Earnings Of Workers Research Articles

Minimum wage impacts on wages and hours worked of low-income workers in Ecuador

Abstract Minimum-wage policy aims to raise the real income of low-wage workers. Low-wage individuals may be adversely affected by minimum wages, however, although the empirical evidence on this point is not without controversy. We analyzed the effects of the January 2012 increase in monthly minimum wages on the wages and hours worked of low-wage workers in Ecuador. Individuals could have chosen to enter occupations covered by minimum-wage legislation or those that were not. We applied a difference-in-differences estimation to account for potential self-selection bias. We also relied on exogenous variations in minimum wages by sector, industry, and occupation. We constructed individual panel data from a household panel and performed estimates that also accounted for potential sample-selection bias. The results suggest a significant and positive effect on the wages of treated workers, increasing them by 0.41–0.48% for each 1% increase in minimum wages, relative to the earnings of control workers. Our results also suggest that effects varied by type of worker: (i) women workers received lower wage increases, and their hours worked were significantly and negatively affected, both of which may suggest a failure of the minimum wage to reduce the gender wage gap at the bottom of the distribution, and (ii) the hours worked by young workers were significantly and positively affected, a result that is in agreement with results found elsewhere in the literature. These results persisted after applying robustness checks to account for different control groups, full- vs. part-time jobs, separate regressions for heterogeneous groups, and tests for potential attrition and sample-selection bias. The range of effects observed across disparate groups of workers suggests areas in which policy change could be useful. The income-compression effect we found suggests that further studies should address the effects of minimum wage on the drop in income inequality observed in the data.

Persistent Misallocation and the Returns to Education in Mexico

AbstractOver the last two decades, Mexico has experienced macroeconomic stability, an open trade regime, and substantial progress in education. Yet average workers’ earnings have stagnated, and earnings of those with higher schooling have fallen, compressing the earnings distribution and lowering the returns to education. This paper argues that distortions that misallocate resources toward less-productive firms explain these phenomena, because these firms are less intensive in well-educated workers compared with more-productive ones. It shows that while the relative supply of workers with more years of schooling has increased, misallocation of resources toward less-productive firms has persisted. These two trends have generated a widening mismatch between the supply of, and the demand for, educated workers. The paper breaks down worker earnings into observable and unobservable firm and individual worker characteristics, and computes a counterfactual earnings distribution in the absence of misallocation. The main finding is that in the absence of misallocation average earnings would be higher, and that earnings differentials across schooling levels would widen, raising the returns to education. A no-misallocation path is constructed for the wage premium. Depending on parameter values, this path is found to be rising or constant, in contrast to the observed downward path. The paper concludes arguing that the persistence of misallocation impedes Mexico from taking full advantage of its investments in the education of its workforce.

Screening and Signaling Non-Cognitive Skills: Experimental Evidence from Uganda

We study how employers and job-seekers respond to credible information on skills that are difficult to observe, and how this affects matching in the labor market. We experimentally vary whether certificates on workers' non-cognitive skills are disclosed to both sides of the market during job interviews between young workers and small firms in Uganda. The certificates cause workers to increase their labor market expectations, while high-ability managers revise their assessments of the workers' skills upwards. The reaction in terms of beliefs leads to an increase in positive assortative matching and to higher earnings for workers, conditional on employment.

Open Borders, Transport Links, and Local Labor Markets

This article examines the labor-market impact of opening borders to low-wage countries, exploiting time and regional variation provided by the 2004 EU enlargement in combination with transport links to Sweden from new member states. Results suggest an adverse impact on earnings of present workers in the order of 1 percent in areas close to pre-existing ferry lines. Effects are present in most segments of the labor market but tend to be greater in groups with weaker positions. The impact is also clearer in industries that have received more workers from new member states and for which cross-border work is likely to be more common. There is no robust evidence for an impact on employment or wages. We discuss the potential mechanisms driving these results.

