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New research paints stark picture for young women in student employment

Employers, trade unions and education providers in England are being urged to come together to make employment fairer for students.

The call follows new research into the tumultuous landscape of student employment, with the picture especially fraught for young women and girls, who are significantly more likely to work during their studies than young men.

Authored by researchers from the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and City St. George's London, the "Earning While Learning: Student Employment" presents original findings on student employment.

The research examines how young women across England navigate part-time work alongside their education, particularly in the context of increasing living costs and growing financial pressure on young people.

The participants were aged between 14 and 23 years old and were attending schools, Further Education (FE) colleges, sixth forms, and universities across England.

Professor Kim Allen, the study's Principal Investigator from Leeds' School of Sociology and Social Policy said, "Student work is not new. However, as the costs of living continue to rise, young people are increasingly having to support themselves—and often their family—through part-time jobs.

"These jobs offer a range of benefits and meanings for young people, but they also present challenges. Our research shows that students are not only poorly paid but often feel unsafe and powerless in the workplace.

"We also found that young women are 50% more likely than their male peers to engage in paid work while studying and therefore are more likely to be navigating the challenges of this poorly paid—and often-intensive—work alongside their studies."

Core findings

Drawing on analysis of national datasets and focus group interviews with 83 young women about their experiences of engaging in paid work while studying, the research found that:

• Young women are 50% more likely than their male counterparts to participate in paid work during their studies.
• Sexual harassment at work is a widespread issue for young women.
• Student workers sometimes feel unsafe in the workplace, and often feel powerless.
• Given than young women are significantly more likely to engage in paid work alongside their studies, supporting student workers may be an equality duty for educational institutions.
• Pay for student workers is low, often below national minimum wage levels for their age.
• Work patterns vary between students, with some working long or inconvenient hours.
• Combining work and studying can result in negative outcomes, especially related to working hours, including anxiety and burnout.
• Students lack knowledge of rights or legal pay rates or feel unable to assert their rights.

Creating a fairer landscape

Student work is often thought of as informal or short-term, but according to the researchers, this is not the reality. Professor Allen added, "Students often work unsociable hours—including evenings and weekends—and find themselves forced to pick up work shifts that are hard to fill.

"Contrary to the widespread idea that students are transitory or temporary workers, we found that a large proportion are in fact with the same employer for more than a year. Students are very important to employers; in some sectors, like retail and hospitality, they make up more than 20% of the workforce."

Despite this, the feeling of powerlessness to change shifts or raise issues with employers remains a pervasive sentiment among student workers.

One participant—Laura—said, "It's really difficult because a lot of jobs you're getting quite exploited, it's kind of difficult to try and get change or say anything about it really, because employers don't really care."

Professor Allen emphasized the importance of key actors working together to improve working conditions and help student workers assert their rights in the workplace, saying: "Rather than ban students from working, we urge educational institutions, employers and unions to work together to improve the conditions of student work and support young people to engage in meaningful, decent and fair work."