Military service and STEM employment: Do veterans have an advantage?

We use five years of American Community Survey data to examine how military service provides a non-degree-based pathway into STEM occupations. Military service is associated with STEM occupations in positive and surprising ways. Veterans are more likely than their civilian counterparts to work in STEM, an effect particularly strong for women and among workers without a STEM bachelor's degree. Among workers lacking STEM BAs, veterans were more likely to hold STEM occupations. Indeed, veterans lacking a college degree at all are more likely than their nonveteran counterparts to hold STEM employment. We conclude that military service in itself provides a rarely-discussed route to diversifying STEM and consider the policy implications.     

The role of occupational attributes in gender earnings inequality, 1970–2010

Grounded in the research on the important role of social structures in forming gender inequalities, this study examines the effect of occupational attributes on the gender earnings gap over four decades. Using the IPUMS-USA from 1970 to 2010, the paper shows that occupational attributes cannot be reduced to the aggregate attributes of their individual incumbents. Rather, the effect of occupations on the gender earnings gap goes far beyond both the distributive role of occupational segregation and the effect of individual wage-related characteristics. Furthermore, occupations not only explain a significant portion of net gender pay gaps, but have also contributed to the narrowing of the gaps over the past several decades, as occupational attributes that favor women's pay have become more dominant over time.     

Occupational Technologists as an Occupational Community: Ethnographic Evidence

This paper uses qualitative research data, obtained from ethnographic fieldwork at a US software development firm, to demonstrate that a group of skilled workers in the Internet economy constitute an 'occupational community'. A conceptual framework for identifying occupational communities is described, along with relevant findings from previous ethnographic research on skilled workers in computer-related occupations. The Internet technologists at the company share collaborative work practices, identify closely with one another, adopt a distinctive use of language, and possess other characteristics indicating their participation in an occupational community. These findings are part of a longitudinal research study of the firm's organizational culture.     

Investigating the organizational sources of high-wage earnings growth and rising inequality

Recent studies indicate that the growth of earnings inequality in the United States since the late 1970s reflects organizational changes in the process of earnings determination. Existing research primarily focuses on workplace changes that reduce earnings levels for middle- and low-wage workers despite the importance of high-wage gains for rising inequality. This paper investigates how organizational context affects the relationship between occupation and earnings, with a focus on high-wage occupations. The earnings associated with low-wage occupations do not vary across industry groups. By contrast, the earnings advantages associated with high-wage occupations vary across industry groups in relation to the industry’s prevalence of performance pay practices. Pay initiatives that reward individuals for company performance explain much of the inter-industry variance in managerial and professional earnings slopes. The growth of performance-based pay represents an organizational change in earnings determination that may serve as a mechanism of high-wage earnings growth and rising inequality.     

Educational expansion and educational wage premiums of young male employees: A long-term analysis for West Germany 1976–2010

For decades, Western societies have experienced educational expansion accompanied by an upgrading of skills. The literature provides competing hypotheses on the consequences for educational wage returns — among them are the positional value theory, routine-biased technological change, and the social closure theory. We test these theoretical perspectives empirically on young, male full-time workers in West Germany between 1976 and 2010 in two ideal-type occupational segments using 2.34 million administrative earnings records (Sample of Integrated Labor Market Biographies, SIAB). Our findings show no credential inflation across all levels of education. Instead, the picture in both segments — negative effects of educational expansion on the returns to medium- but not high-level skills — confirms the predictions of routine-biased technological change. Wage premiums for medium-skilled workers differ between segments: the premiums worsen over time in the general segment whereas social-closure mechanisms seem to weaken this negative trend for vocational graduates in the specific segment.     

Occupational Status in 2000; Over a Century of Census-Based Measurement

The Nam–Powers–Boyd Occupational Status Scale for the year 2000 is introduced here. It is the sixth in a decennial series of such scales that were initiated at the Census Bureau a half century earlier. The bureau's examination of occupational status actually goes back to the end of the 19th century and its thread continues today. The historical background of the 2000 scale, the methodology for constructing the scores, some comparisons with other occupational scales, the 2000 scores themselves, and applications of the 2000 scores are presented.     

Worker training: A review, critique, and extension

Why does employee training in the US lag behind that of our industrial counterparts? We provide an overview of employee training in the US and a review of American employee training literature and concepts. Our criticism of this literature is based on its limited conceptual structure that derives from an over-reliance on the distinction between “general” versus “specific” training. We find this dichotomy to be both empirically and theoretically imprecise. We also provide a brief overview of employee training in other industrialized nations. In combination, the critique of the American literature and the review of the international literature provide a framework for suggesting new approaches to training and its study in the United States. We argue that such a new approach is needed both to understand employee training in the US and to provide an empirical framework for guiding its growth and development.     

Adaptive familial strategies among merchant seamen

The study reported here examines those familial strategies that develop among merchant seamen families: replacement husband/father, conflict, contingent authority, and periodic guest. Data were gathered from interviews with 141 families over a 7-year period. Results indicate that merchant seamen families use a replacement husband/father strategy if male kin are available. When kin are not available these families eventually arrive at and remain in a periodic guest strategy. A discussion of family power as it relates to the development of specific strategies is also included.Craig J. Forsyth is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, P.O. Box 40198, Lafayette, LA 70504. His current research interests include deviant life-styles, maritime sociology, and the interrelationship between family and work. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.Robert Gramling is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, P.O. Box 40198, Lafayette, LA 70504. His research interests are in the areas of social impacts of economic activity, particularly on the family, and microscopic social theory. His Ph.D. is from Florida State University.     

Occupational conditions,self-care,and obesity among clergy in the United States

Prior research has shown that a variety of occupational conditions such as long work hours are associated with increased likelihood of obesity. In this study, we use the specific case of the clergy to explore how occupational conditions are linked to increased or decreased odds of being obese. We hypothesize that stressful conditions are associated with increased odds of obesity and that self-care practices are associated with decreased odds. Using the 2008/9 U.S. Congregational Life Survey’s national sample of clergy from multiple religious traditions, we find support for our hypotheses. Clergy who experience more stress, work more hours, or are bi-vocational have higher odds of obesity. Those who take a day off each week, have taken a sabbatical, or are involved in a support group experience lower odds. For Protestant clergy, being involved in a support group or taking a day off moderates the association between certain stressful occupational conditions and obesity.     

英语职业委婉语语义模糊和扬升的隐转喻研究

从认知语义学的角度出发,运用概念隐喻和转喻理论对英语职业委婉语的语义模糊和扬升机制进行微观分析。分析表明,概念隐喻和转喻在职业委婉语实现委婉的过程中扮演了重要角色。其中,概念转喻借助整体与部分间的同域映射主要实现语义模糊,而概念隐喻则借助相似认知域间的跨域映射主要实现语义扬升。