Punishing Workers Who Must Work Part-Time
As temperatures rise, so do unemployment rates as out-of-work job-seekers enter the stifling summer months wondering how long they will be out of work. According to the Labor Department's monthly employment report, the nation's jobless rate in May rose to 5.5%, the highest level since 2004 and the largest one-month increase in more than two decades.
Often overlooked in these bleak jobs reports, though, are the hundreds of thousands of workers who are still technically employed but barely hanging on. These are the part-timers. And as the economy worsens, more and more workers will have to take part-time jobs, exposing the urgent need to reform these positions.
The need for change goes beyond the lower wages part-timers earn compared to their full-time counterparts. Typically these workers enjoy few or no employer benefits; according to the Economic Policy Institute, only 17% of part-timers receive employer provided health care coverage, for instance, in contrast to 69% of full-timers. And EPI finds that a mere 20% of part-time workers receive an employer provided pension plan, compared to two-thirds of full-time workers. Most part-timers also miss out on vacation, personal and paid sick days.
The lack of basic government protections also poses a huge problem for part-timers. Unemployment compensation, Social Security benefits and family leave are all organized around full-time, full-year jobs. That's why when a part-time worker loses her job, she's 59% less likely than full-time workers to collect any unemployment insurance.
In this shaky economy, more and more people are being forced into these dead-end jobs for several reasons. Employers who want to save company costs are pushing workers into part-time jobs and that trend is expected to continue. And workers and families are taking on part-time jobs to try to make ends meet. In February 2008, the number of workers who took part-time jobs in the U.S. for economic reasons rose by 100,000, bringing the total to 4.79 million workers. This is the highest number since 1993, according to the Labor Department. Then there are those who are taking multiple part-time jobs to pay the bills. In 2007, an average of 1.8 million people held two jobs for that reason, the most since the government began regularly tracking the statistic in 1994.
What these new part-time workers will now face is what millions of caregivers -- many of whom are women with family responsibilities -- face everyday. Indeed, a full 70% of all women with children now work outside of the home. But because the U.S., alone among industrialized nations, has failed to update workplace standards and supports, many women must rely on part-time jobs.
In most industrialized nations, workers are allowed to cut their hours at their workplace to accommodate care giving without being penalized in wages, benefits or protections. These countries also have provisions for early child care and education. The U.S., by sharp contrast, has no such options, leaving most workers scrambling to provide care for their children. Our outdated system, thus, leaves American caregivers no other option but to take lower quality part-time jobs. And these jobs also often involve non-standard hours, which makes it even more difficult and more expensive to find that rare babysitter willing to work overnight.
Part of the problem is that because part-time jobs are largely held by women, they are treated as less important. And people rationalize the discrimination in wages, benefits and protections by talking about these jobs as if they were peripheral to the U.S. economy. But today's "part-time" jobs are central to our economy and to families. Increasingly, whole industries, including retail and janitorial services, are becoming "part-time." Today, in fact, close to one-fifth of all jobs in the U.S. are part-time.
As more and more workers are left no choice but to take part-time jobs in this worsening economy, their fate will hopefully shine a spotlight on an injustice that is a national scandal--punishing workers who must work part-time. Some states are already eliminating the distinction between part-time and full-time workers in their unemployment compensation laws, and that is an obvious first step. But we need to do more. We need to rethink our system of basic benefits and safety nets to ensure that all workers are covered. It never made sense to arbitrarily punish part-time workers and it makes even less sense today.
Beth Shulman, author of The Betrayal of Work: How Low Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans (New Press, 2003), is a spokesperson for the Russell Sage Foundation's Future of Work Project.
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Yet another good reason to decouple healthcare from Employment Benefits.
Resovling this issue would address a major injustice in our society. I'd also like to note that many people are employed as temporaries or contract workers in order to deny benefits therefore any protections should be extended to these workers too.
Also, addressing this issue would result in the many people those lives are made misserable by having to juggle multiple jobs having the option of working full time at some employer.
Imagine having to work 3 jobs, all min. wage with the high prices of gas? Talk about being taken advantage of. I long for the good old times where everyone was satisfied making a living and not a killing at the top.
Yes, you are right. However this has been going on since I can remember. No one ever came to my aid and very few people brought up the issue. Basically no one cared as long as they were getting theirs. I am glad to see more people sliding down the economic scale as now more people will speak up and it won't be so lonely down here at the bottom.
By "part-time" are you including the thousands of contract workers who work 3-month, 6-month, 1-year contracts? They often come with no benefits and straight time pay for hours worked over 40.
If you give a hungry man change, he'll eat for a day. If you teach a man to make change, he'll still be hungry, but he can get a part time job and pay taxes.
Labor has had its head held underwater by Ronald Reagan. The race to the bottom continues. Bill Clinton was a de facto Republican and globalization is aimed at constantly finding cheaper labor, even in the services sector. Union-busting has been taken to its logical climax with the growth in part-timers being just one facet. The second Home Depot felt the fall in the housing market along with the unwillingness of homeowners to spend money on upgrades, part-timers started to go. The effect is the same as dumping your ex-wife without having to pay spousal support - witness John McCains dumping of his crippled wife in favor of a real gold mine - now that's change you can believe in and go to the bank with, too. But when labor waivered in 2000 and supported Nader, well little George Bush was appointed president and finished off labor - Mission Accomplished!
I have followed the plunge to the bottom for labor for over forty years having worked in a factory sweat shop after high school and before college. Seeing a man lose both hands on the job due to lack of safe equipment makes a true believer out of you. These are the real values - MONEY.
That's all good... but who is going to pay for it? And how many of these part time jobs will disappear the minute this happens? Instead of a part time job they will have no job.
In the end we will all pay for it as people move to public assistance.
Ummmm. What public assistance.
Unemployment for part-timers is a concept from another country/reality.
And welfare is a non starter for most people.
What public assistance are you dreaming about? This is a move to get people into shanty towns and tent cities where they will be easy to control and round up.
I disagree. We let that happen and we will find a way to do away with all fulltime positions and
hire parttimers or even intermitttents, who work 3 to 19 hours per week as it is customary in
retail and food facilities. If this works it will spread to other sectors. We need jobs who pay
living wages, so one can live. We need jobs that offer benefits like Europe. Why is it that the
top gets all and the little people get nothing no matter how hard they work. Companies also
need to be punished for taking their businesses to other countries for cheaper labor then bring
back the goods to sell with a higher profit margin. Tax them!
Where are all of these part-time jobs you speak of? I can't get one of those here in Pittsburgh! I have an undergrad dregree, am currently working on my master's dregree, have been trying for months to find part-time work, and I haven't been hired yet. With all of the rising costs, I don't know how much longer my family can stretch what few pennies we have left. (Thanks a lot Dubya! )
Ms. Shulman, I appreciate you asking for protections, but right now I need to worry about getting the actual job first.
Well, add one more thing on the list for Obama.
He held a job as an Illinois Senator - that's a part-time job
Yet another thing that he can connect with the voters on.
har har what a kneeslapper!!
And McCain?
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