Pay and promotion prospects of millions of people are being "scarred for life" just because they work part-time, the Equal Opportunities Commission claims.
Around 3.8 million part-timers, almost half the total, were in jobs they felt failed to capitalise on their qualifications, skills and experience.
Britain has the second highest proportion of part-time workers in the EU.
Four out of five part-timers were women and they were more likely to work in low-level jobs.
The EOC said the longer a person worked part-time, the lower their wages were likely to be.
Women who had worked part-time for a year and then worked full-time earned 10 per cent less than those who worked in the same job for the same period.
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