Nearly 40% of all workers in the Netherlands work part-time – a rate that is higher than in all other countries in the OECD. The availability and take-up of part-time work has been lauded for helping workers achieve work-life balance and promoting personal well-being (OECD, 2017[1]), but there is a catch: part-time work is often associated with slower career progression, lower earnings and earnings-related pensions, and, in many countries, lower job quality than those experienced by full-time workers (OECD, 2010[2]).
Women make up a large share of the part-time workforce in the Netherlands and, indeed, around the world. This leads to the unintended negative consequence of deepening gender inequalities. Inequalities deepen in the unequal division of paid work, as men are better able to commit time to (and advance in) full-time jobs. Correlated with this, inequalities are reinforced and grow in the unequal division of unpaid work at home, as women tend to do more housework and childcare than their spouses. This represents a serious economic and moral challenge for the Netherlands.
Government policies promoting gender equality must therefore consider the distribution of part-time work, while regulations around part-time work should be designed and reformed with gender equality goals in mind. Policies enabling part-time work can respect personal or family preferences, but should also ensure that both men and women have equal opportunities to contribute at home and at work. The Netherlands has been recognised as having relatively strong protections for part-time work and has made notable efforts to ensure good job quality for part-time workers, but the country has been less successful in eliminating gender inequalities in hours worked.
This report looks at the gendered effects of part-time work in the Netherlands from an international perspective. While the Netherlands is a global leader in some measures of gender equality, the gender gap in hours worked persists. This has harmful consequences for women’s wages, women’s career progression, and men’s participation in the family. This report therefore attempts to address the following: How do gender inequalities manifest in part-time versus full-time work? What are the reasons for this division? And how can policymakers ensure access to good-quality part-time and full-time work for both men and women?