Gender differences in corporate hierarchies

The gender wage gap is largely due to men and women holding different kinds of jobs. This job segregation is partly driven by gender differences in careers in corporate hierarchies. Research has shown that the careers of men and women begin to diverge immediately upon entry into the labor market and that subsequent career progress exacerbates the divergence. This divergence of career progress explains a large part of the gender wage gap. Understanding how and why the careers of men and women differ is necessary to design effective policies that can reduce the gender differences in hierarchies

Yrittäjien ansiot, työajat ja työkuormitus: Selvitys ekonomien ja insinöörien yrittäjyydestä

entrepreneurship, incomes, working hours, workload

Innovative Work Practices and Sickness Absence: What Does a Nationally Representative Employee Survey Tell?

The paper examines the effect of innovative work practices on the prevalence of sickness absence and accidents at work. We focus on several different aspects of workplace innovations (self-managed teams, information sharing, employer-provided training and incentive pay) along with the “bundles” of those practices. We use nationally representative individual-level data from the Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey from 2008. Using single equation models, we find that innovative work practices increase short-term sickness absence for blue-collar and lower white-collar employees. In two-equation models that treat innovative workplace practices as endogenous variables we do not find relationship between innovative work practices and sickness absence or accidents at work.innovative work practices; workplace innovation; sickness absence; accidents

Rent sharing as part of incentive payments and recruitment

The aim of this paper is to examine rent sharing under a heterogeneous workforce using linked employer-employee Finnish data in 1987-1998 located in Statistics Finland. It is shown that rent sharing moderates firm-level wages and that the highly educated workers are the main targets. In non-R&D-intensive firms, flexible labour supply encourages the use of rent sharing. Rent sharing is effectively used to hire new workers or to lower unwanted job mobility. However, rent sharing is more common in R&D-intensive firms. In R&D intensive firms rent sharing is more explained by human capital accumulation and targeted at experienced workers. Flexible technology in the R&D intensive firms also leads to the substitution of rent sharing for monitoring costs.Tutkimus tarkastelee eri koulutusryhmien voitonjakoa Tilastokeskuksen yhdistetyllä työntekijä- ja yritysaineistolla vuosilta 1987-1998. Tutkimuksen mukaan yritykset korvaavat tulospalkkauksella muuta palkkausta. Tulospalkkaa saavat erityisesti hyvinkoulutetut. Yrityksissä, joilla tutkimus- ja tuotekehitysmenot ovat vähäiset, tulospalkkaus on yleistä etenkin silloin, kun työvoiman liikkuvuus työpaikasta toiseen on suurta. Siten tulospalkkauksella voidaan lisätä työntekijöiden pysyvyyttä yrityksessä. Tulospalkkaus on kuitenkin yleisintä yrityksissä, jotka harjoittavat tutkimus- ja tuotekehitystä. Näissä yrityksissä tulospalkkaa saavat etenkin koulutetut ja kokeneet työntekijät. Tuotantomenetelmät ovat joustavia ja tulospalkkauksella korvataan suoritepalkkausta. – palkkausjärjestelmät ; työvoiman kysyntä ; yhdistetty työntekijä-yritysaineist

Firm and Employee Effects of an Enterprise Information System: Micro-econometric Evidence

We investigate the impact of adopting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on performance changes and employee outcomes in a retail chain. We find that: (i) sales and inventory turnover initially drop by 7 % and recover in 6-12 months; (ii) inventory turnover recovers more quickly for establishments that adopt ERP later; (iii) employee outcomes, including increased workload, greater job difficulty and enhanced multitasking, vary significantly over time, though implications for employee welfare are ambiguous.enterprise resource planning; retailing; Finland; IT

Performance-related: Pay and gender wage differences

We study the impact of performance-related pay (PRP) on gender wage differences using Finnish linked employer-employee panel data. Controlling for unobserved person and firm effects, we find that bonuses increase women's earnings slightly less than men's, but the economic significance of the difference is negligible. Piece rates and reward rates, however, tend to increase gender wage differentials. Thus, the nature of a performance related pay plan is important for gauging the impact of PRP on gender wage differentials. A comparison with OLS results shows the importance of controlling for unobserved person and firm effects

