Scheduling challenges among workers in low-wage hourly jobs: similarities and differences among workers in standard- and nonstandard-hour jobs

Work schedules are a central theme in the work–family challenges of low-wage hourly workers. Yet, research on scheduling patterns among this worker population has primarily focused on nonstandard schedules. We know very little about the scheduling patterns of workers in hourly jobs with standard fixed schedules. Knowledge about the key scheduling challenges by schedule type is necessary to develop targeted workplace solutions, such as flexible work arrangements, to enhance work–life fit among workers in low-wage hourly jobs. Using the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed to determine (1) the prevalence of rigid, unpredictable and unstable work schedules among low-wage hourly workers employed in jobs with standard and nonstandard schedules and whether there is variation in these scheduling practices among full- and part-time workers; and (2) the individual or job characteristics that influence the odds of experiencing rigid, unpredictable or unstable work schedules. Results indicate that rigid and unpredictable schedule practices are most prevalent among low-wage hourly workers in full-time standard-hour jobs and part-time nonstandard-hour jobs, while unstable scheduling practices are most prevalent among hourly workers in full- and part-time nonstandard-hour jobs. Implications and limitations of the research are discussed.     

Work Satisfaction and Intention to Leave Among Direct Care Workers in Community and Residential Aged Care in Australia

Turnover in the Australian aged-care workforce is lower than in the United States but is still of concern. This research examined the effects of worker satisfaction, worker characteristics, work conditions, and workplace environment on intention to leave, using data from a 2007 national census of the aged-care workforce. A probit model was used to estimate the probability of care workers leaving their jobs in the next 12 months. While workers were satisfied, overall, with their work, improving some components of satisfaction and converting casual contracts to permanent work would reduce intention to leave. To these ends, a shift in focus is required away from worker characteristics and the nature of care work to job conditions and organizational matters amenable to management and policy action.     

The industrial athlete?

Many similarities can be drawn between the athletic and industrial population. It is time for a shift in the approach toward injured workers utilizing a sports medicine perspective. We must think of workers as industrial athletes and recognize that the sports medicine model can be appropriately adapted to the injured worker. This model includes prevention, early intervention/identification, training and conditioning, and progressive treatment. Sports medicine rehabilitation concepts include treating the entire kinetic chain that is associated with a specific injury and the SAID principle (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands).     

Teaching and Learning Guide for “Gender In/equality in Worker‐owned Businesses”

This teaching and learning guide accompanies the article, “Gender In/equality in Worker‐owned Businesses,” which reviews existing literature on gender in businesses with employee stock ownership plans, worker cooperatives, and communes. Worker ownership has attracted renewed interest as a possible solution to the social and economic problems confronting our society. In worker‐owned businesses, workers have greater control over what they produce, how they produce it, and how they are compensated. If workers ran things themselves, so the story goes, jobs would be better and workplaces would be more equal. What do we actually know about work in alternative organizations? Do women fare better? Can they offer alternatives or solutions to the gender inequality that permeates working life? This teaching and learning guide provides supplemental information to facilitate the use of this article in the classroom. This includes a list of recommended readings, online resources, a sample syllabus, focus questions, and project suggestions.     

Perception differences between groups of employees identifying the factors that influence a return to work after a work-related musculoskeletal injury

Employee health and productivity losses as a result of work-related injury are estimated to be US dollars 1.2 trillion annually to US companies. This is approximately 14.3% of the gross domestic product [6,8,11,35]. Workers' compensation, medical care, and short and long-term disability are a part of these costs. Controlling or eliminating these costs is a problem for US employers [3,6,14,21,29]. The study discussed in this article examined the perceptions of manufacturing employees in identifying factors that influence a return to work after a work-related musculoskeletal injury. The classification of employees who participated in this study were safety professionals, supervisors and workers from the manufacturing industry in central Kentucky. The worker group consisted of material handlers, assembly line workers and quality control inspectors. The participants completed a developed survey instrument, the Return to Work Perception Survey. This survey instrument examined the perception of the participants on factors related to return to work: company policies and procedures, job satisfaction, worker relationships and work environment. The results indicated safety professionals and supervisors perceptions differ from workers on the variables of job satisfaction, worker relationships and work environment. Their perceptions did not differ on the variable relating to company policies and procedures. In addition, the safety professional and supervisor groups rated the items addressing job satisfaction higher than did the worker group. The worker group did not differ from one another on any of the factors. Implications of this study for manufacturing companies suggest (a). identifying those issues contributing to employee job satisfaction, (b). developing a plan for achieving increased job satisfaction and employee recognition at the workplace among all workers, and (c). consider allowing employees to develop new capacities and new learning, thus fostering motivation and job satisfaction [18,20].     

