Wage compensation for job-related illness: Evidence from a matched employer and employee survey in the UK

Despite voluminous studies on compensating wage differentials for job-related fatal or non-fatal injuries, there remain few published studies confirming the existence of compensating wage differentials for job-related illness. This study utilizes a recently completed UK employer-employee survey to look at this specific issue. I find there is strong evidence of wage compensation for job-related illness risk for both male and female employees in the UK. The estimated wage compensation for one job-related illness episode per year ranges from 27% to 140% of annual earnings depending on gender and estimation approaches.     

Racial Differences in Labor Market Values of a Statistical Life

This article constructs measures of job fatality rates for black and white workers using information on job-related fatalities from 1992–1997. The fatality rates for black employees are somewhat greater than those for whites. Each of these groups receives significant compensating wage differentials for fatality risks, controlling for nonfatal risks and expected workers' compensation benefits. The implicit value of a statistical life is lower for black workers than for whites. These results in conjunction with evidence that blacks receive less annual compensation for fatality risks than do whites imply that black and white workers face different market offer curves that are flatter for blacks than for whites.     

Compensating wage differentials for fatal injury risk in Australia,Japan, and the United States

Our research infers the effects of institutionalized wage setting and lengthy worker-firm attachment by comparing estimated compensating wage differentials for fatal injury risk in Japanese, Australian, and U.S. manufacturing. Hedonic labor market equilibrium regressions for Japan reveal a statistically fragile compensating wage differential of 0% to 1.4% for exposure to the average fatality risk compared to employment in a perfectly safe workplace. Australian workers receive a statistically robust 2.5% estimated wage premium. Using new data on work-related fatalities, we find a 1% compensating wage differential in U.S. manufacturing that becomes more positive and statistically less significant as data are aggregated.     

Did We Overestimate the Value of Health?

Adam Smith's idea that wage differences reveal preferences for risk rests on strong theoretical foundations. This paper argues, however, that the dominant approach to identify compensating wage differentials—regressing individual wages on aggregate measures of risk—may lead to arbitrary estimates of these risk differentials. In a dataset with information on both, the incidence of illnesses or injuries across firms and industries, I calculate an implicit value of one injury or illness of about (1990) USD 18,800 pursuing the dominant approach. In contrast, regressing wages on the incidence of risk across firms produces a value of one injury or illness of about USD 11,300.     

Unions,employment risks,and market provision of employment risk differentials

The role of unions in providing compensating differentials for wage and hours risk is analyzed. Unions are shown to increase wages for workers in more risky jobs. A negative compensating differential for nonunion workers is taken as evidence of worker-specific, or supply-side risk. This component of risk is removed by controlling for union status, based on the belief that unionized firms will be more likely to filter out high-risk unproductive workers. Hours risk is compensated for in the labor market, while wage risk is not.     

The value of job safety for railroad workers

The value of reducing job risk is estimated using a hedonic wage model and a risk variable that is matched by occupation and state of residence. This study is the first to use the hedonic wage approach to estimate the value of safety in a single industry. Industry-specific estimates will help researchers and labor policymakers better understand the distribution of compensating wage differentials across industries. Our estimated value of job safety for railroad workers is between $21,000 and $26,000 (1980 dollars) per statistical disabling injury, which is somewhat larger than the average of values estimated in previous studies that use cross-industry or crossoccupation aggregate risk data.     

Cigarette smoking,illicit drug use and the value of life

This article investigates the relationship between cigarette smoking and illicit drug use and compensating wage differentials for the risk of job-related death. Knowledge of an individual's experiences with cigarettes and illicit drugs is used to identify worker heterogeneity in job-risk preferences. The results show that individuals who are both nonsmokers and nondrug users work in the safest jobs and receive the highest compensating wage differentials for job-related risk. Significant differences in job risk and compensating differentials are also found between smokers and nonsmokers and drug users and nondrug users. Estimates of the statistical value of life increase from $2.9 million to $7.1 million when moving from the full sample of workers to those individuals classified as nonsmokers and non-drug users.     

Compensating wage differentials for workplace accidents: Evidence for union and nonunion workers in the UK

This article measures compensating wage differentials for job risks for union and nonunion workers. Job risk is made endogenous to avoid a selectivity bias arising if more able people choose safer jobs. We find that this adjustment has a considerable effect on the union group, raising their fatal risk premium above that of non union workers. This implies that there is more variation in unmeasured ability in the unionized group, and that job risk is an inferior good. The fact that unionized workers are also found in safer jobs might therefore be attributable to their greater wealth, rather than to greater“knowledge” in the unionized plant. The estimated statistical value of a life is £8.8 million in 1990 prices for union workers, with nonunion workers about 20% lower.     

