Real Wage Trends, 1979 to 2017

[Excerpt] The focus of this report is on wage rates and changes at selected wage percentiles, with some attention given to the potential influence of educational attainment and the occupational distribution of worker groups on wage patterns. Other factors are likely to contribute to wage trends over the 1979 to 2017 period as well, including changes in the supply and demand for workers, labor market institutions, workplace organization and practices, and macroeconomic trends. This report provides an overview of how these broad forces are thought to interact with wage determination, but it does not attempt to measure their contribution to wage patterns over the last four decades. For example, changes over time in the supply and demand for workers with different skill sets (e.g., as driven by technological change and new international trade patterns) is likely to affect wage growth. A declining real minimum wage and decreasing unionization rates may lead to slower wage growth for workers more reliant on these institutions to provide wage protection, whereas changes in pay setting practices in certain high pay occupations, the emergence of superstar earners (e.g., in sports and entertainment), and skill biased technological changes may have improved wage growth for some workers at the top of the wage distribution. Macroeconomic factors, business cycles, and other national economic trends affect the overall demand for workers, with consequences for aggregate wage growth, and may affect employers’ production decisions (e.g., production technology and where to produce) with implications for the distribution of wage income. These factors are briefly discussed at the end of the report

What Does the Gig Economy Mean for Workers?

[Excerpt] Technological advancement and the proliferation of the smartphone have reshaped the commercial landscape, providing consumers new ways to access the retail marketplace. On-demand companies are one such innovation, and underpinning on-demand commerce is the gig economy, the collection of markets that match service providers to consumers of on-demand services on a gig (or job) basis. Flagship on-demand companies such as Uber (driver services) and Handy (home cleaners and household services) have garnered significant media attention both for their market success and recent legal challenges, particularly concerning the classification of gig workers. Broader questions about the pros and cons of the gig economy have emerged as on-demand markets grow and the gig economy expands into new sectors. By some accounts, workers’ willingness to participate in the gig economy provides evidence that gig work is a beneficial arrangement. Indeed, gig jobs may yield benefits relative to traditional employment in terms of the ease of finding employment and greater flexibility to choose jobs and hours. The gig economy may facilitate bridge employment (e.g., temporary employment between career jobs or between full-time work and retirement) or provide opportunities to generate income when circumstances do not accommodate traditional full-time, full-year employment. At the same time, however, the potential lack of labor protections for gig workers and the precarious nature of gig work have been met with some concern. The nationwide reach of gig work and its potential to impact large groups of workers, and their livelihoods, have attracted the attention of some Members of Congress. These Members have raised questions about the size and composition of the gig workforce, the proper classification of gig workers (i.e., as employees or independent contractors), the potential for gig work to create work opportunities for unemployed or underemployed workers, and implications of gig work for worker protections and access to traditional employment-based benefits. In support of these policy considerations, this report provides an overview of the gig economy and identifies legal and policy questions relevant to its workforce

Using sea-level and land motion data to develop an improved glacial isostatic adjustment model for the British Isles

The Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) of the British Isles is of interest due to the constraints that can be provided on key model parameters such as regional ice sheet history, viscoelastic earth structure and the global meltwater (eustatic) signal. Many past studies have used as their primary observable the high quality relative sea level (RSL) data from this region. However, as indicated in these studies, the data are notoriously difficult to fit due to the highly complex non-monotonic nature of the observed sea level change. In addition, the model predictions show a strong sensitivity to both regional ice and earth model parameters as well as the global meltwater history, resulting in a high degree of non-uniqueness when seeking an optimum model solution. The principle aim of this thesis is to address this inherent non-uniqueness in the British Isles GIA problem and reduce the viable solution parameter space by considering additional datasets that display distinct sensitivities to local and global components of the GIA signal. This was achieved in a number of stages, using a combination of relative sea level data from both near and far-field sites, Continuous GPS data and the most recent geomorphological field constraints. GPS observations of present day vertical crustal motion at sites across Great Britain are employed to provide an independent constraint on the choice of regional earth model parameters (viscoelastic earth structure). It was shown that the data are relatively insensitive to plausible variations in both the regional and global ice model history and as such, the data are used to identify an optimum range of earth model parameters for the region. Using a set of previously un-modelled far-field sea level data from China and Malay-Thailand, a revised model of eustatic sea level change over the Holocene was developed. Constraining the eustatic component of sea level change is useful since it provides a direct measure of continental ice volume that can be compared to results from oxygen isotope methods. Additionally, inference of the eustatic signal over the mid-late Holocene, which was the primary focus of one aspect of this thesis can provide information on both: (i) the rate and timing of major ice melting at the end of the last deglaciation and (ii) the magnitude of melting during the late Holocene, which is an important baseline that can be compared to estimates of global sea-level rise in the 20th century. This new global ice model is characterised by an initial slowdown in the rate of eustatic sea level rise at 7 kyr BP, followed by a continuing rise, until 2 kyr BP, driven by continued melting from the Antarctic Ice sheet. A new British-Irish Ice sheet model over the most recent glacial cycle was produced. This model was constrained to fit to most recent geomorphological field constraints and includes an extensive two-stage glaciation across the North Sea basin, with a greatly thickened and extended ice sheet within the Irish Sea, out along the NE Atlantic margin and across Ireland. During deglaciation, the Irish ice sheet now undergoes a very rapid thinning and retreat. These results have been combined to produce a final new GIA model for the region, which has been constrained, for the first time, using an extended RSL database which includes observations from both Great Britain and Ireland. This new model captures reasonably well the regional trends in the observed sea level, with previous unresolved misfits relating to the timing and height of the Holocene highstand now largely removed