Union-management solutions for preventing workplace injury of older workers

As the US workforce continues to age, organized labor and management will have to work creatively to redesign jobs, workflow, and work pace to accommodate older workers. Union-management cooperation in developing safety strategies have been largely unsuccessful because of mutual distrust, animosity left over from contract negotiations and administration, the absence of strong labor legislation that promotes shared governance, injury concealment, and world-wide competitive pressures to reduce labor costs at the expense of worker safety. If workplace injury prevention that focuses on cost-effective and efficient workplace modifications for older as well as for all workers is to become reality, then employers and their unions will need to develop solutions to forge new, more expansive approaches to accommodation.     

Entry-level jobs: First rung on the employment ladder or economic dead end?

The ability of young workers to move from dead-end jobs into higher-wage jobs which have better career prospects is greatly influenced by the individual’s characteristics, local labor market conditions, and his or her human capital. This paper examines the characteristics of entry-level jobs of young workers in the 1980s with emphasis on how education and training influence the types of jobs held. The incidence of post-school training is quite low even though all types of post-school training raise wages significantly. Company-provided training reduces the probability that a young worker will leave his or her employer, while off-the-job training increases the ability of employees, especially young women, to move out of a dead-end job.     

Factors impacting intention to leave in social workers and child care workers employed at voluntary agencies

Introduction

To ameliorate high turnover in child welfare, researchers have attempted to identify factors that lead to undesirable turnover. While this has been studied extensively, little attention has been paid to turnover based upon job roles. Like social workers in child welfare, the field of child care also experiences high turnover. Child care workers employed in child welfare settings are no exception. The current study seeks to understand differential factors that impact intent to leave for preventive and child care workers employed in child welfare agencies.

Materials and methods

Data for prevention workers (n = 538) were obtained from all preventive service programs under contract with the City. Data for child care workers (n = 222) were obtained from three voluntary agencies located elsewhere in the State. The instrument was a modified version of a survey developed to examine job satisfaction and potential turnover among public child welfare workers. Domains measured included job satisfaction, intention to leave, career commitment, and agency investment. Data were analyzed using bivariate analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

Results

Child care workers had more positive perceptions of child welfare and planned to stay in child welfare longer. Despite this, prevention workers felt more invested in their work. Child care and prevention workers had different levels of satisfaction with their jobs although overall job satisfaction did not differ nor did their intention to leave. Tenure at the agency was predictive of career investment. Investment, perceptions of child welfare, satisfaction with nature of work, and contingent rewards were associated with career commitment. Commitment and satisfaction with supervision were the greatest predictors of intention to leave.

Discussion

There is a gap in literature addressing child care workers in child welfare, and future study of this group is needed. Child care workers are just as likely to intend to leave their jobs as prevention workers. For both groups, it appears that investment in their jobs increases commitment to the field which reduces intention to leave.     

Learning and the Form of Compensation

Using data from the PSID and an empirical setup similar to the one used in Altonji and Pierret (Q J Econ 116(1):313–350, 2001)’s paper on wages and employer learning, we find that the coefficient of a hard-to-observe correlate of productivity—parents’ educational attainment—in a wage regression increases more rapidly with experience in performance pay jobs than in nonperformance pay jobs. This result is driven entirely by bonus pay jobs as opposed to commission/piece rate jobs. In the latter, there is no evidence that the importance of parental education in the wage determination process increases over time. This is consistent with the notion that explicit pay-for-performance compensation schemes are, by design, revealing workers’ productivities and that employers need not infer anything about worker productivity when the payment is ex post as is the case for commissions and piece rates as opposed to having to set pay ex ante.     

Injured and Silenced: Working with Workers' Compensation Claimants and Their Families

It is not uncommon for rehabilitation and workers' compensation systems to treat the injured worker as either a passive victim or a mischievous malingerer. Much ofthe literatureregardingrehabilitation ofpeople with chronic pain and soft tissue injury speaks of paralysis and powerlessness as if the injured person is a piece offlotsam buffeted about by the socialforces of WorkCare (and other compensation systems), the employer and the medical legal systems. This paper will review the pertinent literature and demonstrate the lack ofobjective supportfor a ‘blame-thevictim’ attitude. The importance of the injured person playing an active role in his/her rehabilitation will be emphasised through a systematic analysis ofthe impact ofthe WorkCare scheme on the injured worker and their treatment. In this light, a systems based approach to therapy with injured workers and their families will be outlined.     

