Exploring the gender difference in multiple job holding

• Author: Alison Preston,Robert E. Wright
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12300
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020

Exploring the gender difference in multiple

job holding

Alison Preston*and Robert E. Wright

ABSTRACT

This article examines the determinants of the gender gap in multiple job holding in

Australia using all 18 waves (2001–2018) of the Household, Income and Labour

Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. In Australia, like most high-income coun-

tries, the multiple job holding rate is higher for women compared with men. The em-

pirical analysis focuses on the role played by factors such as wage rates, hours

worked, household wealth, job security, education, demographics and demand condi-

tions. Probit regressions point to a large, negative and highly statistically significant

effect of hours worked in the primary job on the probability of holding a secondary

job. This effect is larger (more negative) for women. A decomposition analysis sug-

gests that a large share of gender gap in multiple job holding (c. 90 per cent) may

be attributed to the gender gap in the hours worked in the primary job. Regulation

concerning working time can be expected to affect multiple job holding rates.

1 INTRODUCTION

Over the past two decades, there has been significant change in the organisation and

regulation of working time in most high-income countries. In a number of countries

(including Australia and the UK), reforms have led to an expansion of what may

be termed ‘non-standard employment’. This includes the rise in the numbers

employed in casual, temporary and non-permanent contract jobs (Campbell, 2018;

Lab and Wooden, 2020; Rubery et al., 2005). There has also been an increase in

the numbers employed on a part-time basis who would prefer to work more hours

—a form of ‘underemployment’(Birch and Preston, 2020; Koumenta and Wil-

liams, 2019). Understanding the causes and consequences of non-standard employ-

ment is of considerable interest in industrial relations and labour economics. Some

have focused on the role played by supply-side factors in non-standard employment

decisions, such as preferences and choice (Taylor, 2017). Others have considered

demand-side factors, such as employer-led flexibility and non-pecuniary benefits

(Briken and Taylor, 2018; Koumenta and Williams, 2019; Moore et al., 2018; Rubery

et al., 2005; Rubery et al., 2015). Clearly, given the growth in non-standard

employment, research of this type is both needed and important.

❒Alison Preston, Department of Economics, UWA Business School, University of Western Australia,

Crawley, WA Australia and Robert E. Wright, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow,

Glasgow, UK. Correspondence should be addressed to Professor Alison Preston, Department of

Economics, UWA Business School, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA

6009, Australia; email: alison.preston@uwa.edu.au

Industrial Relations Journal 51:4, 301–328

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2020 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Multiple job holding is the situation where an individual is employed concurrently

in two or more jobs. We believe that multiple job holding should be considered as a

further type of non-standard employment, despite attracting only limited attention

in this growing literature. This relative lack of interest is surprising because one might

expect multiple job holding to be systematically related to underemployment and

other forms of non-standard employment. We also believe that understanding the de-

terminants of multiple job holding is particularly relevant in the context of the re-

cently announced ‘living hours’campaign (Felstead et al., 2020). Concern about

high levels of underemployment and unpredictable working time arrangements have

led to calls for employment contracts with a guaranteed minimum of 16 hours per

week. One would expect that if this guarantee became a legal requirement, it would

have an impact on employment decisions relating to multiple job holding.

In most countries, multiple job holding is not a niche activity. Empirical evidence

suggests that few multiple job holders have more than one additional job. Therefore,

it is common practice in the multiple job holding literature to use the terms ‘primary

job’(or first job) and ‘secondary job’(or second job). It is usually the case that the

job with the most hours worked is assumed to be the primary job. However, it is also

possible to make the distinction between primary and secondary jobs based on hourly

wages (i.e. the job with the highest wage being the primary job) or weekly/monthly/

yearly earnings (i.e. the job with highest earnings in a given period being the primary

job). It is also important to note that both types of jobs may be waged employment

(employee) or self-employment or a combination of the two. This suggests that there

may be considerable diversity in the type of work that multiple job holders do in terms

of earnings, hours and job type.

To date, the majority of studies that have empirically examined the determinants of

multiple job holding are based in standard labour supply theory (see

Killingsworth, 2009). As discussed below in more detail, this theory suggests that there

are two main motives for multiple job holding (Conway and Kimmel, 1998). The first is

a‘financial motive’. The central premise is that the earnings from the primary job are

insufficient to meet individual, family or household needs. This may be caused by an

‘hours constraint’, where workers are restricted in the number of hours they may work

in their primary job. It may also be caused by a ‘low pay constraint’, where workers are

paid an hourly wage (or salary) in their primary job that is too low. If a worker is

employed in a job characterised by low pay and/or low hours, one option is to take

on a secondary job as a way of increasing total earnings.

The second motive relates to ‘non-pecuniary benefits’associated with multiple job

holding. This motive covers a range of factors not directly related to financial

remuneration. For example, a secondary job may serve as a path to a new career that

is not possible via the primary job. A secondary job may also reduce the hardship

associated with losing one’s primary job, especially if the hours in the secondary job

are flexible upwards. It is important to note that it is possible that a secondary job is

a non-paying job. One reason people may take such jobs is that they derive direct

satisfaction from the work itself. This motive is quite different to the financial motive,

where it is assumed that the main reason for working a secondary job is the increased

consumption that the additional earnings provide. While early studies tried to

distinguish the relative importance of the financial and non-pecuniary benefits

motives, current research tends to treat ‘working for no pay’as volunteering, which

is now a distinct literature (Lup and Booth, 2019). More recent multiple job holding

research has focused on the effects of multiple job holding on career progression

302 Alison Preston and Robert E. Wright

© 2020 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd