Part-time employment versus underemployment of mothers and women in Spain

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the main factors that determined the employment situation of mothers and women in Spain in 2014 and 2018, distinguishing between full-time employment, part-time employment, underemployment due to insufficient hours and unemployment. The results for Spain, obtained by using a novel methodology that improves on previous models, contradict several theoretical arguments on the determinants of maternal employment. Moreover, the simulation conducted also shows that when the partner is employed, mothers are more likely to work in part-time jobs (to balance work and family life), and that women without children are more likely to work full time.

KEYWORDS:

• Mixed logit; maternal employment
• part-time work
• single mothers
• underemployment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. According to the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), an underemployed part-time worker is a person (ages 15-74/16-74) working part-time who would like to work additional hours and is available to do so. Part-time work is recorded as self-reported by individuals. Thus, this measure of underemployment does not exactly match the definition for underemployment due to insufficient hours given in this article, which is based on guidelines from the International Labour Organization.

2. The Spanish EPA defines underemployment due to insufficient hours as per the guidelines of the International Labour Organization, adopted at the 16^th International Conference of Labour Statisticians.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

José Enrique Rodríguez Hernández

José Enrique Rodríguez Hernández is professor at the Universidad de La Laguna. Dpto. de Economía Aplicada y Métodos Cuantitativos. His research focus is on Housing Economics and Labour Market.