High-earning men working part-time hits record high
One in three high-earning part-time workers are men – and more than ever in senior management roles are now taking the step to working less than full time.
Always been attracted by the idea of a four-day week? Or perhaps a shorter day? You’re not alone.
And although it may seem impossible to reconcile a high-powered career with part-time hours, new figures suggest opposite, as some 700,000 Britons earning above £40,000 are now working part-time, according to a fresh study from the organisation Timewise.
Karen Mattison, co-founder of Timewise, told Morning Wire that the stigma of working part-time is reducing as it goes from being “something that women do” to an opportunity for flexibility at all levels:
This is not a marginal issue anymore. This is not an issue businesses can afford to ignore anymore. Getting it right delivers on a whole lot of challenges businesses are facing about finding the right talent and keeping it.
The organisation tracks the the UK’s growing number of part-time workers, and has found that reasons for going part-time range between everything from senior execs wanting more time for side projects to modern families sharing childcare duties.
This year marks the first time that one third of the high-earning part-timers are men, which Mattison called the most interesting development:
We’ve heard about women coming back from maternity leave and wanting to work part-time – what we haven’t heard about are the men doing the same thing, and saying ‘actually, I want to be a part of this, too’. So it’s the story of modern family and modern work.