Employment and Labor Relations in Nevada

Nevada generally gets high marks for its labor market conditions, sustained economic growth, and high standards of living. Compared to the employment situation in many other regions, Nevada does indeed post impressive numbers. Yet, a closer look at the local employment and occupation structure reveals a complex pattern requiring a nuanced assessment. While some workers in Nevada have high earnings, median wages for year-round workers are no higher than the national average. Nevada has low unemployment rates and a robust union movement, but many jobs in the state are in the service sector that offers relatively low salaries and few long-term career opportunities. Employment rates are certainly important, and so is the employment structure, which significantly affects the overall quality of life enjoyed by state’s residents and local communities

Widowhood and the end of spousal caregiving: Wear and tear or relief?

This paper analyses the impact of spousal care-giving on survivors’ depressive symptoms six months into widowhood, and examines the applicability of a ‘ relief model’ of spousal adjustment during bereavement. We examine several aspects of the care-giving situation, including care-giver stress, care-giving demands, and type and duration of care and how these affect survivors’ depressive symptomatology. The sample is drawn from two waves of the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) survey, which was conducted in the United States in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, Michigan. The first wave of data was collected from couples and the second from the surviving spouse six months after the death of the partner. We use multiple regression analysis to examine the effects of key variables on depressive symptoms six months into widowhood, controlling for various demographic characteristics and personal circumstances. The results demonstrate that the duration of care-giving is the most influential predictor of survivors’ depressive symptoms six months after the death. Indeed, long-term care-givers experience greater relief than both non-caregivers and short-term care-givers, as the predicted probabilities indicate. The results lead us to emphasise that care-giving and spousal bereavement should be studied as related processes rather than distinct phenomena. Indeed, relief from a chronically stressful care situation may actually ameliorate the negative effect of spousal loss for survivors

Gendered disparities in take-ups of employee health benefits

Using a sample of 2,271 workers from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce whose employers offered personal health insurance, this article investigates the gendered nature of health insurance benefit take-ups. These analyses include family and employment characteristics in addition to employers’ contributions to health insurance premiums, a measure that is unexamined in sociological analyses of health benefits. Progressive logistic regression models predict the effects of gender and family characteristics. Results indicate that women with employed spouses are less likely to take up their own health benefits than are comparable men, net of basic employment characteristics. Gender differences disappear, however, when controlling for the level of employer contributions: women and men are equally likely to draw on their own employer’s health benefits once we account for their out-of-pocket expense. The authors conclude that family contexts and employment structures jointly influence individuals’ choices about their health benefits. The gendered structure of employment and, specifically, gendered patterns in employer contributions to health benefits are a better explanation for women’s lower chances of benefit take-ups than gender relations within families

Building a Better Term Paper: Integrating Scaffolded Writing and Peer Review

This paper presents a method for teaching undergraduate students how to write better term papers in philosophy. The method integrates two key assignment components: scaffolding and peer review. We explain these components and how they can be effectively combined within a single term paper assignment. We then present the results of our multi-year research study on the integrated method. Professor observations, quantitative measures, and qualitative feedback indicate that student writing improves when philosophy term paper assignments are designed to generate multiple rounds of drafting and review

The Sandwiched generation: Multiple caregiving responsibilities and the mismatch between actual and preferred work hours

We examine the intersection of the ‘‘Overworked American’’ and the ‘‘Sandwiched Generation.’’ Recent studies indicate that many U.S. workers would prefer to work shorter hours. For workers who are sandwiched between childcare and eldercare or who expect to be in the future, questions remain about work hour preferences. We use a representative sample and distinguish between currently sandwiched workers and those who expect to be in five years. The proportion of workers who are currently sandwiched has increased from 1992 to 2002. Further, workers who expect to be sandwiched are less likely to want to reduce their workweek hours than others

Attitudes about affirmative action for women: The role of children in shaping parents’ interests

This paper uses pooled cross-sectional data from the 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 General Social Surveys (GSS), a nationally representative sample of the U.S. adult population, to assess how employed parents’ attitudes about affirmative action for women are influenced by their children’s gender. The analytic sample includes 1,695 employed respondents. Findings based on logistic regression indicate that having daughters (and no sons) magnifies employed mothers’ support for affirmative action for women and minimizes employed fathers’ support. Conversely, having sons (and no daughters) does not suppress mothers’ support for affirmative action for women, nor does it differentiate men’s attitudes about affirmative action. We speculate about how these patterns in parents’ attitudes relate to self interest and group interest (i.e., their children’s future work experiences)

Building a Better Term Paper: Integrating Scaffolded Writing and Peer Review

This paper presents a method for teaching undergraduate students how to write better term papers in philosophy. The method integrates two key assignment components: scaffolding and peer review. We explain these components and how they can be effectively combined within a single term paper assignment. We then present the results of our multi-year research study on the integrated method. Professor observations, quantitative measures, and qualitative feedback indicate that student writing improves when philosophy term paper assignments are designed to generate multiple rounds of drafting and review.This is a manuscript of an article published as Padgett Walsh, Kate, Anastasia Prokos, and Sharon R. Bird. "Building a better term paper: Integrating scaffolded writing and peer review." Teaching Philosophy 37, no. 4 (2014): 481-497. doi: 10.5840/teachphil201410225. Posted with permission.</p

Response to Lois Hembold, Women’s Studies in Sin City: Reactionary Politics and Feminist Possibilities

The article presents a response to an article Women\u27s Studies in Sin City: Reactionary Politics and Feminist Possibilities, by Lois Helmbold published in the National Women\u27s Studies Association (NSWA) Journal. It has been said that Las Vegas\u27 political economy is distinct because it is generally built on women\u27s labor. It has one of the highest unionized service industries in the nation and, thus, it would be possible for women in Las Vegas to earn livable wages because of high-paying service jobs

Poverty among cohabiting gay and lesbian, and married and cohabiting heterosexual families

Using a subsample ( N = 1,365,145) of the 2000 Census 5% Public Use Microdata Sample, the authors investigate explanations for differing poverty chances of cohabiting gay and lesbian, and married and cohabiting heterosexual families. Gay and lesbian couples fare worse than married couples, but better economically than cohabiting heterosexuals. Lesbian and gay families are older and more educated than cohabiting heterosexual families, and these differences explain the largest portion of differences in poverty rates. Greater educational attainment and labor force participation are better explanations than age for differences between married families and their gay and lesbian counterparts. These results add to recent research pointing to variations in the economic circumstances of different family forms