Part-time and Partly Equal: Gender and Work in the Netherlands

2. The gendered nature of part-time work in the Netherlands

The Netherlands stands out in the OECD for the large share of workers who work part-time hours. While the Netherlands has made important strides in ensuring that part-time work is of good quality, relative to other OECD countries, it still needs to tackle a major challenge in its part-time workforce: that part-time jobs are disproportionately held by women, with negative consequences for gender equality in the labour force and at home. Section 2 overviews part-time work in the Netherlands, looks at who in the household typically works part-time (mothers), and explores Dutch workers’ rationales for working part-time. It also takes a closer look at two sectors whose workers are disproportionately female and disproportionately work part-time: teachers and care providers.

High numbers of women in part-time work does help increase the overall female labour force participation rate. The Netherlands does well on this measure of the total share of women working in the labour market. Cross-nationally, the alternative is often not women in full-time work, but rather women opting out of the workforce entirely.

In countries where part-time work is less common, women sometimes leave the labour market completely after becoming mothers. In the United States, for example, part-time work is often of poor quality, for low pay, and comes with little social security or fiscal support (Wielers and Raven, 2013[12]). This, combined with relatively weak childcare supports for infant and pre-primary age children (OECD, 2017[13]) (Adema, Clarke and Frey, 2016[14]), leads to a dropout of women from the workforce after having children.

Any discussion of moving women into full-time work should note that part-time work is, of course, better for women’s economic self-sufficiency than complete labour market withdrawal. Also, aside from the economic implications, many Dutch people say they are satisfied working part-time hours (Portegijs et al., 2018[10]) and the Netherlands scores highly on the OECD “Better Life Index.” The Netherlands has relatively low rates of long work hours and a relatively high degree of satisfaction with life. When asked to rate their general life satisfaction on a scale from zero to ten, Dutch people gave, on average, a grade of 7.4 – higher than the OECD average of 6.5 (OECD, 2017[15]).

Box 2.1. Why change the status quo?

Many Dutch women say they are happy working part-time (Portegijs et al., 2018[10]). Why, then, should we encourage gender equality in paid and unpaid work?

Mothers’ participation in the market changes the distribution of resources at home

Aside from raising overall family income, mothers’ labour force participation can influence the within-household distribution of resources in couple families. Women’s participation in paid work helps with bargaining over unpaid labour, as dual-earner households have more egalitarian approaches to housework: across countries, women’s decrease in unpaid work correlates with their increase in earnings, at least to the point where both spouses contribute equal incomes (OECD, 2017[5]). However, female partners still do many more hours of unpaid housework than their male partners across countries. There is even evidence from Australia and the United States that women take on a greater share of housework when they earn more than their male partners, perhaps to compensate for their divergence from traditional gender norms in pay – an example of so-called “doing gender” behaviour (Bertrand, Pan and Kamenica, 2013[16]) (Bittman et al., 2003[17]).

It is now almost conventional wisdom in economics that children do better when their mothers control a larger share of household resources, and this control over spending is influenced (though obviously not entirely) by who brings the income into the home. The income controlled by a father versus a mother has significantly different effects on family spending and outcomes such as child health, as women tend to allocate more resources to their children than men do (OECD, 2017[18]).

Women need economic alternatives during working years and in old age

Women’s participation in paid work affects more than just family income. A woman’s ability to engage in the labour market is a key determinant of her economic independence. Spouses and partners must consider what the economic consequences would be if their union fails. In the Netherlands, the marriage rate is lower than the OECD average and has been steadily declining over the past four decades, while the divorce rate is above the OECD average and has been steadily rising (OECD Family Database, n.d.[3]). The prospect of an unstable partnership provides an incentive for women to enter full-time work, as a well-paying job can ensure self-sufficiency and serve as insurance against future poverty risks as a single person. The need to ensure financial security in old age (Section 1) is also a crucial consideration, though this is less of a concern in the Netherlands, where there is a basic pension.

Working mothers and caregiving fathers change gender norms

There are important intergenerational effects on future gender inequality when mothers work, as gender attitudes are shaped both at home and in public. When mothers participate in the labour force, children are socialised to expect that women have as equal an opportunity to work as men – with all of the implications for childcare and housework at home.