Young Africans. Peculiarities of Social Practices and their Role in the Formation of the Young Generation

For the first time in African studies, conducted in Russia, the authors generalize and analyze the experience of centuries-old socialization practices in conjunction with the latest trends in this field. The problem of childhood has long occupied an independent place in the wide range of scientific disciplines that to some extent examine the image of man. It is difficult to avoid standard phrases expressing the possibilities of studying this stage of a person’s life, all those institutions, rules and codes, traditions, customs and innovations, models of morality and culture that are laid in this unique period of life when mental essence and civil image are formed. One of the main factors of the sociocultural nature that forms a young African is the influence of community norms and traditions of values that hold down a person and tie him to a given social group. In a traditional African society, the family has always been (and remains) the main institution of socialization; for the individual it has been that very sociocultural field within which the personality has been formed. In a large African family, the problem boiles down to the development of a very simple model of behavior – to follow the precepts of the ancestors, to reproduce their experience and skills, to preserve their way of life. The formation of more or less close relations of the child with adults who take care of him/her – parents, relatives, friends of the family, etc. – turns the latter into the main agents of his/her socialization. At present, one of the most important factors of socialization is schooling. Often children combine study and work; in Africa, child labor is the most common in the world. Despite the official legal prohibition of the use of child labor, family control plays a key role in its practice. It depends mainly on the family whether the child continues to study or leaves school and engages only in labor activity, the latter primarily within the family. The problem of reducing and eradicating child labor has both moral, ethical, and socio-economic aspects. To solve it, it is necessary to expand access to schooling, increase incomes by achieving greater opportunities for employment and earnings for adult workers, and change attitudes towards child labor on the part of the whole society, and at the same time observe the laws regulating its use.

ANALISIS DAMPAK KARAKTERISTIK DEMOGRAFI PADA PEROLEHAN PENDAPATAN PEKERJA PEREMPUAN SEKTOR INFORMAL DI KOTA PALEMBANG

This study aims to explain the impact of demographic characteristics on the income earning of informal sector workers in Palembang City. The method used mixed methode, which is a combination of quantitative and qualitative. Data collection by observation, interview and documentation. Data obtained from the informant selected by purposive sampling. Collected quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS Program through the analysis of frequency decryption and crosstabs, while the qualitative analysis used the steps of reduction, display, and conclution. The validity of data uses degree of credibility with techniques of persistence enhancement, extension of observation, triangulation, and member checking. The results showed that demographic characteristics such as; age, status, education, skills and occupation have an impact on the earnings of informal sector women's incomes whereas training has no impact on the earnings of informal sector workers

REDUCING PUBLIC‐PRIVATE SECTOR PAY DIFFERENTIALS: THE SINGLE SPINE PAY POLICY AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT IN GHANA

Empirical studies have documented the existence of the public‐private pay differentials in both developed and developing countries. The implementation of policies aiming to reduce this gap has however been mitigated or inconclusive. This paper exploits the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) in Ghana as a natural experiment to examine the effectiveness of wage policies in developing countries. The SSPP was implemented in 2010 by the Government of Ghana to address the public‐private sector wage gap and improve productivity in the public sector. Using a quantile treatment effect approach based on a difference‐in‐difference estimation, we show that the SSPP has yet to reduce the wage gap between the public and private sectors across the entire distribution of earnings in Ghana. The improvement observed is only at the lower tail of the distribution of earnings. However, the SSPP has a larger effect on the earnings of female workers than that of males in the education and health services sectors while male workers have benefited more in the administration sector, suggesting that the policy was successful in reducing the gender wage gap in the education and health services sectors but has widened this gap in the administration sector. Moreover, the SSPP has decreased the productivity of workers across the distribution of earnings, mainly due to a decrease in the effort of female public sector workers in the education and health sectors and male workers in the administration sector. (JEL C31, G15, J24, J31, J45)

Flexibility of new hires’ earnings in Ireland

The rigidity of the net present value of wages for newly hired workers from unemployment is one of the key ingredients to generate realistic volatility of (un)employment in standard search and matching models. With Nash bargaining or if wage contracts are long-term, this net present value is affected by wages of new hires. Yet data on wages of new hires are rare and, in the few papers that distinguish between new hires from unemployment and job changers, the findings vary. For the U.S., two influential papers reach the opposite conclusions, and the findings for the few European countries are mixed. We combine administrative tax data on earnings with the Household Finance and Consumption Survey for Ireland and find that earnings of new hires from non-employment are substantially more flexible compared to earnings of incumbent workers or job changers. The findings are robust. Earnings of new hires from non-employment are more procyclical for workers with less valuable outside options.

