Workers’ Lifestyle Choices, Working Time and Job Attributes

The Netherlands has been dubbed “the only part-time economy” (Freeman 1998). This expression reflects the popularity of part-time jobs in the country, particularly among working women. The purpose of this study is to explore whether workers who prefer part-time work differ from their full-time counterparts. It also investigates whether the observed differences sustain a part-time wage gap, doing so by analysing data on self-reported preferences for desired job attributes collected in the Netherlands in 2001. The results of this analysis show that part-time workers differ from their full-time counterparts in one respect: they place more emphasis on working-time flexibility than do full-time workers. However, if firms’ incentive schemes (career and training) make additional demands on workers’ time, time-constrained part-time workers will respond to them less effectively than full-time workers. In so far as firms use this information to allocate their training and promotion opportunities among their workforce, part-time workers forgo career opportunities more often than their full-time counterparts. Consequently, part-time employment spells will have long-term effects on workers’ wages.