Consistent with earlier research, a recent 24-country cross-national study finds that the adult daughters of employed mothers are more likely to work, hold management roles, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers stayed home full-time, ceteris paribus. In terms of unpaid labour, men whose mothers worked grew up to spend more time caring for family members than men who had stay-at-home-mothers. Daughters raised by an employed mother spend less time on housework than women who had a stay-at-home-mother (McGinn, Ruiz Castro and Lingo, 2018[19]). Similar research in the Netherlands also finds that mothers’ working outside the home has intergenerational implications: women who were raised by a working mother work about two more hours per week than those raised by a homemaking mother (van Putten, Dykstra and Schippers, 2008[20]).

There are downstream gender equality effects of fathers doing more at home, as well, though this literature is less developed. In a quasi-experimental study of the extension of father-reserved parental leave in Norway, for example, researchers found that fathers’ leave-taking led to a later decrease in the traditional gender gap between adolescent boys’ and girls’ household chores; girls whose fathers have been affected by the leave offer were less likely to do housework than peers whose fathers just missed the start of the leave programme (Kotsadam and Finseraas, 2013[21]).

2.1. Short work hours are the norm in the Netherlands

While women carry out much of the part-time work in the Netherlands, part-time jobs are far more common for both genders in the Netherlands than in any other country in the OECD. In 2017, 37.4% of workers in the Netherlands had usual weekly working hours of fewer than 30 hours per week in their main job (Figure 2.1). The Netherlands’ rate is more than double the OECD’s average rate of part-time work, and is eleven percentage points greater than the country with the second-largest share of workers in part-time jobs, Switzerland.

Figure 2.1. Part-time work is more common in the Netherlands than in all other OECD countries

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of fewer than 30 hours per week in the main job. For the United States, data refer to dependent employees only. For Australia, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Turkey, data refer to usual weekly working hours in all jobs. For Japan and Korea, data refer to actual weekly working hours in all jobs. Information on statistical data for Israel: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.

Source: OECD Employment Database, http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/onlineoecdemploymentdatabase.htm

In the early 1970s, part-time employment constituted only about 5% of total employment in the Netherlands (Baaijens, 1999[22]). Its prevalence started to increase during the 1970s but really took off during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. The incidence of part-time employment in the Netherlands has increased by almost 50% since 1987 - from 26.4% of the employed to 37.4% - though the rate has plateaued somewhat over the past decade (Figure 2.2).

The rise in part-time employment is due to a mix of labour supply and market demand factors. On the supply side, there was a notable change in attitudes towards working mothers: while 84% of respondents frowned upon working mothers in 1965, a point at which many women were completely inactive in the labour market, the rate of disapproval was about 40% ten years later and down to 16% in 1995. The education gap between men and women diminished rapidly, and with access to birth control, family sizes and unpaid care burdens declined (Baaijens, 1999[22]). On the demand side, in the aftermath of the oil shocks in the early 1970s and 1980s (Langenberg and Nauta, 2007[23]), the “Akkoord van Wassenaar” between Employers and Unions led to wage moderation and reduced working hours (Stichting van de Arbeid, 1982[24]). The growth of part-time employment was also facilitated by the rapid expansion of the commercial service sector, and the associated demand for short hours around peak time. In addition, during the 1990s the laws and collective labour agreements started to move towards equal treatment of part- and full-time employees (Baaijens, 1999[22]).

Figure 2.2. The Netherlands’ rate of part-time work has increased by almost 50% over the past few decades

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Employment refers to self-employed and dependent employed workers.

Source: OECD Employment Database, http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/onlineoecdemploymentdatabase.htm.

With the exception of Germany, the growth of part-time work has been faster in the Netherlands than in many other OECD countries (Figure 2.2). In countries like Denmark and Sweden, the share of workers in part-time roles actually decreased, as gender equality concerns and the development of a comprehensive early childhood education and care (ECEC) system was associated with more women entering full-time jobs (OECD, 2002[25]; 2005[26]).

Figure 2.3. More than in many other countries, part-time work in the Netherlands often means very short hours

Note: Part-time work is defined as usual weekly working hours of fewer than 30 hours per week in the main job. Countries are ranked according to the percentage of part-time workers usually working 20 to 29 hours per week.

