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Thursday, June 26, 2003

Part-time work and family-friendly practices

The report Part-time work and family-friendly practices in Canadian workplaces, based on data from the 1999 Workplace and Employee Survey (WES), examines two human resource practices that can make it easier for employees to harmonize life at work with their family responsibilities.

These two practices are part-time work and the provision of "family-friendly" work arrangements. Such arrangements include flextime, telework, childcare and services to help care for the elderly.

This report, the latest release in the Evolving Workplace Series, a joint project by Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada, gauges the extent to which part-time work and flexible work arrangements are offered, their incidence by company size, and the motivations of companies for relying on part-timers.

The WES data suggest that most companies do not foster climates that promote the integration of work and family through formal workplace practices.

Some one-third of Canadian employees reported having flextime schedules. However, access to other family-friendly work arrangements was extremely low.

Data strongly suggest that access to family-friendly practices is a function of the type of work performed and the company's characteristics, such as size and industry. It was virtually unrelated to the personal needs or family characteristics of its employees. The study showed little or no increase in participation rates either for mothers in two-parent families, or for lone parents, compared with other women. Just over one-thirds (34.6%) of women with children reported using flextime, virtually the same proportion as women who did not have children.

In terms of occupation, access to family-supportive practices was generally highest among well-educated employees in managerial or professional jobs. Flextime and telework were most available to employees working in small workplaces such as those with fewer than 10 employees.

Women had lower participation rates in flexible work arrangements than did men, and this held within occupation and industry. This finding suggests that even within occupations, women may perform tasks that are less amenable to flexible time or place.

Data suggest that women accept lesser quality jobs when taking part-time jobs. About 30% of women working part time earned less than $9 an hour, almost twice the proportion of 16% among women who worked full time. Women in part-time work were 50% less likely than those who worked full-time to report access to non-wage benefits.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2615.

Part-time work and family-friendly practices in Canadian workplaces (71-584-MIE, no. 6, free) is now available on Statistics Canada's website (). From the Our products and services page, under Browse our Internet publications, choose Free, then Labour.

The report is also available from Human Resources Development Canada on the Applied Research Branch's web page (www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/arb).

For more information on the WES, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of the survey, contact Nathalie Caron (613-951-4051), Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada.

For more information on this release, contact the media relations unit (819-994-5559), Human Resources Development Canada.



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Date Modified: 2003-06-26 Important Notices