Employment breaks, pay, and career development among Australian women

Rimmer, R. and Rimmer, S. (1997) Employment breaks, pay, and career development among Australian women. Gender, Work and Organization, 4(4), pp. 202-217. (doi: 10.1111/1468-0432.00036)

Abstract

Career breaks may be associated with women’s relatively poorer pay and promotion prospects. To test this and other hypotheses, a sample of Australian women was asked to review their lives as paid and unpaid workers. About half of the women reported that they were currently working at the same skill level as in their first job, a quarter had improved, while about 20% were currently in lower-skilled work than in their first job. Tertiary education and further education after first entering the labour force is associated with continuing to work at the same skill level after a break. Breaks from working were found to last typically for up to one year and were thus unlikely to account for a sustained skill loss. Women’s responsibilities for household tasks rose during breaks, and persisted at a higher level after the return to work. Different models are appropriate for the analysis of earnings of continuous workers and those with breaks. There appear to be no relative pay penalties for broken work experience for the highly educated or those in highly skilled jobs. Continuous workers in ‘women’s’ occupations receive a higher return than others to their human capital.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Rimmer, Professor Russell
• Authors: Rimmer, R., and Rimmer, S.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: Gender, Work and Organization
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0968-6673
• ISSN (Online): 1468-0432
• Published Online: 16 December 2002