Flexible Work Arrangements: Improving Job Quality and Workforce Stability for Low-Wage Workers and their Employers

In 2009, workers and their families across the country felt the impact of serious economic downturn, with unemployment reaching a 26-year high. While recent news suggests things may be improving, we cannot forget that for many low-wage and hourly workers -- who now represent over a quarter of the U.S. workforce -- the recession only exacerbated their ongoing struggle to hold down quality jobs while caring for their families. Low-wage workers face many of the same challenges that the rest of us face in reconciling our work, family and personal lives, but for many of these workers, it\u27s simply a whole lot harder. Low-wage workers are more likely to face involuntary part-time work, rigid or unpredictable schedules, or night, evening and weekend work, all of which can have serious consequences for families, including unstable and inadequate child care, poor health outcomes, family instability, missed work, lost and unstable income and job loss

Flexible Work Arrangements and Low-Wage Work: Presentation by Liz Watson

Presentation given by Liz Watson, Legislative Counsel, Workplace Flexibility 2010, during a briefing titled Flexible Work Arrangements and Low-Wage Work. This event was held on July 8, 2009, and presented by Workplace Flexibility 2010 and the New America Foundation

Reality Check: Seventeen Million Reasons Low-Wage Workers Need Strong Protection from Harrassment

In a recent five-to-four decision in Vance v. Ball State University, the Supreme Court watered down workplace protections from harassment. The Court held that supervisors who direct daily work activities - but lack the power to hire and fire - are mere coworkers, and that the tougher legal standard that applies in cases of coworker harassment also applies to harassment by these lower-level supervisors. The Court's cramped definition of supervisor ignores workplace realities, with negative consequences for millions of workers.The reality is that most lower-level supervisors have significant authority over their subordinates, even though they do not have the power to hire and fire. The report provides new data analysis showing that there are more than three million of these lower-level supervisors for more than 17 million low-wage workers - virtually all of the low-wage workforce. And another three million lower-level supervisors oversee millions of workers who do not earn low wages.The Vance decision puts all workers who are harassed by lower-level supervisors between a rock and a hard place. And it may be particularly damaging to workers in low-wage jobs who are very likely to report to a lower-level supervisor and especially vulnerable to harassment. These workers know that they may be putting their jobs on the line by reporting harassment. For those still willing to take the brave step of trying to hold their employers accountable despite the risk involved, they now stand a good chance of having their cases thrown out for failure to meet the definition of supervisor adopted in Vance. And their employers have fewer incentives to prevent and remedy harassment by lower-level supervisors, making harassment more likely to occur. The Center's report documents how the Vance decision is divorced from current workplace realities, with a particular focus on the low-wage workplace. The report offers a glimpse into the post-Vance future by chronicling cases of egregious harassment by lower-level supervisors in which women lost in court because the courts held that their harassers were coworkers, rather than supervisors. The report then highlights practical steps that Congress, states, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can take to address the mismatch between current law and workplace realities

Underpaid and Overloaded: Women in Low-Wage Jobs

This report provides a comprehensive look at the women and men in the low-wage workforce, holding down jobs that typically pay $10.10 per hour or less, such as home health aides, child care workers, fast food workers, restaurant servers, maids and cashiers. The report reveals that, although women's educational credentials are better than ever, women are two-thirds of the 20 million workers in low-wage jobs. And, regardless of their education level, age, marital or parental status, race, ethnicity, or national origin, women's shares of the low-wage workforce are larger than those of their male counterparts. Especially striking is the finding that women need a bachelor's degree to avoid being overrepresented in low-wage jobs -- while men only need to finish high school

Improving and Sustaining AMP! NC, an Arts-Based, Multiple-Intervention, Peer-Education Sexual Health and HIV/STI Prevention Program for Teens in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Community

Background: Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 24 account for over one-quarter of new HIV infections in the United States (U.S.), with approximately 24% of new HIV infections in North Carolina (NC) occurring among youth in this age group. There exists a need to provide effective sexual health education for high school and undergraduate youth in NC, as studies conducted across the globe have found sexual health education to improve safe sexual behaviors among youth under the age of 25. Methods: The Capstone team partnered with the UCLA Art and Global Health Center (UCLA AGHC) and the AMP! NC pilot site to refine and promote sustainability of the undergraduate near-peer educator component of AMP!, a theater-based sexual health education and HIV prevention program for adolescents. The Capstone team employed a variety of methods and skills to complete five deliverables, which included literature search; curriculum design and instruction; qualitative analysis; manuscript development and preparation; and cognitive interviewing. Results: The Capstone team produced five deliverables: 1) an HIV training facilitator's guide with accompanying materials to train AMP!'s undergraduate performers in HIV basics; 2) report from cognitive interviews, which provides suggestions for adaptation of a questionnaire designed to evaluate program impact on undergraduate student participants; 3) qualitative data analysis on written data from undergraduate student AMP! participants and a manuscript summarizing these findings; 4) a research brief highlighting the main evaluation findings from 2012-2013; and 5) a funder's package that includes potential funding opportunities, the aforementioned research brief, program summary pages, and photos and testimonials from AMP! participants. Discussion: The deliverables produced increased the sustainability of AMP! NC, and increased the feasibility of implementing AMP! as a standardized intervention in other sites across the U.S. These deliverables may help to increase youth activism around prevention of HIV and other STIs.Master of Public Healt

Current practice in academic workload allocation processes in Australia

Embarking on a large-scale research project to investigate aspects of academic workload management, it was first necessary to gain some understanding of current practice in that context within Australia. With that aim a pilot survey was conducted in 2013 that targeted Deans of Science on the one hand, and workload managers on the other. Survey questions covered three key areas related to workload management: models and rules; process and policy; and systems and software. Comparisons between different types of university, different allocation models for teaching, research and service components of academic workload, and different sizes of academic unit were explored. While the number of responses in absolute terms was relatively limited, and hence the outcomes were not always statistically testable or generalisable, broad trends were readily identifiable.  This paper reports on the method and outcomes of the survey, and describes how the information that was obtained has informed the development of an in-depth research project

Marketing and Outreach in Law Libraries: A White Paper

In recent years, libraries have turned to marketing and outreach to better educate library users about services and resources while gaining an understanding of their needs. Marketing and outreach are relatively new concepts in academic law libraries, and librarians tasked with these functions have found resources and examples of this type of work to be lacking. Though focused on academic law libraries, the article identifies the challenges facing all law libraries, explains why libraries need marketing and outreach plans, and provides examples of marketing and outreach successes