Cut costs to boost job sharing, say MPs
In an open letter to the Government, MPs and campaigners have requested ministers make job sharing standard by cutting the associated costs for employers. The letter says that the existing National Insurance system limits the job-sharing opportunities employers are able to offer.
Job sharing is a form of flexible working where one role is split between two people. It opens up more opportunities for employees sharing the role, such as progression and networking, compared with traditional part-time roles. Direct benefits to business include savings on office space (by using technological advances to allow remote working and hot desking), as wel as allowing a better match between business resources and demand, for example serving customers on a 24/7 basis.
The letter was organised by gender equality campaign group Empower, which said that job-sharing roles were especially beneficial for individuals who were unable to work full-time, such as working parents or carers.
Empower Chair Jacqui Smith said:
“Job sharing is the solution to many of the issues working mothers face, enabling a work-life balance while retaining women in senior positions with equal access to career progression. The Government must now facilitate job sharing to become a mainstream working practice by introducing cost incentives, considering the needs of working parents in their post-COVID recovery plan.”
The letter says:
“Globally, women’s job losses due to the Coronavirus pandemic are 1.8 times greater than men’s. Working mothers were three times more likely than men to reduce their hours due to a lack of childcare during lockdown. Not all flexible working practices will support women in the workplace, promote a healthy work/life balance and close the gender pay gap gulf that has widened due to the pandemic. The solution is job sharing.
“Campaign group Empower believes it’s time to make job sharing a mainstream working practice for the good of working women, men, parents, carers and their employers. We agree. That’s why today we’re calling on the Government to incentivise job sharing by introducing a reduction on employers’ national insurance contributions for employees in job shares.”
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