BCEC | WGEA Gender Equity Insights series

The 2024 BCEC WGEA Gender Equity Insights report explores the state of part-time employment and flexible working arrangements in Australia.

The ninth report in the series examines the prominence and evolution of part-time work and the potential for part-time to include more flexible work arrangements aligned with employee preferences and the evolving nature of work. It identifies an important shift in how employees choose to engage in the workforce, as they increasingly seek flexibility and opportunities to tailor work schedules and locations to their needs.

Employers are encouraged to develop a plan for action that normalises flexible and part-time work, without career penalties. By normalising flexible arrangements, organisations can work towards removing the historical ‘flexibility stigma’ associated with career penalties in terms of pay and progression.

WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said the report’s findings reinforced the need for employers to ensure their jobs are designed to be inclusive and not based on a full-time mindset.

“Women and men working part-time still face a promotion barrier due to the lack of flexible working arrangements and the capacity to work part-time as managers,” Ms Wooldridge said.

“Women are twice as likely to work part-time, so improvement in availability and support for part-time work will be a positive step for gender equality in Australia. Men also benefit from arrangements that better align with how, when and where they want to work.

“Enabling more management roles to be undertaken part-time and/or flexibly will expand employers’ access to a greater talent pool and support reducing their gender pay gap.”

• Australia has one of the highest shares of part-time employment across OECD countries.
• Flexibility in hours and working location is becoming more mainstream, driven by technological advancements and changes in employee expectations.
• A rising share of women (29 per cent) and men (31 per cent) are choosing part-time work out of preference, with fewer citing care of children as the main reason for doing so.
• A part-time promotion cliff is apparent for non-managers, where promotion rates for women and men in part-time employment are half of their full-time counterparts.
• The part-time total remuneration gender pay gap sits at 2.7 per cent in favour of women.
• A higher representation of women on boards is positively related to the share of women in part-time employment.
• Implementing a flexible work strategy increases the share of female managers working part-time by up to 1.8 percentage points, and reduces the part-time managerial gender pay gap.

Gender Equity Insights is an annual report produced by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) in collaboration with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). The reports identify trends, policies and practices that work to address gender inequality in the workplace.

The analysis is based on data collected in the annual WGEA census of private sector employers with 100 or more employees.

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