Living hours under pressure: flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

Standard

Living hours under pressure : flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model. / Ilsøe, Anna; Larsen, Trine Pernille; Felbo-Kolding, Jonas.

I: Employee Relations, Bind 39, Nr. 6, 08.09.2017, s. 888-902.

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

Harvard

Ilsøe, A, Larsen, TP & Felbo-Kolding, J 2017, 'Living hours under pressure: flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model', Employee Relations, bind 39, nr. 6, s. 888-902. <https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/ER-03-2017-0049>

APA

Ilsøe, A., Larsen, T. P., & Felbo-Kolding, J. (2017). Living hours under pressure: flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model. Employee Relations, 39(6), 888-902. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/ER-03-2017-0049

Vancouver

Ilsøe A, Larsen TP, Felbo-Kolding J. Living hours under pressure: flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model. Employee Relations. 2017 sep. 8;39(6):888-902.

Author

Ilsøe, Anna ; Larsen, Trine Pernille ; Felbo-Kolding, Jonas. / Living hours under pressure : flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model. I: Employee Relations. 2017 ; Bind 39, Nr. 6. s. 888-902.

Bibtex

@article{fe2c3abaedc841bcbe5a32abaa65b2d2,
title = "Living hours under pressure: flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model",
abstract = "PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of part-time work on absolute wages. The empirical focus is wages and working hours in three selected sectors within private services in the Danish labour market – industrial cleaning, retail, hotels and restaurants – and their agreement-based regulation of working time and wages. Theoretically, this analysis is inspired by the concept of living hours, which addresses the interaction between working hours and living wages, but adds a new layer to the concept in that the authors also consider the importance of working time regulations for securing a living wage.Design/methodology/approachThe paper builds on desk research of collective agreements and analysis of monthly administrative register data on wages and working hours of Danish employees from the period 2008-2014.FindingsThis analysis shows that the de facto hourly wages have increased since the global financial crisis in all three sectors. This is in accordance with increasing minimum wage levels in the sector-level agreements. The majority of workers in all three sectors work part-time. Marginal part-timers – 15 hours or less per week – make up the largest group of workers. The de facto hourly wage for part-timers, including marginal part-timers, is relatively close to the sector average. However, the yearly job-related income is much lower for part-time than for full-time workers and much lower than the poverty threshold. Whereas the collective agreement in industrial cleaning includes a minimum floor of 15 weekly working hours – this is not the case in retail, hotels and restaurants. This creates a loophole in the latter two sectors that can be exploited by employers to gain wage flexibility through part-time work.Originality/valueThe living wage literature usually focusses on hourly wages (including minimum wages via collective agreements or legislation). This analysis demonstrates that studies of low-wage work must include the number of working hours and working time regulations, as this aspect can have a dramatic influence on absolute wages – even in cases of hourly wages at relatively high levels. Part-time work and especially marginal part-time work can be associated with very low yearly income levels – even in cases like Denmark – if regulations do not include minimum working time floors. The authors suggest that future studies include the perspective of living hours to draw attention to the effect of low number of weekly hours on absolute income levels.",
author = "Anna Ils{\o}e and Larsen, {Trine Pernille} and Jonas Felbo-Kolding",
year = "2017",
month = sep,
day = "8",
language = "English",
volume = "39",
pages = "888--902",
journal = "Employee Relations",
issn = "0142-5455",
publisher = "Emerald Group Publishing",
number = "6",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Living hours under pressure

T2 - flexibility loopholes in the Danish IR-model

AU - Ilsøe, Anna

AU - Larsen, Trine Pernille

AU - Felbo-Kolding, Jonas

PY - 2017/9/8

Y1 - 2017/9/8

N2 - PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of part-time work on absolute wages. The empirical focus is wages and working hours in three selected sectors within private services in the Danish labour market – industrial cleaning, retail, hotels and restaurants – and their agreement-based regulation of working time and wages. Theoretically, this analysis is inspired by the concept of living hours, which addresses the interaction between working hours and living wages, but adds a new layer to the concept in that the authors also consider the importance of working time regulations for securing a living wage.Design/methodology/approachThe paper builds on desk research of collective agreements and analysis of monthly administrative register data on wages and working hours of Danish employees from the period 2008-2014.FindingsThis analysis shows that the de facto hourly wages have increased since the global financial crisis in all three sectors. This is in accordance with increasing minimum wage levels in the sector-level agreements. The majority of workers in all three sectors work part-time. Marginal part-timers – 15 hours or less per week – make up the largest group of workers. The de facto hourly wage for part-timers, including marginal part-timers, is relatively close to the sector average. However, the yearly job-related income is much lower for part-time than for full-time workers and much lower than the poverty threshold. Whereas the collective agreement in industrial cleaning includes a minimum floor of 15 weekly working hours – this is not the case in retail, hotels and restaurants. This creates a loophole in the latter two sectors that can be exploited by employers to gain wage flexibility through part-time work.Originality/valueThe living wage literature usually focusses on hourly wages (including minimum wages via collective agreements or legislation). This analysis demonstrates that studies of low-wage work must include the number of working hours and working time regulations, as this aspect can have a dramatic influence on absolute wages – even in cases of hourly wages at relatively high levels. Part-time work and especially marginal part-time work can be associated with very low yearly income levels – even in cases like Denmark – if regulations do not include minimum working time floors. The authors suggest that future studies include the perspective of living hours to draw attention to the effect of low number of weekly hours on absolute income levels.

AB - PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of part-time work on absolute wages. The empirical focus is wages and working hours in three selected sectors within private services in the Danish labour market – industrial cleaning, retail, hotels and restaurants – and their agreement-based regulation of working time and wages. Theoretically, this analysis is inspired by the concept of living hours, which addresses the interaction between working hours and living wages, but adds a new layer to the concept in that the authors also consider the importance of working time regulations for securing a living wage.Design/methodology/approachThe paper builds on desk research of collective agreements and analysis of monthly administrative register data on wages and working hours of Danish employees from the period 2008-2014.FindingsThis analysis shows that the de facto hourly wages have increased since the global financial crisis in all three sectors. This is in accordance with increasing minimum wage levels in the sector-level agreements. The majority of workers in all three sectors work part-time. Marginal part-timers – 15 hours or less per week – make up the largest group of workers. The de facto hourly wage for part-timers, including marginal part-timers, is relatively close to the sector average. However, the yearly job-related income is much lower for part-time than for full-time workers and much lower than the poverty threshold. Whereas the collective agreement in industrial cleaning includes a minimum floor of 15 weekly working hours – this is not the case in retail, hotels and restaurants. This creates a loophole in the latter two sectors that can be exploited by employers to gain wage flexibility through part-time work.Originality/valueThe living wage literature usually focusses on hourly wages (including minimum wages via collective agreements or legislation). This analysis demonstrates that studies of low-wage work must include the number of working hours and working time regulations, as this aspect can have a dramatic influence on absolute wages – even in cases of hourly wages at relatively high levels. Part-time work and especially marginal part-time work can be associated with very low yearly income levels – even in cases like Denmark – if regulations do not include minimum working time floors. The authors suggest that future studies include the perspective of living hours to draw attention to the effect of low number of weekly hours on absolute income levels.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 39

SP - 888

EP - 902

JO - Employee Relations

JF - Employee Relations

SN - 0142-5455

IS - 6

ER -

ID: 178884467