Good or bad jobs? Characteristics of older female part-time work

Abstract

Despite consistently high rates of part-time employment among older women, the quality of this cohort's work is largely under-researched with the focus being mainly on younger women. To address this gap, our paper engages with the key strands of this debate—age, gender and employment status—to interrogate the job characteristics and position of this worker cohort in the Irish labour market. Findings reveal notable differences between this cohort's job characteristics compared with those of other part-time workers and older women working full-time. These job characteristics include low-wage employment in poor-quality jobs, suggesting that job quality is influenced by age, gender and employment status, raising concerns regarding the likelihood for precarious employment among this cohort. In addition to individual-level consequences, this study's findings have major implications for public and organisational policy on part-time labour market participation, highlighting the need for a new research agenda on older workers.