Source: OECD calculations based on the OECD Working Hours Database (unpublished data).

Not only do many people in the Netherlands work part-time, they are also more likely to work short part-time hours, relative to part-time workers in other OECD countries. 53.9% of part-time workers in the Netherlands work fewer than 20 hours per week (Figure 2.3). Only Denmark and Germany have equal or greater shares of part-time workers working so few hours per week.

Full-time workers in the Netherlands also work relatively fewer hours than their full-time counterparts in other OECD countries (Figure 2.4). In line with the Nordics, the average Dutch worker in a full-time job works 38.9 hours in a usual week. This contrasts with 42.4 hours per week in, for example, the United Kingdom.

Work patterns in France offer an interesting comparison for the Netherlands. France has a similar number of total annual hours worked as the Netherlands: workers report 1 514 average annual hours actually worked in France, versus 1 433 in the Netherlands and 1 744 as the OECD average (OECD, 2019[27]). Yet part-time work in France is uncommon, and when it happens, part-time jobs look more like full-time jobs in terms of hours. The distribution of hours worked in France is more closely clustered around the legislated 35-hour full-time workweek (OECD, 2017[5]).

France legislated 35 hours as full-time work in 2000. While today very few French workers actually work only 35 hours – in practice, the work culture is such that employees often work longer weekly hours and shift the extra hours into longer paid leave periods – the incidence of short part-time hours is rare. Only 40.5% of part-time workers in France work fewer than twenty hours per week, and only 12.9% work fewer than ten hours per week (Figure 2.3). In contrast, the incidence of longer part-time work is more common in France: 59.5% of French part-time workers work 20‑29 hours per week, compared to just 46.4% of Dutch part-time workers. At the same time, the Netherlands has a higher female labour force participation rate than France: 75.3% versus 67.9% of women, respectively, are in the labour market (Figure 1.5).

Figure 2.4. Full-time hours are short in the Netherlands

Note: Full-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of 30 or more hours per week in the main job. For the United States, data refer to dependent employees only. For Australia, Iceland, New Zealand and Norway, data refer to usual weekly working hours in all jobs. For Korea, data refer to actual weekly working hours in all jobs. Data for Norway refer to 2016. Information on statistical data for Israel: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.

Source: OECD Employment Database, http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/onlineoecdemploymentdatabase.htm.

2.2. Job quality and worker traits in part-time jobs

While part-time jobs can enable organisations to respond more quickly to demands and offer workers some flexibility in hours worked, a persistent concern is job quality. Across countries, workers in part-time jobs often have lower job security, lower pay, fewer opportunities for training and promotion, face a higher poverty risk and are less likely to have access to unemployment benefits if they become unemployed (OECD, 2010[2]). Switching to a part-time role can imply a drop in occupational status and wages (Chung and van der Horst, 2018[28]). Job quality can be affected by the skill set of workers in part-time roles, as this is often the domain of less-educated, lower-skilled workers. The quality of work also depends crucially on whether or not part-time work is “involuntary” or “voluntary.”

The Netherlands is doing relatively well in ensuring good-quality part-time jobs (C. Fagan, 2014[29]), particularly compared to OECD counterparts like the United Kingdom, which also has a relatively high share of workers in part-time jobs (Manning and Petrongolo, 2008[30]). Highly skilled and less-skilled people work part-time in the Netherlands, the rate of involuntary part-time work is low, and the country has made good commitments to ensuring work quality. Nevertheless, the gender inequalities in part-time work persist, with lifelong consequences (Yerkes, 2009[31]).

In the Netherlands, workers from a range of different socioeconomic levels work part-time. Part-time employment is most common for workers with low education, but, at the same time, it is not uncommon for highly educated workers. 26.5% of the Netherlands’ highly educated workers (those with tertiary education) work part-time – the highest share among European OECD countries. Half of workers with low levels of education work part-time, a rate that is also the highest among European OECD countries (Figure 2.5).

Figure 2.5. Part-time work is not uncommon for highly educated workers in the Netherlands

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Educational attainment is measured on a three-part ordinal variable (low education, medium education and high education), with distinctions between the three levels corresponding to the usual ISCED classification system: 'low education' corresponds to a highest level of educational attainment at ISCED 2011 levels 0‑2 (early-childhood education, primary or lower secondary education); ‘medium education’ reflects a highest level of educational attainment at ISCED 2011 levels 3‑4 (upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education); and ‘high education’ corresponds to a highest level of educational attainment at ISCED 2011 levels 5‑8 (short-cycle tertiary education, bachelor or equivalent, master or equivalent, doctoral or equivalent).