Career and wage dynamics: Evidence from linked employer-employee data

We study career and wage dynamics within and between firms using a large linked employer-employee panel dataset spanning 26 years. We construct six-level hierarchies for more than 5,000 firms. We replicate most of the analyses from Baker, Gibbs and Holmström (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1994) and make some extensions. Many of our results corroborate their findings. Careers within firms are important, but the strong version of the theory of internal labor markets does not fit the data. Recent theories of career and wage dynamics explain our findings well

Performance measurement and incentive plans

This paper explores performance measurement in incentive plans. Based on theory, we argue that differences in the nature of jobs between blue- and white-collar employees lead to differences in incentive systems. We find that performance measurement for white-collar workers is broader in terms of the performance measures, the organizational level of performance measurement and the time horizon. The intensity of incentives is also stronger for white-collar employees. All of these findings are consistent with theory

Profit sharing in Finland: Earnings and productivity effects

The aim of this paper is to examine profit sharing using Finnish linked employer-employee data in 1996-2000. The use of profit sharing is predicted by the share of the highly educated, R&D and capital intensity, business risk, firm size and the desire to have some stability in the skilled workforce. The probability that an employee is included in a profit sharing plan is higher for educated, R&D employees, white-collar employees and men. Individuals in profit sharing plans have 3-13% higher wages after controlling for the observable characteristics of the employees (3% for white-collar and 13% for blue-collar employees). They also have quicker base wage growth. The productivity effects are 6-13% when the composition of the workforce is controlled for.Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan tulospalkkausta, käyttäen suomalaista yhdistettyä työnantaja-työntekijäaineistoa vuosilta 1996-2000. Tulospalkkauksen käyttöä selittää korkeasti koulutettujen osuus, T&K- ja pääomaintensiivisyys, liikeriski, yrityskoko ja koulutetun työvoiman alhainen vaihtuvuus. Tulospalkkaa saavat todennäköisimmin korkeasti koulutetut, T&K-työntekijät, toimihenkilöt ja miehet. Tulospalkkaa saavilla toimihenkilöillä ansiot ovat noin 3% korkeammat ja työntekijöillä noin 13 % korkeammat, kun havaittavat henkilökohtaiset ominaisuudet on vakioitu. Heidän palkkakasvu on myös ollut nopeampaa. Tuottavuusvaikutukset ovat noin 6-13% kun työvoiman rakenne on otettu huomioon. – palkitsemismenetelmät ; tuottavuus ; palkkaerot ; yhdistetty työnantaja-työntekijäaineist

What makes performance-related pay schemes work? Finnish evidence

We analyze how features of performance-related pay (PRP) schemes affect their perceived motivational effects using a Finnish survey from 1999. The results show that the following features are important for a successful PRP scheme: (i) the employees have to feel they are able to affect the outcomes; (ii) the organizational level of the performance measurement should be close to the employee: individual and team level performance measurements increase the probability that the scheme is perceived to be motivating; (iii) employees should be familiar with the performance measures; (iv) the level of payments should be high enough and rewards frequent enough. Low PRP levels do not generate positive effects; (v) the employees should participate in the design of the PRP scheme.Tarkastelemme kuinka tulospalkkausjärjestelmien piirteet vaikuttavat niiden koettuun kannustavuuteen käyttäen suomalaista kyselyaineistoa vuodelta 1999. Tulokset osoittavat, että seuraavat piirteet ovat tärkeitä kannustavalle tulospalkkausjärjestelmälle: (i) työntekijöiden täytyy voida vaikuttaa toiminnan tuloksiin; (ii) suoritusmittaus tulisi tapahtua henkilökohtaisella tasolla tai tiimitasolla; (iii) työntekijöiden tulisi tuntea suoritusmittarit; (iv) tulospalkkioiden tason tulisi olla riittävän korkea ja niitä tulisi maksaa riittävän usein. Mikäli tulospalkkioiden taso on alhainen, vaikutuksia koettuun kannustavuuteen ei ole; (v) työntekijöiden tulisi osallistua tulospalkkausjärjestelmän suunnitteluun