North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address. Renewing Sociology: Integral Science,Solidarity, and Loving Kindness

Abstract

We contribute to the debate about the effects of immigration in the United States by analyzing the impact of recent (1980-2000) immigration on the economic outcomes of African Americans. We use Census 2000 data for a sample of 150 U.S. metropolitan areas to examine these outcomes. Our findings indicate that after controlling for a variety of theoretically relevant control variables, increases in recent immigration decrease labor force non-participation and poverty, and increase median earnings, among blacks. We argue that recent immigration expands blacks' job opportunities in or near the middle of the occupational hierarchy (e.g., protective services; office and administrative support). However, we also find a non-linear effect of immigration on black median earnings which indicates an immigrant population threshold where black earnings begin to decline. Thus, both sides of this debate may be correct: middle-class blacks benefit from increased immigration, but the gains of the black middle class do not always offset the fact that poor and lower-skilled blacks are losing out because of increased competition with immigrants.     

Midlife and older displaced workers: A comparison of predisplacement and new earnings

The economic consequences of business closings and worker layoffs are of great concern to today's work force. The study compares earnings of 755 workers previous to displacement to 422 displaced workers with new earnings. Variables are identified using the data supplement of the 1988Current Populations Survey: Displaced Workers. Displaced workers employed in professional and white-collar positions have more favorable predisplacement earnings and new earnings than workers from other job sectors, but displaced workers who are homeowners and those who have health care coverage before and following job displacement have a decline in earnings. Displaced workers with some high school education and workers with 30 to 39 years of job tenure also experience decreased wages. Overall, displacement of American workers stifles the economy and negatively influences the human capital of the nation's work force. Her major research interests include displaced worker issues, work and family policy, and the economics of aging. Her major research interests include labor force participation of midlife and older persons.     

Nationality and Income Attainment among Native and Immigrant Hispanic Men in the United States*

This study examines earnings inequality between Hispanic-origin men and non-Hispanic white men (referred to as white) using the 1976 Survey of Income and Education. Results show that human capital and labor supply variables have more impact on Hispanic earnings than labor market characteristics. Post-school job experience and weeks worked conform most consistently to the predictions of micro-economic labor theory. Formal schooling, while positively related to earnings, does not uniformly influence job rewards among Hispanic-origin groups. Ecological variables (social and economic organization) of the labor market have less impact on earnings. There is some evidence that whites benefit from the presence of large concentrations of minority workers, while two Hispanic groups—native Mexican and other Spanish men—are negatively affected by high concentrations of Hispanic workers. A composition analysis shows that from 10 to 50 percent of the earnings gap between Hispanic and white men may be attributable to discrimination.     

The returns to seniority in academic labor markets

Although earnings and seniority are believed positively related in most labor markets, the earnings of academics were thought to be an exception to this rule. Using the National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty, from 1993, we find that earnings and seniority are positively related once adequate controls for past labor market mobility are included among the regressors. In particular, we find that individuals who are currently tenured at their initial job have the steepest seniority profile of any group we examined. We also find a handsome premium paid to individuals who are hired-with-tenure. These results suggest a market characterized by competitive “raiding” of top faculty.     

INTEGRATING ECONOMIC DUALISM AND LABOR MARKET SEGMENTATION:

Although the U.S. economy of the early twenty-first century is vastly different from the U.S. economy prior to the 1970s, the nature of these economic changes and their impact on U.S. workers is unclear. This article claims that despite contemporary economic shifts, differential labor and employer power continues to segment the economy, and workers' position in the labor market continues to predict their rewards, beyond the effects of gender, race, and human capital. Drawing on segmented labor market and dual economy research, we propose a four-category model of the structural factors that influence variance in work-related rewards. We examine the distribution of jobs in each of four categories between 1974 and 2000 and observe that losses and gains across categories are unevenly distributed by race and gender. While white men have experienced the greatest declines in employment and earnings, they have maintained their absolute advantage over women and nonwhites. In multivariate analyses, we find that the structural position of employment continues to be a significant determinant of wages. Although women and racial minorities have experienced sizable increases in employment in primary labor market jobs in the core of the economy, both groups remain overrepresented in low-paying jobs. Moreover women, but not nonwhite men, consistently receive significantly fewer rewards for their labor in both low-paying and high-paying jobs. Our findings suggest that structural factors continue to influence earnings inequality, especially across race and gender lines.     