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

Furthermore, unlike in many other countries, part-time work in the Netherlands is not confined to low-skilled jobs only. In fact, over 25% of workers in highly skilled managerial, professional and technical occupations also work part-time – well over twice the OECD average for people in these roles (Figure 2.6).

Figure 2.6. Part-time hours are common across skill levels in the Netherlands

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Occupational skill level is based on the ISCO-08 classification of occupations. Low-skilled jobs refer to those in ISCO-08 group 9 (elementary occupations). Medium-skilled jobs refer to those in ISCO-08 groups 4‑8 (clerical support workers; services and sales workers; skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; craft and related trades workers; and plant and machine operators and assemblers). High-skilled jobs refer to those in ISCO-08 groups 1‑3 (managers; professionals; and technicians and associate professionals). Armed forces occupations are excluded.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey

2.3. Who will cut hours to care for the kids? Parenthood, part-time work, and gender inequality in hours worked

Working part-time is not unusual for Dutch women throughout the life course (Figure 2.7, Panel A). Indeed, research shows that even recently graduated women without children in the Netherlands are more likely to work part-time than men (Merens and Bucx, 2018[32]), in part because their educational choices may have led them to enter sectors where part-time work is the norm (SCP, 2018[33]). There has been little progress in recent years in moving these female workers into full-time roles (European Commission, 2019[34]).

Women’s transition to part-time work is especially common after they become parents. After most schooling is completed, and within the main child-rearing years, the share of the female population who are employed part-time reaches 44% among 40- to 44-year-olds. In this group of women working part-time, 66.9% are mothers of children aged 14-years-old or younger (Figure 2.7, Panel B). 75.2% of part-time workers in the 35‑39 age group are mothers. After age thirty, the share of the female population working full-time declines with age.

Figure 2.7. Part-time work is a consistent feature of women’s employment across the life course

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Parents are defined as those with an 'own child' aged 0‑14 living in the same household.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

Men in the Netherlands, in contrast, are actually less likely to work part-time during the main child-rearing years (Figure 2.8). When Dutch men become fathers, they are more likely to stay in full-time work and, correspondingly, they do less caregiving and unpaid work at home than their female partner (Section 1). While over 40% of 40- to 44-year-old women work part-time in the Netherlands, less than 6% of 40- to 44-year-old Dutch men work part-time. And among those men who do work part-time, very few are parents, relative to the distribution of female part-time workers (Figure 2.8, Panel B).

Figure 2.8. Few Dutch men work part-time during the child-rearing years

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Parents are defined as those with an 'own child' aged 0‑14 living in the same household.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

This situation is problematic in that the reduction in paid work hours (and increase in unpaid hours) is borne largely by women.

To some degree, this inequality in work hours may reflect an economically “efficient” division of labour, in which the higher earner specialise in the labour market and the lower earner specialises in household labour. This explanation has traditionally been used to explain the male breadwinner model.

However, as women have made tremendous gains in education over the past few decades, the “efficient division of labour” answer holds weaker explanatory power (OECD, 2017[1]). Indeed, even when couples begin their partnership with similar job and income profiles, gender gaps in labour force participation, pay, and hours worked tend to widen when workers become parents (OECD, 2017[5]). The Netherlands stands out as one of the few OECD countries where the gender pay gap is very small or to the advantage of women when they are in their twenties (OECD, 2017[1]), i.e., women earn more.

When looking at work arrangements within households, the Netherlands is an outlier in the relatively low number of households in which both partners work full-time. In only 28% of Dutch couples do both partners work full-time (in partnerships of 15- to 64-year-olds). This is lower than other countries in Europe, including southern European countries like Italy, Greece, and Spain, which tend to do less well on other indicators of gender equality. Of course, the Netherlands does relatively well in the share of households in which both partners are working at all.

Instead, the “one-and-a-half” worker model dominates in the Netherlands. 42.4% of partnered couples exhibit this working arrangement, in which one partner (usually the man) works full-time and the other partner (typically a woman) works relatively few hours in part-time.

