The Effect of Employee Benefits on the Demand for Part-Time Workers

This paper uses the results of a unique survey of child care centers in 1989 to examine the effect of fringe benefits on the demand for part-time teachers and teacher aides. An analysis that controls for wages and other establishment characteristics shows that as the level of fringe benefit payments at the establishment rises, hours of work by part-time workers fall significantly relative to the hours worked by full-time teachers and teacher aides. Particularly influential are insurance payments (such as health and dental), which have an effect more than twice that of fringe benefits in general.