Welfare Status and Child Care as Obstacles to Full-Time Work for Low-Income Mothers

SUMMARY

In this study, we use new data from the Philadelphia Survey of Child Care and Work to expand on previous analyses: we include child care problems as a work obstacle, and we analyze both current welfare recipients and non-welfare “working poor” mothers. Results show that two main obstacles have a large impact on full-time work: poor mental health and child care problems. Net of other factors, mothers with severe child care problems are 22 percent less likely to work full time. Dividing the sample by welfare status, we find a child care problems effect for both groups. Among welfare recipients, the gap in full-time work between those with severe child care problems and those without is 30 percent. Among the working poor, child care problems reduce the chance of full-time work by about 18 percent. Our findings show that improving mothers' child care situation can significantly improve their ability to support their families.     

LEARNING BUT NOT EARNING? THE IMPACT OF JOB CORPS TRAINING ON HISPANIC YOUTH

Why did Hispanics who participated in Job Corps (JC) training not experience earnings gains like whites and blacks, despite achieving similar human capital gains? We find that the differential labor market outcomes of each group are related to the different levels of local labor market unemployment rates (LUR) they face. Furthermore, the groups exhibit differential impacts on their earnings from the LUR they face, which also vary by randomization status. We find that (a) blacks and Hispanics face higher LUR that mitigate their potential gains from JC and (b) JC “shields” whites from adverse LUR, but not blacks and Hispanics. (JEL J24, J13, J15)     

The Effect of Private Sector Work Opportunities in Prison on Labor Market Outcomes of the Formerly Incarcerated

This paper examines the effects of a private-sector prison work program called the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP) on formal unemployment duration, duration of formal employment, and earnings of men and women released from various state prisons between 1996 and 2001. It also investigates the labor market dynamics of formerly incarcerated men and women. The program is found to increase reported earnings and formal employment on the extensive margin, with a stronger impact on the formal employment of women. There is little evidence that it increases formal employment along the intensive margin (i.e., duration of formal employment). Contrary to segmented labor market theories, superior employment (i.e., higher-paying jobs) does not lead to increased job stability. Roughly 92 % of individuals who obtained formal employment in the sample experienced job loss; however, reincarceration rates are too low to explain this fact. An evaluation of labor market dynamics reveals that traditional human capital variables, criminogenic factors, and a few demographic characteristics determine job loss. In addition, black women, single women, and women with more extensive criminal histories face greater barriers in the labor market than their male counterparts.     

The Role of Economic Incentives and Attitudes in Participation and Childcare Decisions

We analyzed the participation and childcare decisions made by mothers in two-parent households with children aged 0–12 in the Netherlands, paying special attention to the role of attitudes regarding work and care. In a multinomial logit model we distinguished between not working, a small part-time job, and a larger job. For working mothers we considered no childcare, informal, and formal childcare. We accounted for potential endogeneity of attitudes. The results showed that the role of the price of formal childcare in the decision-making process was negligible. A higher earnings capacity increased the take-up of larger jobs and formal childcare. Modern attitudes had a strong impact on the decisions to work and to use childcare.     

New generation of harm‐reduction workers: Helton's concerns

Tracey Helton has been running peer programs for a decade, and involved with harm‐reduction work for two. Her “real” day job is working for San Francisco, a job that includes benefits and enables her to support her children. But it also allows her to run harm‐reduction services “from my closet,” as she puts it. We called her because we wanted to learn more about how she views the field.     

DOMESTIC WORK, FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS, AND EARNINGS:

Using the 1996 Indiana Quality of Employment Survey, we reexamine gender and class differences in the effects of domestic work and family characteristics on earnings. We expand upon Coverman's (1983) original model by including several new measures. We find that the gender gap in domestic work has narrowed considerably, not because men are doing more but because women are doing less than they were twenty years ago. Women's earnings suffer more than men's from time spent on domestic work and generally benefit more from partners' domestic help. Women's earnings are more advantaged than men's by having preschool children, and men's earnings are more advantaged when their partner works. We find significant class differences in the effects of domestic work between working-class and non-working class women and in the effects of family characteristics between working-class and non-working class men. Non-working class women's earnings suffer more from time they put into domestic work, but their earnings generally benefit more from partners' or outside domestic help. Working-class men's earnings are more advantaged by having school-age children and more disadvantaged by having progressive gender ideologies. Non-working class men's earnings benefit more when their partners hold a job but suffer more as their partners work more hours.     

