I often see several 12 or 20 hour PT contracts for the same job at the same employer - caused me to wonder if employers are splitting up FT posts into small pieces. I can see some advantages to it for employers but also wonder - is there financial advantage to the employer in doing this?
if you are off sick they pay you less an they can offer you more hours than the contract to cover sick. hoildays etc
If under the NI threshold for contributions [ About £100 ish??] then the company saves money by not having to pay NI
In theory I assume it is cheaper to hire X people all under enployers NI contributions rates than one above for the employer
Flexibility - they will give 15 hr contracts and offer overtime at basic rate above that - but when they don't need the staff - no overtime.
You don't have to pay a living wage because part-timers are all "topping up" - housewives (male or female), semiretired, students etc. Also, PTers less likely to join a union, want benefits etc. Also (tbf) some industries have genuine peak rushes at diff times of day/week and it wouldn't be worth having full complement of staff at non-peak time.
This is why retail, catering etc is mostly PT.