The National Minimum Wage and Hours of Work: Implications for Low Paid Women* Sara Connolly and Mary Gregoryà  School of Economic and Social Studies,University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK (e-mail: sara.connolly@uea.ac.uk) àDepartment of Economics and St Hilda’s College, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ (e-mail: mary.gregory@economics.oxford.ac.uk) Abstract The largest group of beneficiaries from the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in the UK were women working part-time. A potential threat to these wage gains is a reduction in the working hours available, with part- time (flexible) jobs particularly vulnerable. This paper reports a range of difference-in-difference estimates using individual-level data from the New Earnings Survey and the British Household Panel Survey. No significant changes in hours worked by either full- or part-time women are found 1, 2 and 3 years after the NMW, and no change in the probabilities of remaining in full- or part-time work or transiting between the two. I. Introduction The introduction of the National Minimum Wage in the UK in 1999 has highlighted the low wage status of women, particularly those working part- time, and the concentration of low pay in these groups. Women still comprise less than half of the working population, but twice as many women as men have had their pay raised as a result of its introduction. Women in part-time work have been the largest single group of beneficiaries. In its report reviewing the first year of operation of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), *The authors are grateful to the co-editor, Jo Swaffield, and three anonymous referees for helpful comments. The NESPD data were made available by the Office for National Statistics and the BHPS data by the ESRC Data Archive. JEL Classification numbers: J16, J23, J38. OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS, 64, SUPPLEMENT (2002) 0305-9049 607 Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2003. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.