Labor indicators and manufacturing companies ownership patterns in Russia and its regions: results of quantitative analysis

Research background: There has been an extensive process of foreign and joint ownership enterprises establishment in the Russian economy since 2006. Domestic manufacturing industry has been experiencing certain pressure on behalf of foreign direct investment bringing new technologies and higher labor requirements.
 Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to investigate differences in employment strategies and labor indicators in the case of enterprises in foreign and joint ownership (FJO) and domestic enterprises in Russian ownership (RO). We analyze the manufacturing industry in Russia and its regions under conditions of stable and crisis periods.
 Methods: The study enhances the analysis of Rosstat?s statistical data for 2005?2016 and applies ANOVA method to compare the employment results for companies with different ownership patterns. The research is carried out both at the national level of the Russian Federation and at the regional level according to the regions.
 Findings & Value added: The study identifies significant decline in employment and in-crease in productivity for the period of 2005?2016. In contrast to the crisis of 2008?2009, in 2014?2016 there has been no sharp drop in employment. However, there is a substantial decline in real salaries which is comparable to the crisis of 2008-2009. According to ANOVA, statistically significant differences in labor indicators between FJO and RO companies are manifested. RO companies dominate in employment and payroll funds, while FJO enter-prises have better productivity results with a higher average salary. FJO companies demonstrated faster growth in employment and payroll fund in relatively stable conditions (2012?2013). However, they reacted with a significant reduction in employment for a new crisis (2014?2016), although the creation of new FJO enterprises continued in separate regions of Russia. The results can be used in social policy to regulate the employment and earnings of industrial workers in the current economic conditions.

Labor indicators and manufacturing companies ownership patterns in Russia and its regions: results of quantitative analysis

Research background: There has been an extensive process of foreign and joint ownership enterprises establishment in the Russian economy since 2006. Domestic manufacturing industry has been experiencing certain pressure on behalf of foreign direct investment bringing new technologies and higher labor requirements.
 Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to investigate differences in employment strategies and labor indicators in the case of enterprises in foreign and joint ownership (FJO) and domestic enterprises in Russian ownership (RO). We analyze the manufacturing industry in Russia and its regions under conditions of stable and crisis periods.
 Methods: The study enhances the analysis of Rosstat’s statistical data for 2005–2016 and applies ANOVA method to compare the employment results for companies with different ownership patterns. The research is carried out both at the national level of the Russian Federation and at the regional level according to the regions.
 Findings & Value added: The study identifies significant decline in employment and in-crease in productivity for the period of 2005–2016. In contrast to the crisis of 2008–2009, in 2014–2016 there has been no sharp drop in employment. However, there is a substantial decline in real salaries which is comparable to the crisis of 2008-2009. According to ANOVA, statistically significant differences in labor indicators between FJO and RO companies are manifested. RO companies dominate in employment and payroll funds, while FJO enter-prises have better productivity results with a higher average salary. FJO companies demonstrated faster growth in employment and payroll fund in relatively stable conditions (2012–2013). However, they reacted with a significant reduction in employment for a new crisis (2014–2016), although the creation of new FJO enterprises continued in separate regions of Russia. The results can be used in social policy to regulate the employment and earnings of industrial workers in the current economic conditions.

Maternal Employment and Child Survival During the Era of Sustainable Development Goals: Insights from Proportional Hazards Modelling of Nigeria Birth History Data.

Background:One of the targets for the third and fifth Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) borders on children survival and women economic empowerment, respectively. A robust investigation of the relationship between maternal employment and childhood mortality will provide information useful for programs aimed at ensuring the complementarity of SDG 3 (healthy life for all) and SDG 5 (gender equality, girls and women empowerment).Objective:We addressed the following questions: (1) What is the independent relationship between maternal employment and infant (0–11 months) and child (12–59 months) mortality in Nigeria? (2) How does father’s occupation, type of residence, and geopolitical region modify the relationship?Methods:We retrospectively analysed cross-sectional data on weighted sample of 31,828 under-five children extracted from the birth history in the 2013 round of Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, using Cox proportional hazards models. The outcomes of interest were infant (0–11 months) and child (12–59 months) mortality, and the main explanatory variables include maternal employment, involvement in decision making on work earnings, and father’s occupation. Other confounding variables were also controlled.Findings:Results showed that about two-third (68.7%) of under-five children had mothers who were working, with the majority engaged in self-employed occupations such as sales or small businesses, agriculture, and other manual labour. Infant mortality rate amongst children of employed mothers (65 per 1000 live births) was slightly less than the unemployed (70 per 1000 live births). A similar pattern was observed for child mortality. Hazards regression models revealed that the risk of both infant and child mortality was higher amongst unemployed women. Sales and agriculture/manual occupation constituted a higher risk for infant and child mortality. Analysis of interaction effects also revealed variations by father’s occupation, type of residence, and geopolitical region.Conclusion:The role of maternal employment in child survival is dynamic and depends on the type of occupation, family, and residential and regional context.