Figure 2.9. The Netherlands is least likely to have two full-time working partners

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

Figure 2.10. Care responsibilities commonly drive part-time work decisions

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

Why do parents cut hours when children enter the home? Part-time workers in the Netherlands are more likely than their counterparts in many other countries to cite unpaid care work as the reason for working part-time in the labour market. 40.2% of Dutch part-time workers caring for dependent children or other family members as their reason for not working full-time – a higher percentage pointing to care needs as motivation for part-time work than in any other countries.

When care responsibilities lead women to drop out of the labour market in OECD countries, this often reveals an inadequacy in formal childcare services – insufficient supply, poor quality care, unaffordability, or some combination therein (Adema, Clarke and Frey, 2015[35]) (OECD, 2017[18]). The puzzling twist in the Netherlands is that, among people who cite care responsibilities as their reason for working part-time, few say care facilities influence their decision to work less than full-time hours in the labour market. Under 10% of part-time workers who provide unpaid care say that care services or facilities are not available or affordable (Figure 2.11), though dissatisfaction with care services increases significantly among 60- to 64-year-olds, who are most likely to be providing elder care. This suggests that the simple supply and cost of formal care are not the only factors driving women to work less than full-time hours (Section 3).

Figure 2.11. Very few of those working part-time for care reasons express an unmet need for care services

Note: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Data cover part-time employed who cite "looking after children or incapacitated adults" as the main reason for part-time work, only.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

2.4. Calling on Grandma or Grandpa to look after the kids

Caregiving responsibilities often do not end when children leave the home, and gender roles can continue into older adulthood. In addition to carrying out unpaid eldercare for spouses and elderly relatives, older Dutch grandparents are often tasked with caring for grandchildren. Indeed, the Netherlands leads the OECD in the share of 0- to 2-year-old children who receive informal care by relatives, friends or neighbours.

Figure 2.12. Dutch parents rely on informal childcare

Note: Data for Malta and Switzerland refer to 2014, and for Iceland to 2015. 'Informal' childcare here refers to unpaid care, usually provided by a grandparent of the child or by other relatives, friends or neighbours. It excludes any care that is paid for regardless of who is providing the paid-for care.

Source: OECD Family Database, http://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm.

Caring for grandchildren may contribute to some female Dutch workers remaining in part-time work late in their careers, well after their own children have left the home. Many of these women therefore face challenges when trying to close the lifetime gap in earnings that developed when they devoted more time to unpaid caregiving in their prime working years.

2.5. Short hours in teaching and care sectors

There is a positive correlation between the share of women working in a sector and the share of jobs in that sector that are part-time (Figure 2.13). This is especially true in the health and services fields today. As early as 1997, about 60% of jobs in the health and social care sector were part-time, while part-time roles made up almost half of the jobs in the catering industry and a more moderate 38% in the education sector (Baaijens, 1999[22]). Part-time employment in the public sector, care and education sectors continued to grow even when such growth was more moderate in commercial service sectors (Langenberg, 2004[36]). Women in 2017 made up 82.1% of jobs in the broader health, human and social work activities, a sector in which 57.4% of jobs are part-time (Figure 2.13).

Figure 2.13. Female-dominated professions have higher shares of part-time jobs

Notes: Part-time employment is defined as usual weekly working hours of less than 30 hours per week in the main job. Employment by sector is classified based on European Classification of Economic Activities (NACE) rev. 2.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey.

2.5.1. Short hours in teaching jobs, and unpredictable school schedules for families

Teachers in the Netherlands report working shorter hours than teachers in most other OECD countries. In most countries, teaching is effectively a full-time job (Figure 2.14). Just over half (52.7%) of Dutch primary school teachers work part-time, i.e. under 30 hours per week. In a comparison with 19 other European countries, Italy is the only country where more primary school teachers work part-time (76.9% work under 30 hours per week). Dutch teachers are relatively happy with the hours they work: only 8.8% of primary school teachers in the Netherlands report wanting to work more hours (OECD estimates of EU Labour Force Survey, 2017).

