Women with family responsibilities generally find it very hard to take up a full-time job due to the lack of flexible working methods in the local labour market. Many times the only option for those who can afford to spend a few hours a week in paid employment, in order to round up the family budget, is to work part-time.

However, part-timers working less than 20 hours a week have to face a labour market that does not grant them any proportional benefits to other workers working for longer hours but actually penalises them.

For example, a teacher working part-time in a small school would rarely work more than 20 hours a week. When school holidays arrive, the teacher is not earning any income but just the same has to pay for social security, which is paid at a flat rate whatever the income for the lowest income band.

The fact that workers working for less than 20 hours get no benefits from their employers also acts as an incentive for employers to employ two part-timers working for less than 20 hours a week instead of one working for more than 20 hours. Part-timers should be proportionately rewarded for their work as full-timers, whatever the number of hours they work.

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