Empowered Women,Failed Patriarchs: Neoliberalism and Global Gender Anxieties

Notions of “empowered women,” promoted by NGOs, economists, and feminists beginning in the 1970s, do not necessitate a countervailing notion of “failed patriarchs.” However, our review of the feminist literatures on globalization, development, and migration in the United States, the former Soviet Union, and South Asia suggests that discourses of empowered women and failed patriarchs are fused in the specter of the “reverse gender order.” A presumption of this new order is that global capitalism has liberated women to such an extent that they have surpassed men who are now the truly “disadvantaged.” Drawing on these literatures as evidence, we argue that the large‐scale incorporation of poor and working‐class women into global capitalism relies upon an ideology of the family that keeps women's labor “cheap” and draws support from the feminist idea that work is empowering for women. Diverse nationalisms uphold the ideology of the family as central to capitalist expansion, providing culturally resonant justifications for women's unpaid reproductive work, while men are breadwinners. Thus, poor and working‐class men experience a painful dissonance between breadwinning expectations and economic opportunities. We show that these tensions between ideologies and material conditions make women's responsibility for reproductive work a structural feature of neoliberalism.     

Determinants of informal employment among working mothers in Mexico

Whether women's informal employment is an involuntary marginal condition or a preferred alternative to formal employment has generated intense debate in academic and policy circles, particularly in view of women's disproportionate representation in the informal economy. We analyzed detailed interviews with 136 working mothers in Mexico to gain a better understanding of the factors leading to informal employment, as well as the impact of this work on these women and their families. Our results show that informal employment was not a choice for many women who entered the informal labor market due to human capital constraints and family responsibilities. Additionally, women commonly faced challenges in meeting the needs of both their employers and their families and earning adequate income. We suggest policy options to address the factors constraining women's employment opportunities and improve the situation of those women already working in the informal economy.     

Bringing Productivity Back In: Rising Inequality and Economic Rents in the U.S. Manufacturing Sector, 1971 to 2001

Using data on earnings and productivity for U.S. manufacturing industries from 1971 to 2001, we investigate economic rents and rising income inequalities. The results suggest that rents are most significant for managers, professionals, middle‐aged workers, and older workers. Conversely, negative rents are evident for women, Hispanics, single men, and blue‐collar workers. The underpayment of Hispanics appears to have increased while African Americans have gone from being underpaid to being overpaid. Workers with a college degree have become overpaid (i.e., “credentialism”) while “gift‐exchange” efficiency wages have declined. The marginal productivity of labor input has increased but is increasingly underpaid.     

Earnings and transfers: income sources in Atlantic Canada and their relationship to work settings*

Cette communication examine la question des sources de revenus des foyers et comment elles sont combinées. Son but est de montrer que le lieu de l'emploi du chef du foyer dans le monde de travail marginal influence la présence de revenus de transfert dans le montant total des revenus de la famille. Nous partons de l'hypothèse que, même si un emploi est à salaire bas, c'est sa situation dans le monde de travail marginal, plutôt que dans le monde de travail central, qui se montre le prédiseur le plus important du besoin du foyer de s'appuyer sur des revenus de transfert. Nous montrons que les foyers du monde de travail marginal ont plus tendance à recevoir des bénéfices de l' Assurance-Chômage et de l'Aide Sociale que des foyers qui s'identifient avec le monde de travail central. En plus, tandis que les transferts sont des sources importantes de revenus, ils ne sont jamais plus importants que les revenus provenant de salaires, sans regarder au lieu de travail. Cette étude est basée sur des données secondaires provenant d'un échantillon des foyers dans les provinces Atlantiques établi par Statistique Canada. This is a paper about household income sources and how they are combined. Its purpose is to show that the “location” of the job of the head of household in the marginal work world influences the presence of transfer income in the household's “income package.” Our hypothesis is that even though a job may be low wage, it is its location in the marginal work world as opposed to the central work world that is a more important predictor of the household's reliance on transfer income. We show that households in the marginal work world are more likely to derive income from Unemployment Insurance Benefits and Social Assistance than households identified with the central work world. While transfers are important income sources they are never more important than income from earnings, regardless of work setting. This study is based on secondary data drawn by Statistics Canada from a sample of households in the Atlantic provinces.     