Health-care Work in Globalization: News Reports on Care Worker Migration to Japan

Health-care worker migration has emerged as a social issue in Japan, contrary to it has in Indonesia. This article shows how national contexts affected by globalization have shaped social understandings and policies towards health-care worker migration in the two societies over time. Analyses of news coverage in the Japanese and Indonesian national media reveal a gap of social responses toward this change. The Japanese are more likely to respond negatively to health-care worker migration; yet they intend to face cross-cultural challenges, although slowly, making revisions to related policies. In contrast, in Indonesia, from where health-care workers migrate to Japan and many other countries, this tends to be understood positively, overall, as providing economic benefits and permitting Indonesian professionals to contribute to the worker shortage in Japan. I interpret these results based on the literature on health-care worker migration, emerging global norms and local changes, and comparative research on employment and care work. This study contributes to the sociological understanding of worker migration and health-care issues.     

Migrant female domestic workers: debating the economic,social and political impacts in Singapore

This article analyzes the impact of migrant female domestic workers on the socioeconomic and political context in Singapore. Although Singapore state policy opposes long-term immigration, there is a labor shortage which permits a transient work force of low-skilled foreign workers. In the late 1990s, Singapore had over 100,000 foreign maids, of whom 75% were from the Philippines, 20% were from Indonesia, and the rest were from Sri Lanka. Legislation ensures their short-term migrant status, restricts their numbers, and governs their employment. Migrant workers are also regulated through a stringent allocation system based on household income of employers and the need for caregivers for children. Work permits are conditioned on non-marriage to citizens of Singapore or pregnancy. Terms and conditions of migrant employment are not specified, which permits long hours of work and potential for inhumane treatment. Migrant women fulfill jobs not desired by natives and accept these jobs at lower wages. There is disagreement about the motivation for the maid levy and its need, fairness, and effectiveness in reducing demand for foreign maids. Most public discussion focuses on social values and morality of foreign maids. Politically, tensions arise over the legality of migration, which results from tourist worker migration to Singapore and circumvents Filipino labor controls. Most of the adjustment cases that come to the attention of OWWA are tourist workers. Policies should be gender sensitive.     

Including the people with disabilities at work: a case study of the job of bricklayer in civil construction in Brazil

The aim of this paper is to present the results of the evaluation of the job of bricklayer in the construction industry to determine the profile of workers with disabilities who could perform this function and what adjustments are needed. The methods and techniques used in the field study were: direct observation of the activities and the environment, interviews with bricklayers on building sites, a video and photographic record of tasks being carried out to analyze the job of bricklayer, software resources were used. This study set out the disabilities most commonly caused by work accidents in the civil construction industry and simulated the conditions of the individuals to determine whether they could perform the activities of this function and what adaptations are needed. It was observed that workers with hearing impairments could perform activities without any change in the workplace and individuals who had had a leg or foot amputated need to use appropriate prostheses to perform the activities of the function. Thus, it was shown that the activity of professionals with experience in Ergonomics is essential since, by the activity of gathering data and analysing the physical, cognitive and organizational requirements of jobs and by collecting data on and analysing the functional capabilities of the worker with a disability, adaptations to jobs can be adequately defined.     

Portability of health insurance: COBRA expansions and small group market reform

Proposals are currently being put forth to change the health care system incrementally. One area of proposed legislation addresses portability, which allows an individual to change insurers without being subjected to a new waiting period for preexisting conditions. These proposals, discussed in this Issue Brief, contain provisions to limit preexisting condition exclusions, guarantee access to health insurance, guarantee renewal of health insurance, allow individuals to contribute to medical savings accounts on a pretax basis, and change the current law under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA). The proposals would affect insurers, employers, and insured individuals by potentially increasing the cost of providing and purchasing health insurance. Concern about the portability of health insurance primarily arises in situations where an individual is leaving, or would like to leave, a job. If health insurance is not offered by a prospective employer, if the worker must satisfy a waiting period before becoming eligible for coverage, if the benefits package offered through the prospective employer is less generous, or if the employee (or a dependent) has a medical condition that is considered a preexisting condition and would not be covered by the new plan, the employee may opt to remain with his or her current employer--a situation known as job lock. Expansions of COBRA may not have any effect on portability. Employers can charge up to 102 percent of the premium for COBRA coverage, making it unaffordable for many workers. Because cost is a major factor, if there is no reduction in cost (or health care cost inflation) there could be little or no increase in coverage. According to one survey, in 1994 average COBRA costs were $5,301 per COBRA covered worker, compared with $3,420 for active employees. Any expansion of COBRA would almost certainly increase employer cost for health insurance.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Occupational-psychosocial perceptions influencing return to work and functional performance of injured workers

