Good or bad jobs? Characteristics of older female part-time work

Despite consistently high rates of part-time employment among older women, the quality of this cohort's work is largely under-researched with the focus being mainly on younger women. To address this gap, our paper engages with the key strands of this debate-age, gender and employment status-to interrogate the job characteristics and position of this worker cohort in the Irish labour market. Findings reveal notable differences between this cohort's job characteristics compared with those of other part-time workers and older women working full-time. These job characteristics include low-wage employment in poor-quality jobs, suggesting that job quality is influenced by age, gender and employment status, raising concerns regarding the likelihood for precarious employment among this cohort. In addition to individual-level consequences, this study's findings have major implications for public and organisational policy on part-time labour market participation, highlighting the need for a new research agenda on older workers.