in Germany and the Netherlands

In this paper,I contrast the quality of part-time jobs - in terms of hourly wage rates - with those of fulltimers. Using the Netherlands as a benchmark,helps to assess the size and seriousness of the estimated wage differentials in Germany. Based on two comparable household surveys, I estimate the wage gap between part-time and full-time employees in Germany and the Netherlands,taking into account individual and job-specific characteristics and treating participation and working hours as endogenous. Based on this simultaneous wage-hours model, I can show that German part-timers generally earn lower wages than comparable full-time workers. The results further point out that more experienced women, who accumulated more human capital during their working life, face higher wage cuts for reduced working hours then women who spent only few years in employment.The comparison with the wage structure in the Netherlands, which exhibits much smaller wage differentials between full-time and part-time employees, leads one to suppose that the existing wage gap in Germany may impede women, especially the more experienced ones, in taking a part-time employment.

Wolf, Elke (2001), Comparing the Part-time Wage Gap in Germany and the Netherlands, ZEW Discussion Paper No. 01-18, Mannheim.