Much has been done to identify psychosocial factors influencing risk of vocational injury and prolonged disability. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the ability of injured workers to return to their prior worker role through the identification of the influencing psychosocial perceptions. Psychosocial perceptions may assist in the identification of negative or counterproductive factors that hinder the rehabilitative process. Identifying perceptions are individual centered and focused on the views of injured workers as they proceed through the transition in life following injury. Occupational therapists play a key role in the rehabilitative process of injured workers through enhancing the person-job-environment fit [4].     

Cancer as a Life Transition: A Relational Approach to Cancer Wellness in Women

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a traumatic event and changes one's life forever. The period of initial diagnosis and treatment is indeed a life transition, regardless of the prognosis. It precipitates a change in self-perception, physically, emotionally, and interpersonally. It changes how a woman sees herself, her family, and her world. Simultaneously the woman is confronted with many decisions to make regarding treatment options and the management of personal, familial, and work related responsibilities. People have the opportunity to reflect on old decisions and to make new decisions. Inevitably one is confronted by mortality. The management of this illness is done in the context of a complex network of relationships with family, friends, coworkers, doctors, other medical personnel, and clergy. Often it is the clinical social worker who is in the position of facilitating access to and participation in resources for care. Many women join healing communities or wellness centers to find a model of care and achieve a state of well-being that utilizes and encourages the support of these relationships. Understanding the importance and impact of these relationships can help clinical social workers facilitate cancer wellness in their clients and advocate better on their behalf. The intent of this paper is to understand the concept of cancer wellness as a relational approach and to promote its place in integrative clinical social work practice.     

Understanding the role of Australian Aboriginal maternal infant care workers: bringing a cultural dimension to a critique of the ideal worker concept

Models of care that include a prominent role for Aboriginal workers are fundamental to improving the health of Aboriginal Australians. However, tension arises when these models co-exist with mainstream models, contributing to difficulties sustaining an Aboriginal workforce. The ‘ideal worker’ theory is drawn on to explore whether historical workplace norms undermine the roles of Aboriginal workers in an Australian hospital setting. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 staff and clients of an innovative maternity service, featuring Aboriginal Maternal Infant Care (AMIC) workers caring for Aboriginal women in partnership with midwives. A phenomenological methodology highlighted that unrealistic and inappropriate assumptions embedded in the ideal worker notion underpin many challenges facing AMIC workers. These workers have deep ties to their communities, with extensive responsibilities beyond the workplace. Although the hospital system relies on these ties to engage clients, this time commitment and the unbounded ways in which AMIC workers provide care are not acknowledged. Findings illustrate how the ideal worker concept has a cultural and gender dimension, which undermines AMIC workers and does not value culturally relevant care. This work has implications for ingraining cultural competence into health care, suggesting the wide-ranging contributions of Aboriginal workers must be recognised to achieve sustainable reform.     

Toward a Theory of Worker Participation

This paper proposes that the emergence of shop-floor worker participation projects in many of the largest corporations in the United States has major theoretical interest because it points to a shift in the structure of American management from Taylorist forms of organization toward "post-Taylorist" systems based on "relative worker autonomy" and limited democratic organization on the shop floor. The postulated shift toward "relative worker autonomy" is explored, first, in terms of the contradictions and failures of Taylorism-specifically its failure to integrate workers or bind them effectively, either psychologically or ideologically, to their jobs and firms. While the costs of worker dis-integration have led management to initiate post-Taylorist labor control systems, an analysis of participative experiments suggests that these new systems produce new contradictions engendering worker expectations and entitlements for democracy in the workplace. The analysis suggests the need for a reformulation of current theories of the capitalist labor process that can explain both the emergence of "integrative" labor systems based on participation and democratic legitimations and also the new forms of contestation they produce.     