Economic Hardship and the Emotional Health of Family Caregivers

Research Purposes: Multiple studies have quantified the direct and indirect costs of cancer care; however, there is little attention to how concerns about costs impact the emotional health of family caregivers. The purpose of this study, using the Pittsburgh Mind Body Center Model, was to evaluate how perceptions of economic hardship influence burden, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in caregivers of persons with a primary malignant brain tumor.Methods: Data were from an ongoing, longitudinal study (NCI R01CA118711). Caregiver (CG)/care recipient (CR) dyads (n=33) were recruited within a month of the CR's diagnosis; data were collected at the point of diagnosis and 4 months later. CRs were questioned using the Neurocognitive Status Exam (NCSE) and CGs completed questionnaires to determine perceptions of economic hardship, burden (Caregiver Reaction Assessment), anxiety (POMS), and depressive symptoms (CES-D). Linear regression was used to examine relationships among variables.Results: Perceived economic hardship had a significant effect on two CG burden subscales: feelings that providing care negatively affected one's schedule, and feelings of abandonment. Economic hardship did not predict CG burden due to schedule at baseline, but did significantly (p<.01) predict burden 4 months later. Alternately, economic hardship predicted burden due to feelings of abandonment at the time of diagnosis (p<.01), but not 4 months into the care situation. CG depression was predicted by economic hardship 4 months after diagnosis (p=.05), but not at the initial interview. Economic hardship predicted CG anxiety at both the time of diagnosis and at the second interview (p<.01).Conclusions: Results suggest that caregivers' perception of economic hardship may be an important yet variable aspect of the burden, anxiety, and depression caregivers feel at the time of diagnosis and throughout the care situation.Public Health Significance: Caregivers of persons with a chronic disease such as cancer face financial pressure that may have negative emotional consequences. Although it may not be feasible to alleviate economic hardship, interventions may be effective in decreasing associated feelings of burden and anxiety during the care situation, and preventing the escalation of depressive symptoms

Unlimited Liability in the Modern Context: An Examination of Shareholder Liability in Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Companies

For over 30 years, unlimited liability companies have been ubiquitous in USCanadian M&A transactions. Typically interposed between a US parent company and a Canadian operating company, these entities quietly function to make such structures more tax efficient. They are facilitated by Nova Scotia\u27s venerable Companies Act, which has allowed for the incorporation of corporations with unlimited liability for over a hundred years. Unlimited liability of shareholders is the singular defining characteristic of the ULC, but the precise nature of ULC shareholder liability was apparently regarded as something of a technicality and rarely, if ever, closely examined in the professional or academic literature or considered by the courts. Perhaps unlimited liability was considered too familiar a concept to require detailed analysis, or perhaps it was considered irrelevant in practice because the debts of modern ULCs are typically guaranteed by their parent companies. In such a structure, the liability of the parent company seems clear This apparent clarity proved illusory, however, following the recent financial crisis, when a number of ULC parent companies faced bankruptcy and restructuring and the precise nature of their unlimited liability was suddenly the subject of intense scrutiny and conflict

A National Portrait of Domestic Violence Courts

A growing number of criminal courts nationwide handle domestic violence cases on separate calendars, termed domestic violence courts. There are now 208 confirmed domestic violence courts across the U.S. (Center for Court Innovation 2009). More than 150 similar projects have been established internationally. Some domestic violence courts emerged in the context of the broader "problem-solving court" movement and share characteristics with other specialized courts, such as separate dockets and specially trained judges. However, the origins of domestic violence courts are also distinct, growing out of the increased attention afforded domestic violence matters by the justice system over the past 30 years. With funding from the National Institute of Justice, this study explores how criminal domestic violence courts have evolved, their rationale, and how their operations vary across the U.S. This study does not test whether domestic violence courts reduce recidivism, protect victims, or achieve other specific effects -- although we provide a thorough literature review on these points. Rather, our aim is to present a comprehensive national portrait of the field as it exists today, laying the groundwork for future information exchange and research