Work-Life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility

[Excerpt] American society has changed dramatically over the past half century. Women have entered the labor force in growing numbers and families have increasingly relied on more than one earner to make ends meet. And yet, children still need to be taken to the doctor and elderly parents still need care. Moreover, more adults older than 25 are attending school. Because these changes have caused many workers to face conflicts between their work and their personal lives, they also inspire a need and desire for more flexibility in the workplace. Flexible workplace arrangements can be in terms of when one works, where one works, or how much one works (including time off after childbirth or other life events). They include a variety of arrangements such as job sharing, phased retirement of older workers, and telecommuting, that allow workers to continue making productive contributions to the workforce while also attending to family and other responsibilities. This report presents an economic perspective on flexible workplace policies and practices. The first section reports some of the changes in the U.S. workforce that have increased the need for flexibility in the workplace. • Women comprise nearly one-half of the labor force; in nearly one-half of households all adults are working. • In 2008, approximately 43.5 million Americans served as unpaid caregivers to a family member over the age of 50. Nearly one-fifth of employed people were caregivers who provided care to a person over age 50. • The increasing demand for analytical and interactive skills—those largely obtained through post-secondary education—means it is all the more important and common for individuals to pursue additional education while also working. The second section examines the current state of flexible work arrangements and reports that many employers have adapted to the changing realities of American workers. • Overall, over one-half of employers report allowing at least some workers to periodically change their starting and quitting times. However, less than one-third of full-time workers report having flexible work hours, and only 39 percent of part-time workers do. This discrepancy between the employer and employee reports may be due to differences in data collection or because more employers would be willing to accommodate the needs of individual workers but these workers are not aware of it. • Less-skilled workers have less workplace flexibility in terms of the scheduling of when they work than do more highly-skilled workers. • Flexibility in where to work is less common: only about 15 percent of workers report working from home at least once per week. • Finally, most employers offer at least some workers the ability to return to work gradually after a major life event such as the birth or adoption of a child, although job sharing appears less widespread. The report concludes with a discussion of the economic benefits of workplace flexibility arrangements. • Almost one-third of firms cite costs or limited funds as obstacles to implementing workplace flexibility arrangements. However, the benefits of adopting such management practices can outweigh the costs by reducing absenteeism, lowering turnover, improving the health of workers, and increasing productivity. • The costs and benefits of adopting flexible arrangements differ across industries and employers of different sizes. • Because many employers may not have accurate information about the costs and benefits of workplace flexibility practices and because some of the benefits may extend beyond the individual employer and its workers, wider adoption of such policies and practices may well have benefits to more firms and workers, and for the U.S. economy as a whole. • A factor hindering a deeper understanding of the benefits and costs of flexibility is a lack of data on the prevalence of workplace flexibility arrangements, and more research is needed on the mechanisms through which flexibility influences workers’ job satisfaction and firm profits to help policy makers and managers alike

The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor

[Excerpt] This book too is about class. It details the rise of class inequalities in the United States, and it offer portraits of the new labor movements that are arising in response. But is also about the sex of class. It is about the feminization of work and workers and the continued reluctance of those who study class and who rally on behalf of ameliorating class injustice to take sufficient notice of this fundamental revolution

Integrating Women and Girls With Disabilities Into Mainstream Vocational Training: A Practical Guide

[From Foreword] This guide has been developed as an ILO contribution to implementing the Agenda for Action of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, and to the Platform for Action adopted by the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing which has called specifically for action by Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and on-governmental organizations, including women’s and youth organizations, and educational institutions to ensure access to quality education and training for, among others, women with disabilities, to improve their employment opportunities. It is also part of the ILO strategy to promote the observance of the ILO Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159), and Recommendation, 1983 (No. 168). These are the main reference documents for the ILO activities on the employment and training of disabled persons, along with the ILO Recommendation on Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1995 (No. 99). This guide is intended primarily for instructors and administrators in vocational training institutes in both the public and private sectors

Footwear Cluster in Kolkata: A Case of Self-Exploitative Fragmentation

Studies in industrial clusters largely identify the institutional failures and imperfections that prevail in the supply of indivisible inputs and collective action. This paper critically reviews a typical ‘low‐road’ cluster in Kolkata and argues that market failures due to existence of information imperfections, externalities and public good and the institutional failure to resolve those imperfections only partially explain the depressed status in these clusters. The explanation, however, critically rests on the fact of asymmetric power relations and conflicts arising between the trader and the small producer reproducing a production relation that thwarts the high road growth path. The spawning of small enterprises in such clusters, as the argument goes, is a result of self‐exploitative fragmentation that does not flow from entrepreneurship but is a result of survival strategy of labour in the context of depressed wages.contested exchange; self-exploitative fragmentation;

Introduction

Publication within the project “The V4 towards migration challenges in Europe. An analysis and recommendations” is financed by Visegrad Fund

Incentive Contracting versus Ownership Reforms: Evidence from China's Township and Village Enterprises

We use a unique data set to study the implications of introducing managerial incentives and, in addition to incentives, better defined ownership for a firm's financial performance. The data set traces the ten-year history of 80 Chinese rural enterprises, known as township and village enterprises. During this period, these originally (mostly) community owned, local government controlled socialist collective firms were first allowed to introduce managerial incentive contracts and then to change to ownership forms of more clearly defined income and control rights. The study finds that introducing managerial incentives had a positive but statistically insignificant effect on these firms' performance measured by accounting return on assets or return on equity. It also finds that the performance is significantly better under ownership forms of better-defined rights than under community ownership even when the latter is supplemented with managerial incentive contracts. The findings shed lights on some important theoretical and policy issues.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39749/3/wp365.pd

The future of work: Towards a progressive agenda for all. EPC Issue Paper 9 DECEMBER 2019

Europe’s labour markets and the world of work in general are being transformed by the megatrends of globalisation, the fragmentation of the production and value chain, demographic ageing, new societal aspirations and the digitalisation of the economy. This Issue Paper presents the findings and policy recommendations of “The future of work – Towards a progressive agenda for all”, a European Policy Centre research project. Its main objectives were to expand public knowledge about these profound changes and to reverse the negative narrative often associated with this topic. It aimed to show how human decisions and the right policies can mitigate upcoming disruptions and provide European and national policymakers with a comprehensive toolkit for a progressive agenda for the new world of work

Changing Attitudes towards Minimum Wage Debate: How is The Neoclassical Economic Theory holding in the face of a New Era of Minimum Wage Studies?

This paper compares the traditional neoclassical economic perspective with the recent empirical findings regarding minimum wage effect on employment. The comparison is done by reviewing and analyzing relevant literature and data that have recorded, over time, the changing attitudes toward the issue since the Great Depression era. By taking this approach, the argument is made that in the face of recent scientific findings and empirical research studies, the neoclassical argument that minimum wage laws have a negative effect on employment is gradually losing its appeal among scholars as well as practitioners. As a result, a new public debate is taking place on the issue, which in turn, has begun to have a transformative impact in the policymaking of minimum wage at the state and federal levels.Minimum Wage Laws;Labor Economics;