Job Mobility and Early Career Wage Growth of White,African‐American,and Hispanic Women*

Objective. This article examines whether and how young women's job mobility influences racial and ethnic wage‐growth differentials during the first eight years after leaving school. Methods. We use the NLSY‐79 Work History File to simulate the influence of job mobility on the wages of skilled and unskilled workers. Results. African‐American and Hispanic women average less job mobility than white women, especially if they did not attend college. Unskilled women who experience frequent job changes during the first four postschool years reap positive wage returns, but turnover beyond the shopping period incurs wage penalties. Job mobility does not appear to boost wage growth for college‐educated women. Conclusions. Among unskilled women, race and ethnic wage disparities partly derive from group differences in the frequency of job changes, but unequal returns to job mobility drive the wage gaps for skilled women. We discuss several explanations for these disparities.     

Stemming inequality? Employment and pay of female and minority scientists and engineers

When white men overwhelmingly dominated the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) work force, the high pay in STEM occupations was a major source of gender and race inequality in the U.S. economy. As women, Blacks, and Latinos increasingly study STEM fields, new possibilities for achieving pay equality are opening. We test whether the reality matches the promise using two large data sets. Analysis of a five percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 2000 Census and the 2001-06 American Community Surveys shows that women and minorities earn more, relative to comparable white men, in STEM than in non-STEM fields. This general pattern persists in analysis of a 1% sample of federal personnel records, which include better measures of work experience and education. Thus, federal efforts to increase the representativeness of the STEM workforce should increase pay equality in the economy by moving women and minorities into traditionally high-paying fields.     

Do Wages Compensate for Risk of Unemployment? Parametric and Semiparametric Evidence from Seasonal Jobs

Due to unique institutional and technological factors, seasonal agricultural jobs are characterized by much higher risk of unemployment than similar permanent jobs. I estimate compensating differentials for risk of unemployment and compare those with unemployment insurance benefits provided by the government. I use two sets of estimators. First, I calculate parametric estimates with Heckman correction. Second, I compute three versions of a distribution-free semiparametric estimator which is robust to misspecification of the residual distribution. The main finding of the paper is that there exists a positive compensating differential of 15.5% of the average wage. This corresponds to an implicit replacement rate significantly larger than the typical unemployment benefit.     

The Impact of Institutional Change on Compensating Wage Differentials for Accident Risk: South Korea, 1984–1990

Institutional change can lead to substantial changes in the size of compensating differentials for workplace accident risk. The South Korean labor market experienced two major institutional changes between 1984 and 1990. First, a relaxation of restrictions on Korean labor unions in 1987 led to a sharp jump in the extent of strike activity and bargaining rounds which was associated with a reduction in the size of compensating differences. Second, reform of Korean workers' compensation in 1989 led to a substantial rise in benefits that also served to reduce the extent of compensating differentials.     

Valuing the risk of workplace sexual harassment

Using data on sexual harassment charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, I calculate the risk of sexual harassment by gender, industry, and age and establish that white females, but not nonwhite females, receive a compensating wage differential for exposure to a higher risk of sexual harassment. I use this risk premium to calculate the value of statistical harassment (VSH) in a manner analogous to the calculation of the value of statistical life (VSL). The VSH is around $7.6 million, about three-quarters of the size of the most-commonly cited levels of the VSL, and far above the maximum damages award for sexual harassment available under federal law. Boosting the maximum damages award to equal the VSH would create the appropriate economic incentives for organizations to deter sexual harassment.     

Dirty money: Is there a wage premium for working in a pollution intensive industry?

Within a compensating wage differential framework we investigate whether there is a wage premium for working in a pollution intensive industry. Our results for the economy as a whole suggest a small wage premium of approximately one quarter of one percent associated with the risk of working in a dirty job. This premium rises to over fifteen percent for those individuals who work in one of the five dirtiest industries. We also find evidence of a fatal risk wage premium, providing estimates of the value of a statistical life of between ￡12 million and ￡19 million (2000 prices).     