Does the Theory of Marginal Productivity Apply to CEOs

The distribution of earnings in the United States has become more unequal in recent decades. The main reason is that the earnings of workers at the top of the distribution have increased more than the earnings of workers at the middle or bottom of the distribution. Some economists argue that higher CEO pay is one reason for the increase in inequality. According to one explanation, CEO pay has grown for the same reasons as the increase in pay in other occupations. Another explanation is that the labor market for CEOs does not fit the model of perfect competition and that CEOs are able to influence how much they are paid. A third explanation is that the labor market for CEOs is like the market for entertainment superstars. The supply of persons qualified to be CEOs is relatively inelastic. An increase in demand raises CEO pay. This paper considers a fourth explanation for the increase in CEO pay. The demand for CEOs may be relatively inelastic. An increase in CEO pay may not affect the number of CEOs employed. Thus, the theory of marginal productivity may not apply to CEOs.

Global health worker salary estimates: an econometric analysis of global earnings data

BackgroundHuman resources are consistently cited as a leading contributor to health care costs; however the availability of internationally comparable data on health worker earnings for all countries is a challenge for estimating the costs of health care services. This paper describes an econometric model using cross sectional earnings data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) that the World Health Organizations (WHO)-Choosing Interventions that are Cost-effective programme (CHOICE) has used to prepare estimates of health worker earnings (in 2010 USD) for all WHO member states.MethodsThe ILO data contained 324 observations of earnings data across 4 skill levels for 193 countries. Using this data, along with the assumption that data were missing not at random, we used a Heckman two stage selection model to estimate earning data for each of the 4 skill levels for all WHO member states.ResultsIt was possible to develop a prediction model for health worker earnings for all countries for which GDP data was available. Health worker earnings vary both within country due to skill level, as well as across countries. As a multiple of GDP per capita, earnings show a negative correlation with GDP—that is lower income countries pay their health workers relatively more than higher income countries.ConclusionsLimited data on health worker earnings is a limiting factor in estimating the costs of global health programmes. It is hoped that these estimates will support robust health care intervention costings and projections of resources needs over the Sustainable Development Goal period.

Do high-involvement work practices affect employee earnings in union and non-union settings in the Irish private sector?

PurposeThe link between human resource practices and earnings for workers is a notable research lacuna and the purpose of this paper is to address this relationship using a matched data set covering all employees and employers in the Irish private sector.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on the National Employment Survey (NES) (2008). The survey provides measures of individual characteristics such as union membership, collective bargaining coverage, sector, occupation, age, sex and educational attainment. It also provides data on individual employee earnings including overtime and shift allowances, together with weekly hours worked. The particular benefit of the NES is that it is a large-scale matched employer-employee survey.FindingsThe results indicate that extensive use of high-involvement practices measured in this study is positively associated with higher earnings for both lower and higher earning employees. The authors also find that for employees covered by a collective agreement, the positive effects of high-involvement work practices are complementary with a union earnings premium.Research limitations/implicationsSome caution is required in the interpretation of the results given the cross-sectional nature of the data. With cross-sectional data it is difficult to establish definitive causal and directional linkages between high-involvement measures and levels of earnings and earnings inequality.Practical implicationsFor trade unions and their members, the results imply that the involvement practices as measured in this study are unlikely to substitute for the earnings premium associated with collective bargaining coverage. For human resource, increasing the earnings of low-paid employees may carry relatively marginal costs but the benefits maybe considerable in the form of employee engagement, increased effort levels and productivity gains.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature on the outcomes of high-involvement practices for employees and firms by addressing their association with employee earnings particularly at the lower end of the wage hierarchy.

Why the earnings of the middle class declined: evidence from Japan

ABSTRACTUsing rich governmental micro data, we explore the reasons for the decline in earnings of the middle class in Japan. Many developed countries have seen the decrease in middle-class earnings, and Japan, long known for its solid middle class, is no exception. Our analyses revealed that the main reasons for the decline differ between males and females. The decrease in the earnings of middle-class male workers is due to the decrease in general human capital captured by returns to potential experience years. In contrast, the decrease in the earnings of middle-class female workers is mainly due to the increase in the supply of part-time workers. Furthermore, the firm-specific human capital captured by the return to tenure has increased only among high-wage male workers. This implies that Japanese firms invest in a selected few able workers, regardless of age, because they have been changing human resource strategy in response to economic globalization and changes in technology and the management environment.