Silenced Reality: Power Relations between Marital Blueprints in Israeli Marriages

In this study we examined the effect of job insecurity on couples' relationships in the context of recent macro‐level economic changes in Israel. Based on Hajer's discourse interaction approach, we conceptualized marital relationships and particularly the marital conversation as contested terrain reflecting power relations between social forces and their related discourses. We interviewed seventeen couples in which at least one of the partners suffered from job insecurity in order to trace forms of emotion work and silence in their marital interaction. We found that couples experienced a decreased ability to speak with each other. In their accounts of this experience, gendered “story lines” that we interpreted as “new” to the relationship emerged. Women's emotion work was indicative and halted change‐directed marital negotiation. The possibility that authoritative gendered relationships are reinforced in Israeli marriages during times of job insecurity is thus supported.     

Surveying the “Post‐Industrial” Landscape: Information Technologies and Labour Market Polarization in Canada*

Dans le cours des débats récents concernant l'effet des technologies nouvelles sur le travail, une question touche la polarisation des «bons» et des «mauvais» emplois dans l'économie postindustrielle. Les compétences et les gains figurent au centre des préoccupations. À partir de données tirées de l'Enquête sociale générale de 1994, nous avons examiné l'utilisation de l'informatique au Canada, et nous avons analysé l'incidence de cet usage sur les compétences et les gains liés aux emplois. Nos conclusions n'appuient pas une explication du phénomène de la polarisation fondée sur la technologie dans le marché du travail. Les caractéristiques des travailleurs et les modalités professionnelles sont beaucoup plus importantes, bien qu'il existe des differences rattachées aux competences en infor‐matique dans des regroupements semblables de professions. A key issue in recent debates over the impact of new technologies on work is the polarization of “good” and “bad” jobs within the “post‐industrial” economy. Two dimensions—skill and earnings—have been of central concern. Drawing on the 1994 General Social Survey, we examine computer use in Canada, and analyze its impact on job earnings and skill. Our findings do not support a technology‐based explanation of polarization within the labour market as a whole. Instead, worker characteristics and occupational conditions are far more important, although there is some evidence of computer‐related skill differences within similar groupings of occupations.     

Ungrateful slaves? An examination of job quality and job satisfaction for male part-time workers in the UK

Research on part-time work has concentrated over many decades on the experiences of women but male part-time employment is growing in the UK. This article addresses two sizable gaps in knowledge concerning male part-timers: are men's part-time jobs of lower quality than men's full-time jobs? Are male part-timers more or less job-satisfied compared to their full-time peers? A fundamental part of both interrogations is whether men's part-time employment varies by occupational class. The article is motivated by the large body of work on female part-timers. Its theoretical framework is rooted in one of the most controversial discussions in the sociology of women workers: the “grateful slave” debate that emerged in the 1990s when researchers sought to explain why so many women expressed job satisfaction with low-quality part-time jobs. Innovatively, this article draws upon those contentious ideas to provide new insights into male, rather than female, part-time employment. Based upon analysis of a large quantitative data set, the results provide clear evidence of low-quality male part-time employment in the UK, when compared with men's full-time jobs. Men working part-time also express deteriorating satisfaction with jobs overall and in several specific dimensions of their jobs. Male part-timers in lower occupational class positions retain a clear “lead” both in bad job quality and low satisfaction. The article asks whether decreasingly satisfied male part-time workers should be termed “ungrateful slaves?” It unpacks the “grateful slave” metaphor and, after doing so, rejects its value for the ongoing analysis of part-time jobs in the formal labor market.     

WHOSE PREFERENCES ARE REVEALED IN HOURS OF WORK?

It has become orthodox in economics research to interpret the association between hourly earnings and working hours as the expression of the preferences of workers. This convention originated in H. Gregg Lewis' explanation for the decline in hours of work since the nineteenth century. His explanation rested on an explicit resolution of the identification problem inherent in any quantity (hours)–price (wage) relation. For over 40 years, researchers have neglected this identification problem with the result that the findings in the purported “labor supply” literature are of questionable value. (JEL J22, J23, C13)