The Social Security Retirement Age: In Brief

[Excerpt] Two important ages may affect a worker’s decision of when to claim Social Security retired-worker benefits. Workers may claim full Social Security benefits at the full retirement age (FRA), which is currently 66 and is rising gradually to the age of 67 for workers who were born in 1960 or later. Retired-worker beneficiaries may claim benefits as early as the age of 62, which is known as the early eligibility age (EEA). Social Security benefits are reduced, however, for every month that retired worker benefits are claimed before the FR

Working-class royalty: bees beat the caste system

The struggle among social classes or castes is well known in humans. Here, we show that caste inequality similarly affects societies of ants, bees and wasps, where castes are morphologically distinct and workers have greatly reduced reproductive potential compared with queens. In social insects, an individual normally has no control over its own fate, whether queen or worker, as this is socially determined during rearing. Here, for the first time, we quantify a strategy for overcoming social control. In the stingless bee Schwarziana quadripunctata, some individuals reared in worker cells avoid a worker fate by developing into fully functional dwarf queens

Political Economy : Variability and Consistency in the Development of Worker Owned Cooperatives

The relationship between worker cooperatives and their social and economic environment has sparked interest among the sociological community for the contradictions and harmony typical of these interactions. However, these studies do not examine how firm behavior varies and/or remains constant in different social conditions. With insights from economic sociology, neo-institutionalism, and social movements theory, the paper pursues this issue by answering the following question: how do worker cooperatives respond to different social conditions over time? Using interviews with members of eight worker cooperatives in a Midwestern metropolitan area, the author compares behavior in older and younger cooperatives to observe similarities and differences in their practices under different social conditions. The analysis demonstrates that differences in social support and market competition created variation among older and newer cooperatives. For instance, the decision to start worker-owned cooperatives reflected different political motivations that emerged from distinct socio-economic conditions. However, all firms eventually behaved like businesses because they framed economic activities as political activism, exposing them to fluctuations in the city’s political scene. As a result, these businesses created market niches, attract customers and competent workers, and copy other successful democratic enterprises to survive demographic fluctuations in the market

Finding the Right Fit: How Alternative Staffing Affects Worker Outcomes

Evaluates implementation and activities at four worker-centered, social-purpose alternative staffing organizations, including worker profiles, jobs secured, experience with the ASO, earnings, and subsequent job status, and business clients' experience

Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in Mexico

[Excerpt] The Solidarity Center is launching a new series, Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights. This series follows the May 2003 publication of the Solidarity Center’s groundbreaking Justice for All: A Guide to Worker Rights in the Global Economy. Through powerful first-person narratives, the reports thoroughly examine worker rights, country by country, in today’s global economy. This first report, by renowned worker rights researcher Lance Compa, takes a hard look at Mexico’s century-long fight for independent, democratic trade unions and social justice. Compa puts Mexico’s labor law and practice to the test against international worker rights standards reflected in International Labor Organization conventions and the ILO’s 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

Employee referral, social proximity and worker discipline

We study ex-post hiring risks in low income countries with limited legal and regulatory frameworks. In our theory of employee referral, the new recruit internalises the rewards and punishments of the in-house referee meted out by the hiring firm. This social mechanism makes it cheaper for the firm to induce worker discipline. The degree of internalization depends on the unobserved strength of the endogenous social tie between the referee and the recruit. When the referee's utility is increasing in the strength of ties, referee workplace incentives do not matter and referee and employer incentives are aligned: in this case industries and jobs with high costs of opportunism and where dense kinship networks can match the skill requirements of employers will have clusters of close family and friends, they will show a high incidence of referrals rather than anonymous hiring and will show a wage premium to referred workers matched by their higher productivity. This no longer applies if the referee's utility is decreasing in the strength of ties: referrals are then more costly for firms, they will be used less frequently by employers and will require higher referee wages (or status). We illustrate how these insights add to our understanding of South-Asian labour markets

Assessing the Need for a Social Worker at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf

Introduction: Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf (CEFS) Largest direct service emergency food provider in Vermont Serves over 12,000 people/year Works to alleviate hunger through grocery services, hot meals, and home delivery Offers a culinary job training program CEFS seeks to understand client need for assistance in accessing/coordinating additional public assistance services and resources. Could CEFS improve its services by staffing a social worker on site? Project Goal: Collect data from CEFS users to assess current need for in-house social worker to assist with diverse needs beyond emergency food assistance.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1225/thumbnail.jp

What does successful social prescribing look like? Mapping meaningful outcomes

This study aimed to investigate and collate all the outcomes that are being experienced in link worker based social prescribing schemes. We found this reflects a large evidence gap where research money needs to be invested. Data from this study highlighted that VCSE organisations engaged with social prescribing are not receiving full attribution for their contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of people. Within the literature, there are a range of reports and research articles that support the use of community organisations and services. Little of this knowledge or impact, however, is contextualised within the terms of link worker based social prescribing schemes

Do young people experiencing the transition from children’s services to adult services understand the process and what their choices are?

This project research examines the understanding that young people who receive services from North Yorkshire Children's Social Care Disabled Children's teams, have of the process of transition to Adult and Community Services. Young people who have been through the system and now use an independence group explained that the relationship they had with their social services transitions worker was of great importance and helped develop the questions asked to the interviewees. A sample of young people were identified by their workers for the research and most were happy to share their experiences. Some of their carers acted as interpreters and all gave their views of the process. The report highlights that many of the young people had no relationship with their transitions worker and indicates that parents are also often unable to identify a person to allay fears about the move to Adult and Community Services. The report highlights the failure of both Adult and Community Services and Children's Social Care services to develop a meaningful relationship with service users so that they can participate in the planning process. The report discusses the different needs of young people and their families whilst focusing on how to involve the recipients of services in the planning process, the majority of the young people interviewed did not know who their Adult and Community Services Transitions worker was nor did they have any clear idea of any choices they might have. Other agencies (such as Education) seem better able to engage with the young people. Young people can take a meaningful part in planning for their own future, but need to build a relationship with the transitions worker before they can do so. Young people with additional learning needs may need intensive or regular sessions with a worker in order to make sense of the system and participate in any meaningful way

Social Interaction, Co-Worker Altruism, and Incentives

Social interaction with colleagues is an important job attribute for many workers. To attract and retain workers, managers therefore need to think about how to create and preserve high-quality co-worker relationships. This paper develops a principal-multi-agent model where agents do not only engage in productive activities, but also in social interaction with their colleagues, which in turn creates co-worker altruism. We study how financial incentives for productive activities can improve or damage the work climate. We show that both team incentives and relative incentives can help to create a good work climate.social interaction, altruism, incentive contracts, co-worker satisfaction