Lessons from the evolution of 401(k) retirement plans for increased consumerism in health care: an application of behavioral research

Employment-based health and retirement benefit programs have followed a similar path of evolution. The relative decision-making roles of the employer and the worker have shifted from the employer to the worker, and workers are more responsible than perhaps they ever have been for their well being--both in terms of their health in general and their financial security during retirement. This shift has been supported, in part, by legislation--namely ERISA, the HMO Act of 1973, the Revenue Act of 1978, and most recently, the Pension Protection Act. This Issue Brief does not pass judgment on this development or address who should bear the responsibilities of preparing workers for retirement or of rationing health care services. The current trend in health care design is toward increased "consumerism." Consumer-driven health is based on the assumption that the combination of greater cost sharing (by workers) and better information about the cost and quality of health care will engage workers to become better health care decision makers. It is hoped that workers will seek important, necessary, high-quality, cost-effective care and services, and become less likely to engage providers and services that are unnecessary and ineffective from either a quality or cost perspective. As employers look ahead toward continually improved plan design, there may be benefits in considering the lessons learned from studying worker behaviors. Specifically, there is evidence about the effects of choice, financial incentives, and information on worker decision making. As a result of research in this area, many retirement plan sponsors have moved toward plan designs and programs that recognize the benefits of well-designed defaults, simplified choices, required active decision making, framing, and commitment to future improvements. With respect to choice, it is now known that more is not always better and may even be worse in some cases. Just as fewer shoppers actually bought a jar of jelly when it was one of 24 as opposed to one of six, evidence has shown that people tend to be less likely to join a company-sponsored retirement plan when more investment options are offered. More choice can also lead to lower satisfaction. It is also known that workers may not be able to appropriately sort through many complex alternatives and that education is not always as effective as employers would hope. Decision complexity often forces people to find a way to simplify, and one of the easiest rules of thumb is to pick the option with the lowest short-term cost, even when that alternative is more costly in the longer run. It is also known that, for good or for bad, choices are constructed on the fly; preferences are dynamic, and logic does not always apply. Financial incentives are helpful in motivating behavior, but they do not affect everyone's decisions. Despite significant financial incentives to participate in 401(k) plans, many workers choose not to. Similarly, despite many of the financial incentives embedded in health care plan design, it can be expected that these incentives will not effectively motivate and engage all workers. One seemingly rational approach to improve workers' decision making is to provide education and guidance to help them sort through complex alternatives and to demonstrate the value of financial incentives. Certainly, providing education and guidance in the form of decision support tools may be an employer's responsibility. However, some studies have shown that, even when "educated" workers have the intent to make improved decisions, they often lack follow-through and fail to take action. In short, education and guidance may not be enough to foster improved health care consumerism. Some employers have begun to design benefit programs with a view toward overcoming behavioral tendencies that negatively affect workers' well-being. Newer retirement plan designs involve careful consideration of default choices. These defaults apply unless workers actively choose a different alternative. Typically, the default attempts to "nudge" workers toward optimal behavior. In the case of 401(k) retirement plan design, more employers are moving toward a default of automatic enrollment in the plan, with automatic investment in a diversified portfolio. Still, additional empirical research and experimentation may be needed to further understand the effects of new retirement plan design features. Future work may also precisely illuminate how the lessons discussed in this Issue Brief may apply to health care plan design that results in improved health-related behaviors. Given the impressive preliminary results in improving retirement planning behaviors, such research and experimentation are likely to be worthwhile.     

Ergonomics of bridge employment

In many countries of the world, retirement is mandatory at the age at which persons who hold certain jobs or offices are required by employment law to leave their employment, or retire (60 to 65 years). Typically, this is justified by the argument that certain occupations are either too dangerous or require high levels of physical skills and mental work. Every worker has to leave the workforce at that age. However, starting from the last two decades of the last century, it is observed that retirees live more years in retirement than ever before. This relatively long retirement as well as retirees' body fitness made many of them engage in new jobs which are either similar to their career jobs, or completely different from them. In this new type of employment which is called "bridge employment', the retired worker may spend more than ten years. But, to what extent these new jobs are fitted to the aged worker? Considering that experiencing any type of event increases the risk of worse health outcomes over time, bridge employment should be ergonomically designed if it is to fit the aged worker characteristics (physical, mental and affective).