pay-neutral

English

Adjective

pay-neutral (comparative more pay-neutral, superlative most pay-neutral)

1. (uncommon, of a job) Leaving no significant net income to sustain the household; only covering childcare costs, travel, and other expenses. [from late 2000s]
   • 2008, Revue française de sociologie, volume 48, page 106:

     Certain neoclassical authors consider severance pay "neutral" because the employee can always be made to pay a deposit at the beginning of the wage relation which can be used as severance pay later on.

   • 2010, Jack Walters, Positive Management: Increasing Employee Productivity, Business Expert Press, page 13:

     If implementing PM can be pay neutral, then isn't it just another way of getting people to work more without paying them more, a latter-day version of the Fame that Wwe have been playing all along? Absolutely not.

   • 2012 September 1, Joanne O'Connell, “Soaring childcare costs see parents working for nothing”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 2024-04-24:

     When it comes to single parents, the situation is even worse. Many professional women find themselves in this "pay-neutral" position, as they're often forced to take lower-paid part-time jobs to fit around their children.

   • 2012 October 9, Gaby Hinsliff, “Can Cameron curb soaring childcare costs to win over women?”, in The Daily Telegraph‎^[2], archived from the original on 2024-04-24:

     But the rise and rise of the ‘pay neutral’ job - where there’s nothing left even of a decent salary, once the nursery standing order goes out - is finally becoming a hot political potato.

   • 2012 November 28, Katy Morton, “New report questions whether work pays for parents in Northern Ireland”, in Nursery World‎^[3], archived from the original on 2024-04-24:

     The cost of childcare in Northern Ireland is leaving parents 'pay neutral', with a single parent spending on average 44 per cent of their weekly income on daycare for one child, according to a new report.

   • 2014 January 11, Harriet Meyer, “Childcare costs soar by 19% in just one year – survey”, in The Guardian‎^[4], archived from the original on 2024-04-24:

     And a 2013 Family Finances report from insurer Aviva found childcare costs and cuts to benefits have led to more people in "pay-neutral" work – where childcare and travel costs wipe out earnings. Many single parents are forced to take part-time jobs to fit around their children.

   • 2014, Guy Standing, A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 177:

     More people also find themselves in a ‘pay-neutral’ trap, where the income from jobs does not cover the costs of taking them, since they not only lose benefits but must also pay for childcare, transport, suitable clothes and so on.

   • 2018 September 20, “Returning to Work After a Career Break: Why the Stigma?”, in The Women's Organization‎^[5], archived from the original on 2024-04-24:

     Returning to work straight after having a child has, for some, been branded as ‘pay-neutral work’, whereby the costs of childcare and travel consume an entire salary and leave many women essentially working for free.

   • 2018, Stephen J. Perkins, editor, The Routledge Companion to Reward Management, Taylor & Francis, page 368:

     Justifying excesses in one part of the organization whilst providing explanations as to why expanding job roles elsewhere were apparently ‘pay-neutral’ was no easy task, and it did little to improve employee morale in an organization whose key message was “do more with less”.