Here's what each involves, and how to choose.
Part-time
What it is: fewer hours than full-time, usually expressed as a decimal of full-time equivalent — 0.8 FTE (four days), 0.6 FTE (three days), 0.5 FTE (half).
Pay: pro-rata. You're paid the proportion of the full-time salary that matches your hours. Leave entitlements accrue pro-rata too.
Suits you if: you want less work overall, not just differently arranged work. It's the cleanest arrangement to negotiate and by far the most common — the ABS finds part-time hours consistently among the top-rated factors for parents returning to work.
The catch: part-time roles thin out sharply at senior level. Plenty of employers offer part-time in junior grades and effectively nowhere else. If you're mid-to-senior, this is the thing to test in an interview — ask how many people above a certain level work part-time. The answer tells you more than the policy does.
The other catch: part-time creep. Three days of pay for four days of work is common and rarely deliberate. Agree what drops off, not just what hours you work.
Job share
What it is: two people share one full-time role, splitting the hours and the responsibilities. Typically a 3/2 or 2.5/2.5 split, with a handover day or overlap.
Pay: each person is paid pro-rata for their share.
Suits you if: you want reduced hours but the role genuinely can't be done in less time — a leadership position, a client-facing role, something requiring continuous coverage. Job share is the arrangement that makes senior part-time work possible, which is why it matters more than its rarity suggests.
The upside employers underrate: two people's skills and networks for one salary, built-in cover for leave and illness, and no single point of failure. Job share partnerships often outperform the individual because the pair covers a wider range than one person can.
The catch: it's the hardest to set up, because it needs a partner and a manager willing to try it. Two routes: find your own partner (an existing colleague in a similar situation, or someone through a returner network), or apply to roles explicitly advertised as job-share-friendly. The second is rare, which is exactly why it's worth filtering for.
Make it work: agree upfront how you split the work (by function, by client, or by day), how you hand over, and who's accountable for what. Job shares fail on ambiguity, not on hours.
Compressed hours
What it is: full-time hours worked across fewer, longer days. The common versions are a four-day week at full-time hours (sometimes called a 9-day fortnight when spread differently), or 38 hours across four days instead of five.
Pay: full-time. You're working full-time hours, so you're paid full-time.
Suits you if: you need a whole day free but can't afford a pay cut, and you can genuinely work longer days. Popular for people with a fixed weekly commitment — a regular carer's day, study, a health appointment.
The catch: the days you do work are long. If your constraint is a 3pm school pickup, compressed hours makes that worse on four days out of five, not better. This is the most common mismatch — people ask for compressed hours when what they actually need is school-hours part-time.
Not the same as a four-day week. A "four-day week" in the Medibank or 100:80:100 sense means reduced hours at full pay. Compressed hours means the same hours, rearranged. Don't use the terms interchangeably in a request — you'll get a confused answer.
Flexible start and finish times
What it is: full-time hours and full-time days, but you choose when you start and finish, usually around a band of core hours when everyone's expected to be available (say 10am–3pm).
Pay: full-time.
Suits you if: your constraint is timing rather than volume — a drop-off, a commute you want to shift off peak, a carer's appointment. It's the easiest arrangement to get agreed, because nothing about the role changes.
The catch: it only works if the culture backs it. Flexible start times mean nothing if the important meetings are all at 8:30am.
Remote and hybrid
What it is: some or all of your work done away from the office.
Pay: unchanged.
Suits you if: your constraint is commuting time or location rather than hours.
The catch: this is the arrangement most likely to be advertised vaguely and withdrawn later. "Hybrid (negotiable)" is worth nothing. Get the specific days in writing, and be aware that return-to-office mandates have been reversing hybrid arrangements at several large Australian employers.
Which one to ask for — a quick guide
Your situation
Ask for
Need a 2:30 finish for school pickup
Part-time, school-hours — or flexible finish if you can make hours up
Want less work overall
Part-time
Want less work but the role is senior
Job share
Need a full day free, can't take a pay cut
Compressed hours
Need to start late or finish early, hours are fine
Flexible start/finish
Commute is the problem
Hybrid or remote
Managing a regular carer commitment
Compressed hours or part-time, depending on whether it's a day or daily
Two things that apply to all of them
They're all section 65 requests. If you've got 12 months' continuous service and you meet one of the eligible circumstances — parent of a school-age or younger child, carer, disability, 55 or older, pregnant, or affected by family and domestic violence — you can request any of these formally under the Fair Work Act, and your employer has binding obligations in how they respond. Our guide to asking for flexible work in Australia covers the process.
Always clarify whether a salary is FTE or actual. This trips up more part-time negotiations than anything else. A role advertised at "$90,000" might be the full-time equivalent, with your actual pay pro-rated — or it might be the real figure for the reduced hours. They're very different numbers. Ask which, and state which basis you mean when you give your own expectation.
Find roles that already offer them
The straightforward version of all this is not having to negotiate at all — applying for roles that were designed flexibly in the first place.
On Rebalance, every listing carries its arrangement as a structured, filterable field: part-time load, job-share availability, compressed-hours options, core hours and school-hours suitability. You can search for the specific arrangement you need instead of reading three hundred ads hoping one mentions it.