Introduction
In the last 50 decades, there has been a huge shift in the roles of men and women as was previously defined in the traditional societal structure. Initially, women were supposed to take care of children at home, and do other house hold chores. However, this changed drastically within this period, and with policies like the affirmative action, women have gained access to the corporate world.
Currently, women can do virtually anything that men do and they earn just as much as men. The stigmatization has completely died down and the society has come to accept this new role of women.
Although some societies, majorly in the Muslim world are yet to give women full liberation, many countries have liberated their women to go after their dreams to the highest limits possible. One such country is United Kingdom, which had even had a woman as their head of state. This was a sign that the limits that were put for women were completely brought down.
In their different professions, women earn differently based on a number of factors. Holbrook (2003, p. 45), in his work titled allure of 100 hours a week, says that there is a new crop of women coming up with new zeal to their different professions.
When women decided to storm into what was initially a preserve for men, men felt threatened and thought that they would be displaced by these women who, by look of things, were as good in performing their duties as men, but look a little more determined than men.
They therefore thought that the only way to beat women in this was to work for an extended period after the normal period in order to be at the top when the pay day comes.
This was done bearing in mind that women would be forced to leave for home by five in the evening, specifically because of the need to take care of the children who were left at home. However, this new crop of women has proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are willing to do anything just to ensure that they earn good money.
This paper seeks to analyze earning differentials for women by full time or part time work.
Rationale
For a long time, the issue of earnings has raised a lot of heat among different individuals in different places. Labor laws have been developed as a way of regulating they pay of employees to ensure that they do not demand for too much than they can be given by their employers, and that the employers do not give too minimal salaries than should be expected. This ensures a tradeoff between the two.
However, because some employees work on full time, while others work on part time basis, there results in earning differentials between the two groups. This study seeks to analyze this difference to ascertain the reason behind this and which of the two groups earn better. This study would therefore help explain the reason why many female workers are currently going for part time jobs and not full time.
It would help bring out the reasons behind the current popularity of part timers at many of the firms within various cities in the United Kingdom and other developed countries. It would also help explain who stands to benefit between the employer and the employee in the two outfits.
Research questions and hypothesis
Flint, Woodruff, and Fisher (2002, p. 67) say that a good research should be pegged on one or two specific questions that the researcher seeks to find their answers. This scholar says that research is like a sea of knowledge which is as interesting as they are useful.
Getting into a research process without a clear research question would be very dangerous because the researcher would meet many interesting information, most of which are irrelevant to the research but appear important all the same.
In such a case, the researcher may be tempted to explore such irrelevant information, making him or her drift away from the main focus of the research. In this study, the researcher developed some questions that would help in maintaining the focus of this research.
- How much, on average, do a full time female worker earn in United Kingdom?
- How much, on average, do a part time female worker earn in United Kingdom?
- Which of the two groups earn higher and why?
The above questions would lead us to three hypotheses that the researcher would be confirming or rejecting in the dissertation of this proposal. The hypotheses are as below:
H10. Full time female workers do not earn more than part time female workers in United Kingdom
H1a. Full time female workers earn more than part time female workers in United Kingdom.
H20. There is no comparable difference in earnings of female full time and part time workers in the United Kingdom
H2a. There is comparable difference in earnings of female full time and part time workers in the United Kingdom
The above hypothesis would help reach out for the desired conclusion in the research dissertation.
Scope
The purpose of a research is always to help further information available in a given field. A research would always be useful to various individuals in various categories.
In every research, it would therefore be appropriate that the researcher categorically states the scope of his work in order to help guide users of the paper (Kotler, Keller, Brady, Goodman, & Hansen 2009, p. 78). The scope would help such users determine relevance of the paper to his or her field or scenario.