The Interaction of Race and Gender: Changing Gender‐Role Attitudes, 1974–2006*

Objective. The purpose of this article is to assess over‐time trends in the interactive effects of gender and race on attitudes toward the changing roles of women in U.S. society. Methods. This article uses data from the 1974–2006 General Social Survey. Gender‐role attitudes are measured using two composite indices of traditionalism. Results. We find black females tend to hold less traditional gender‐role attitudes than their black male, white male, and white female counterparts. Black and white males tend to hold similar attitudes toward women entering politics, but differ significantly in their attitudes toward women working outside the home and its impact on children. Assessing over‐time trends, we find the difference between black females and the other social groups to be generally diminishing. This convergence is more pronounced for white and black females. The difference in attitudes toward women entering politics between black females and white males, on the other hand, appears to be maintaining over time. Conclusions. These findings support the idea that the labor force participation for women may have provided the groundwork for the evolution of attitudes for men and women. As white women in particular increase participation in the workforce, ideologies regarding the place of women in U.S. society have shifted.     

The Value of a Statistical Life: A Critical Review of Market Estimates Throughout the World

A substantial literature over the past thirty years has evaluated tradeoffs between money and fatality risks. These values in turn serve as estimates of the value of a statistical life. This article reviews more than 60 studies of mortality risk premiums from ten countries and approximately 40 studies that present estimates of injury risk premiums. This critical review examines a variety of econometric issues, the role of unionization in risk premiums, and the effects of age on the value of a statistical life. Our meta-analysis indicates an income elasticity of the value of a statistical life from about 0.5 to 0.6. The paper also presents a detailed discussion of policy applications of these value of a statistical life estimates and related issues, including risk-risk analysis.     

The Maternal Wall

Although the economic and social position of women has improved considerably in the last decades, some gendered expectations and roles have proved remarkably resilient. Increasingly, the gender gap in compensation has become an issue of "mother" versus "other," as, for example, working mothers earn 60% of what working fathers earn. Conservatives tend to frame the gender imbalance in terms of women's choices; but feminists, including those in this issue, debunk explanations that blame women for gender differences in earnings. Contributors to this issue, whose work we introduce here, chronicle and analyze the power of stereotypic thinking and behavior, and also discuss how to change both stereotypes and realities.     

网络空间性别不平等的再生产:互联网工资溢价效应的性别差异——以第三期妇女地位调查为例

本文通过倾向值匹配的方法发现：在控制了其他因素之后,互联网使用者的平均工资收入是非使用者的1.38倍;同时,互联网溢价效应存在着显著的性别差异,女性的互联网工资溢价为男性互联网工资溢价的90.6%。此外,本文发现,互联网工资溢价效应与人们的网络行为密切相关。男性相比女性,具有更强烈的使用互联网资源进行再学习和人力资本再积累的偏好;在女性互联网使用者之间,性别观念更平等的女性具有更强烈的使用互联网资源进行再学习和人力资本再积累的偏好。在传统的网络空间性别不平等的研究框架下,本文着重于探析性别文化观念如何影响人们对互联网的使用偏好和使用方式,从而成为导致网络空间性别不平等的再生产的重要原因和机制。     

Collective bargaining levels,employment and wage inequality in Spain

After the increase in inequalities following the Great Recession, studies on wage bargaining systems have increasingly focused on wage inequality. This research examines wage inequality associated with collective bargaining levels in Spain, based on matched employer–employee microdata and quantile regression methods. These methods are applied across the wage distribution, following the method proposed by Firpo et al. (2011), to estimate wage premiums associated with agreement levels and to decompose the wage differentials observed at different points of the wage distribution. From the evidence obtained it can be concluded that, although the higher wages found in firm-level agreements are explained by the better observed characteristics of firms and workers covered by these collective agreements, there remains a positive wage premium. Although this premium is seen throughout the wage distribution, it favours mostly workers in the middle and upper-middle end. This slightly increases wage inequality in comparison with sectoral agreements. In contrast, workers without collective bargaining coverage generally suffer a wage penalty. This penalty is only observed on the left of the wage distribution. It becomes a significant wage premium in the upper end of the distribution, which implies a significant increase in wage inequality. In short, the evidence of this research suggests that reducing the coverage of collective bargaining could be associated with a significant increase in wage inequality. A better policy option for countries with a predominant sectoral model, such as Spain, would be to move towards an organized decentralization model. This would cause significant gains in employment as suggested by OECD (2019) and only a slight increase in wage inequality.     

Self Selection Bias in the Estimates of Compensating Differentials for Job Risks in India

This study contributes to the hedonic wage literature in developing countries by estimating the collective willingness to pay of a statistical life/injury, using an original data set from the Indian labor market. As self-selection by workers results in biased estimates of the wage premium for job risks, the study uses a modified selectivity bias correction technique. Empirical results indicate substantial heterogeneity in returns to risk. The estimated value of life without selectivity bias is Rs. 56 million (US $3 million), which is substantially larger than the value with selection bias. The estimates provided by the study can aid policy makers, international agencies and other researchers in evaluating health projects in India and other developing countries.