In contrast, 73.77% of primary school teachers in Sweden work 40‑49 hours per week and in Austria 66.2% do. The United Kingdom is an outlier in that many teachers work very long hours: over one-third of primary school teachers work 50 or more hours in a typical week, a high workload (Higton et al., 2017[37]).

Dutch working parents face a peculiar issue around school hours: they are somewhat unpredictable due to a teacher shortage in the Netherlands. The shortage is not so much in staff numbers as in hours that teachers are willing to work. Replacement teachers in case of holidays or illness are hard to find, and this can lead to pupils being placed in other classes or being taught by non-qualified staff. Entire classes can be sent home, with often hundreds of students missing school on a given day (data sampled in January 2019 from (Lerarentekort is nu, 2019[38])), particularly in the western part of the Netherlands. 1

Figure 2.14. Primary school teachers in the Netherlands work relatively short hours

Note: Primary school teachers are defined as the employed that hold jobs classified in International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) 08 category 2341 ("Primary School Teachers"). Individuals reporting no set hours and or with missing data for usual weekly working hours are excluded. Countries are ranked according to the percentage of primary school teachers usually working between one and 29 hours per week.

Source: OECD estimates based on the European Union Labour Force Survey 2017, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey

With children being sent home irregularly, the school week can be reduced to four days a week and Ministry guidelines suggest this is allowed for seven weeks per annum (OC&W, 2018[39]). The government has recognised that there is a growing deficit in the number of teaching hours and has proposed new measures to address these gaps, such as reducing fees for new teacher training and focusing on teacher retention (Rijksoverheid, 2019[40]). Again, this could be tied to arguments that it is less disruptive to have one rather than two teachers, that the tax system should make full-time work more attractive, and that it would be good to attract male teachers in an increasingly feminised profession (OECD, 2017[1]).

In practice, a common primary school day lasts from 8.30am until noon and from 1pm until 3pm. These school hours make it difficult for parents to combine school hours with a full-time job, which is likely to have contributed to the entrenchment of the part-time work culture among working parents. If, for example, an engineer cannot rely on their child having regular access to over 35 hours/week of school and out-of-school hours care, they may, in turn, reduce their own working hours to cover the gap.

While Dutch teachers work relatively short weekly hours, they are in school for more weeks of the year than most of their counterparts in the OECD. The Netherlands has relatively short school breaks. Most schools in the Netherlands have a minimum of 11 weeks off per year, which is less than in countries like Estonia (17 weeks), France (16 weeks), and Sweden (15 weeks). The effect of these school breaks on parents’ schedules is not obvious. It could help parents insofar as they have less need for childcare during break periods. Yet parents still need to develop flexible work and childcare arrangements for the other 41 weeks of the year, when children are supposed to be in school, to adapt to variable school schedules.

2.5.2. High rates of part-time work in long-term care

Hours are short in long-term care jobs, too – another sector in which female workers predominate. Over 90% of the long-term care workforce in the Netherlands works part-time, a rate far above most other European countries. This relatively high rate may reflect the normalisation of part-time work throughout the Dutch labour market.

Unlike teaching jobs, many long-term care positions require, by their nature, short part-time hours. Many care workers aiding the elderly, for example, are only needed at the beginning and the end of the day, to help with daily tasks associated with getting out of bed in the morning and going to bed in the evening (OECD, 2019, forthcoming[41]). It would likely take several of such part-time jobs to reach over thirty hours of work per week.

Figure 2.15. A large share of long-term care workers hold part-time positions

Note: Data for European countries are based on ISCO 4-digit and NACE 2-digit employment classifications, with the exceptions of Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Spain (ISCO 3-digit and NACE 2-digit employment classifications). Data for Australia cover only those with a permanent position. Data for Canada cover only those working mostly full-time or part-time. Information on statistical data for Israel: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932315602.

Source: (OECD, 2019, forthcoming[41])

Note

← 1.  The unreliability of school hours is nothing new for Dutch parents. In the 1990s and early 2000s teachers had access to so-called labour-shortening holidays (“ADV-dagen”) that could be taken up at short notice and contributed to children being sent home irregularly (OECD, 2002[25]). Reform of the primary education system in the early 2000s led to reductions in class sizes, and while this is likely to have contributed to the quality of primary education overall, it also led to an increased demand for teachers (Parlementaire Monitor, 2002[66]).