This research would be conducted in various cities in United Kingdom. Therefore, it would only be applicable to this setting or a setting in any other nation with a setting that bears resemblance to that of United Kingdom. Our scope was also limited to women, and therefore it may not be appropriate for use in case the other gender in involved
Literature Review
Issues concerning pay have elicited debate from various quarters. Many scholars have therefore come forth to research on various pay related issues in order to ascertain factors that play off in the process of compensation of workers for their labor input.
As Cunningham (2000, p. 36) reports, the cost of living has skyrocketed over the few past years. United Kingdom is one of the nations with the highest cost of living in the world. Because of this, employees have had to demand for a higher pay in order to cater for the extended cost of living.
Because many firms may not be able to compensate for the amount of money that an employee would demand, there has been a new trend of workers who prefer working in multiple places in order to earn livelihood. This has seen the number of part time workers increase (Gilbert 2001, p.75). As this scholar notes, in such cases, an employee would be in position to work in more than one place.
Cohen, Minion and Morrison (2000, p. 92) agree with this scholar. He says that currently, many employees prefer to work on a part time basis. This would allow them to work in two or more different places, hence earn enough money to cater for increased expenses. The category of workers who prefer these part time jobs are relatively younger.
Briggs (1986, p. 94), referring to this group as the young and the restless, says that part time jobs offer them job satisfaction. According to him, these youngsters cannot withstand the idea of having to work at the same place over the years. They prefer to move from one job to other always meeting new challenges in their various assignments.
According to Bailey (1996, p. 71) the older generation differs from this younger one in various aspects. The older generation looks for assurance. They want to be assured that their work is secure and that under no circumstance would they be laid off unless they are compensated for this. They therefore go for permanent and pensionable jobs under full time basis.
The two groups differ in what they are looking for in life. According to Adam and Healy (2000, 58), as the older generation look for job assurance, the younger individuals want fun and challenges in their duties. Because of this, they would prefer different job settings.
Ahmed and Rafiq (2002, 19) say that the two groups would earn differently based on different parameters. An employee who works on a full time basis is likely to get promotions at a faster rate than the one on a part time basis. These promotions come with increased allowances and the basic pay.
As such, an employee who is on a full time basis would earn more than a fellow employee who is working under part time basis in the same firm. However, a full time employee would be tied to the job the whole day and may not be in a position to work in other places. On the contrary, an employee who is on a part time basis can work in to or more other places.
Such an employee may end up carrying a larger amount of money home, because from each employer, there is the least amount stated by the law that he or she must get. Andreson, Narus, and Rossum (2010, p. 104) however, do not agree with this notion.
They say that an employee who works full time has a better chance of raising the firm leadership ladder hence advancing the career. As such, their earning would be way beyond part time worker, even if such a worker were to get more than two employers.
As Atkinson (1990, p. 59) says, because the society has changed and women are determined to be their families breadwinners, they find themselves in the above two categories. This scholar says that younger women would prefer part time jobs as opposed to full time jobs.
They have their families to take care of and other obligations. As such, they need jobs that would earn them as much money as would be possible yet gives them time to meet other obligations..
Research Methods
This chapter focuses on various aspects of research development. It includes methods of data collection, analysis and presentation. Every research project applies a certain research method to achieve its objectives depending on its goals.
The methods used to conduct research in this project compared closely with the methods proposed in the project proposal (Barnes, Blake, & Pinder 2009, p. 78) In research, design deals primarily with aims, uses, purposes, intentions, and plans within the practical constraints of time, location, money, and availability of staff (Best 2009, p. 57). In this study, respondents will be briefed in advance.
The officials of various identified firms will be given relevant notice by the researcher. The study population will also be amicably informed in order to get prepared for the study. Briefing is important because it would enhance reliability of the study. It is also ethical to inform people before researching on them. The findings would also made public to the researched as one way of ensuring morality in the study.
Furthermore, the researcher will observe researcher-researcher ethics by keeping away from criticism. The response rate is expected to be high because the researcher will insist that the study is meant for purely academic purposes. This is expected to encourage many of the respondents to fill in their questionnairs.
