Part-time employment in Australia: unusual features and social policy issues

As with many other OECD economies, a growing part-time employment has been a workforce experience over the past three decades. Examines several distinctive features of Australian part-time employment, namely: the high proportion of part-time employees who are employed under casual employment conditions, the growing male part-time employment share and the growing proportion of involuntary part-time workers. Outlines several important policy implications, namely: many part-time employees are entitled to but not receiving permanent employment conditions; many part-timers are excluded from the many non-wage entitlements associated with full-time employment; adjusted hourly wage rates for part-time workers appear to be falling relative to full-time workers, the ability of part-time employees to participate in the newly emerging collective bargaining framework is constrained by their very low trade union density relative to full-time employees; and there are doubts as to how part-time workers can effectively participate in and benefit from the emerging programme of employee-based superannuation entitlements.