Return to work mums are a not being catered for in the UK Employment market as effectively as they could be. Interestingly a recent report in Australia has shown that switching from full-time to part-time employment after having a baby is not as financially disastrous as many women expect.
Women working full time before having a child who return to their workplace on a part-time basis “on average attract a 13 per cent increase on their hourly earnings”, a study by Queensland social policy researcher reveals. Concluding that making the shift from full-time to part-time work “has a positive effect on wages”.
Even changing to a part-time job with a different employer will not see a working mother’s hourly rates of pay drop.
As you can expect, these positive findings in the International employment market are not mirrored in the UK job market and thus there are marked differences with Britain and also the US.
UK research implies that many mothers who return to work after birth actually return to lesser occupations than they did before. This is apparently known as an occupational downgrade.
So maybe we have more to learn from the Australians that we might believe. It has been commented that returning to work in a temporary or part time capacity aids the eventual return to full time employment. Many of these roles have excellent prospects and it reduces the fall out of mothers who return to full time work straight away because they need financial rewards but can not cope with the stress of being a mother (job number 1) and having another full time job.