Research Model
This research would utilize quantitative research methods in conducting the study and collecting data (Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias 1992, p. 70). Quantitative research will be used althrough because it aims at summarizing data mathematically. In this regard, the research took the form of a survey, whereby the researcher identified some individuals and posted questionnaires to them.
The sampled population was selected randomly in order to eliminate biases. The researcher made follow-ups by conducting respondents on phone. Interviewing is another method of data collection that was used in this research. The researcher extracted more information from respondents by calling them.
Sampling Methods
The most applicable sampling method for this exercise was random sampling. Considering that the targeted population consisted of staff in the housekeeping section, there was no much risk of having biased data.
If the survey needed to cover the entire staff of the identified firms, systematic sampling coupled with stratified sampling would be ideal to ensure cross-departmental representation. However, this survey targeted a section of the staff hence random sampling proved sufficient to collect required data.
Secondary Data Used
Secondary data for analysis in this project came from various publications. These included reports, journal articles and research publications. Most of it related to the work that other researchers in the field of motivation undertook. The other areas where the literature review covered include theories of motivation and the application of performance pay in various institutions.
The nature of material used varied. Journals dealing with specific aspects of motivation provided specific information on specific research elements investigated by researchers. Some reports from intergovernmental organizations proved useful in providing information on the application of performance related pay (Cukor-Avila 2000, p. 39). From these sources, several findings came to the fore.
Primary Data
The online questionnaire provided the means of collecting primary data for this project. The survey would cover 15 employees working across various shifts at the identified firms in various departments. This sample is representative of the entire study population. The choice of respondents was by random sampling based on the individual’s willingness to participate.
The questionnaire had a mixture of open ended and closed ended questions (Fifield 2007, 50). This design enabled the study to provide as much detail as possible while eliminating the risk of high variance in responses. The administration of the questionnaires took place online because of varying working hours. In addition, it eased access to the questionnaire.
After filing in the soft copy, respondents sent it to a designated email address. This measure resulted to reduced costs transport and accommodation. The expenses could be occasioned by physical administration of questionnaires.
Moreover, it saved research time because it was easy to transfer the information from a soft copy to the analysis software because the findings were analyzed using a software referred to as SPSS. Finally, it did not generate any paper waste hence contributing to environmental conservation.
Validity and Reliability
Reliability means appropriateness, applicability and truthfulness of a study. It is the ability of research instruments to produce results that are in agreement with theoretical and conceptual values. In this study, internal validity was ensured through checking the represenativeness of the sample.
The researcher ensured that the sample used captured all important characters in the entire stdudy population (Dubois, Jolibert, & Muhlbacher 2007, p. 79). External validity was ensured through triangulation that is, the researcher used more than one technique in collecting data. External validity was also guaranteed by asking respondents to give their views.
Reliability means that the study is consistent and lacks any ambiquity. It is related to the accuracy of instruments that is, how accurate the measuring device is in measuring what it claims to measure. In this study, it was achieved through increasing verifiability of the perspective. The researcher adopted the principles of coherence, opennes and discourse in order to guarantee reliability.
Access
The research would take place in three cities in United Kingdom: London, Manchester and Liverpool. The researcher intends to identify two firms in each city where our research would be based. In the identified firms, the researcher intends to have two groups of respondents who would be sampled for the research process.
As Edkins and Maja (2009, p. 78) note, at times it may not be easy to reach out for the respondents that are required for a given research. They may be too busy to participate on the research or just unwilling to participate in it for one reason or the other.
Having taken this in mind, the researcher ensured that all the participants that were needed for this research were appropriately involved to ensure reliability. The researcher would seek permission from the identified firms’ authorities and then approach the respondents as individuals.
As explained above, the researcher intends to explain to them the purpose of this study and assure them confidentiality in their work (Eggert & Ulaga 2002, p. 83). Through this, the researcher aims to gain access to all participants that would be needed in this research. This would help in ensuring that the data collected would be a representation of the entire population.
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