Earnings and engagement of seamen workers

The minimum unit cost for transportation is provided by the merchant marine. These seamen have a high salary and are needed in the current labour market. In fact, the labour market in this sector has a shortage due to a number of limitations, such as the unique job description of this career, as well as that the work takes place offshore, forcing workers to be apart from their families. Factors that influence the income and engagement were hypothesised including economic and psychological factors that conjointly help to determine the income and engagement of a seaman. Mixed methods research was used as a research methodology. Purposive sampling was conducted with 362 seamen who work in a merchant marine company registered in Singapore, and in-depth interviews were also conducted with 14 key informants. The results indicate that not income, but rather non-cognitive skills (NC), are factors that influence the engagement of seamen, with statistical significance for factors such as level of openness, conscientiousness, and internal locus of control.

Earnings and engagement of seamen workers

The minimum unit cost for transportation is provided by the merchant marine. These seamen have a high salary and are needed in the current labour market. In fact, the labour market in this sector has a shortage due to a number of limitations, such as the unique job description of this career, as well as that the work takes place offshore, forcing workers to be apart from their families. Factors that influence the income and engagement were hypothesised including economic and psychological factors that conjointly help to determine the income and engagement of a seaman. Mixed methods research was used as a research methodology. Purposive sampling was conducted with 362 seamen who work in a merchant marine company registered in Singapore, and in-depth interviews were also conducted with 14 key informants. The results indicate that not income, but rather non-cognitive skills (NC), are factors that influence the engagement of seamen, with statistical significance for factors such as level of openness, conscientiousness, and internal locus of control.

Факторы текучести рабочих кадров в промышленности Алтайского края во второй половине 1950-х — 1980-е гг.

Using the local and microhistorical approaches, the article examines the problem of the staff turnover during the period of absence of legislative restrictions for the willful job changing (second half of the 1950s — 1980s). The main reasons for the dismissal of workers are determined: arduous working conditions, dissatisfaction with the living conditions or the level of wages, inability to obtain housing. The level of staff turnover in the Altai industry, which was associated with high population migration beyond the Altai Territory, was increased in comparison with the average for Western Siberia and the USSR. The reasons for the high migration of the population beyond the Altai Territory were the region's lagging behind in the development of social infrastructure from the central regions of the country and the low earnings of workers which were unable to compensate for low living conditions. The establishment of the region salary coefficient for the workers of the Altai in 1972 had a positive impact on staff turnover. Housing shortage and arduous working conditions, due to which the work on the production became unattractive to young people, were the reason that the problem of staff turnover in the industry of the region and in the USSR was not solved.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНО-ДОЛЖНОСТНЫХ РАЗЛИЧИЙ НА УРОВЕНЬ И ДИНАМИКУ ЗАРАБОТНОЙ ПЛАТЫ В ОТРАСЛЯХ РОССИЙСКОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ

The analysis of a problem of formation of the salary on the basis of official data of the Federal State Statistics Service, including data of selective inspection of the organizations during 2005-2015, allowed to reveal essential differences on the nature of differentiation of the salary in a section of kinds of activity, sectors of economy and categories of the employments. Dynamics of the salary level of the workers representing four sectors of economy was considered as a subject of the analysis. The large gap has been revealed between the salaries in the extracting industry (the highest paid sphere) and in the education system (the lowest-paid one), in relation to categories of workers and specialists in comparison with heads of the organizations. The situation is connected, in particular, with the fact that the salary of a qualified employee in the education system makes only one third of the worker's earnings in the sphere of fuel production and energy resources, while the salary of the head in education sphere is about a half of earnings of the head in the fuel and energy resources production. The developing discrepancies are the result of the specific dynamics of nominal wages of separate professional and official groups of workers. Positive tendency of salary growing for all categories in the field of research is combined with a slow and unstable increase of the salary in education and health care. Thus, positive tendencies in the sphere of distribution according to labor in the Russian economy realize rather slowly and inconsistently, which reflects substantial stagnation in economic processes. In these conditions it is required to carry out more active and scientifically based policy in the social sphere aimed at overcoming unreasonable differences in compensation of various categories of the employees.

CAPITAL SOCIAL, PRECARIZAÇÃO E UBERIZAÇÃO DO TRABALHO

Neste rápido estudo serão examinadas as relações entre capital social, organização do trabalho, precarização, terceirização, economia compartilhada e uberização das relações com a formação de novas opções para o mercado e o trabalhador. Será analisada se a entrada das empresas ponto com e a atuação através de aplicativos (e-hailing) trazem realmente mais liberdade, autonomia e melhores ganhos para os trabalhadores individuais ou se o melhor lucro e as vantagens continuam na mão das empresas. Será verificado o quantum de capital social o trabalhador coloca ou não nesta “nova” forma de relação trabalhista, se ainda existem patrões ou não neste mercado virtual.