Labor Inequality Research Articles

Changing Landscapes: Gender Inequality and Remediation in Labor Markets and Organizations

Although there has been progress in understanding some aspects of gender inequality, the hiring process and its contributions to gender inequality in labor markets and organizations remains unclear, leaving knowledge of the potential solutions for gender inequality incomplete (Petersen and Saporta, 2004). This symposium brings together four papers that deepen our understanding of inequality by focusing on changes in labor markets and organizations. A paper by Burbano, Padilla, and Meier examines an important but overlooked job characteristic—gendered differences in preferences for meaning at work—that may in part explain occupational segregation by gender—and are more pronounced in national contexts with greater levels of education and economic development. In another paper, Sterling, Gilmartin, and Sheppard suggest that informing employer’s beliefs about men’s and women’s abilities—instead of improving women’s self-beliefs about abilities—could be the pathway by which the gender pay gap lessens. Wang examines how laws in the U.S. (i.e. salary history bans) that address a specific juncture in the wage-setting process—initial salary offers prior to the negotiation stage—can reduce historic inequalities by disrupting path dependencies in wages. And finally, a paper by Zhang investigates how technological change such as e-commerce adoption by retail companies, may improve racial and gender equality in hiring and promotions.

Globalization from Below: Labor Inequality in the German Shipbuilding Industry, 1960-2000

This study examines how globalization affected employment changes in the German shipbuilding industry in the second half of the 20th century. Over four decades, as a response to global competition originally large and labor-intensive shipyards in the northwest of Germany evolved into lean and nimble high-technology companies. Our findings based on 28 oral history interviews with former staff of two leading shipyards show that this large-scale industry transformation is a hitherto hidden history of labor mobility, migration and evolving dimensions of diversity in the workplace. Allowing for a look at globalization from below, the narrations reveal structural and subjective implications on workforce hierarchies and on different workers’ roles and positions. We identify five patterns of social exclusion and inequality between and within groups of workers with and without migrant backgrounds that have not been documented before.

Impact of COVID-19 on India: alternative scenarios for economic and social development

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major learning about the social and economic losses that an external shock to the system can cause. In this paper, we examine some sustainability issues focusing on three key focal points of sustainable development – economic growth, poverty and inequality in the context of climate change. We focus on the inter-relationship between economic growth, investment, labour force participation, energy consumption, poverty and inequality under alternative scenarios using the global framing of Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs). An econometric model is used for estimating the relationship between GDP and its determinants along with fitting a General Quadratic and/or Beta Lorenz curve using the World Bank’s Povcal software for determining the relationship between income, poverty and inequality. Alternative GDP growth paths, redistribution assumptions and poverty lines are used for simulations which reveal the extent of sensitivity of the developmental targets to scenarios up to 2030.

The Gendered Politics of Pandemic Relief: Labor and Family Policies in Denmark, Germany, and the United States During COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified families’ struggles to reconcile caregiving and employment, especially for working mothers. How have different countries reacted to these troubling circumstances? What policies have been implemented to alleviate the pernicious effects of the pandemic on gender and labor inequalities? We examine the policies offered in Denmark, Germany, and the United States, three countries that represent distinct welfare regimes. We find important differences among the policy solutions provided, but also in the “cultural infrastructures” that allow policies to work as intended, or not. In Denmark, a social-democratic welfare state, robust federal salary guarantee programs supplemented an already strong social safety net. The country was among the first to lock down and reorganize health care—and also among the first to reopen schools and child care facilities, acknowledging that parents’ employment depends on child care provisioning, especially for mothers. Germany, a corporatist regime, substantially expanded existing programs and provided generous subsidies. However, despite an ongoing official commitment to reduce gender inequality, the cultural legacy of a father breadwinner/mother caregiver family model meant that reopening child care facilities was not a first priority, which pushed many mothers out of paid work. In the U.S. liberal regime, private organizations—particularly in privileged economic sectors—are the ones primarily offering supports to working parents. Patchwork efforts at lockdown and reopening have meant a lengthy period of limbo for working families, with disastrous consequences for women, especially the most vulnerable. Among such varied “solutions” to the consequences of the pandemic, those of liberal regimes seem to be worsening inequalities. The unprecedented nature of the current pandemic recession suggests a need for scholars to gender the study of economic crises.

Researching gender inequalities in academic labor during the COVID-19 pandemic: Avoiding common problems and asking different questions.

As the COVID‐19 pandemic unfolds, a growing body of international literature is analyzing the effects of the pandemic on academic labor and, specifically, on gender inequalities in academia. In that literature, much attention has been devoted to comparing the unequal impacts of COVID‐19 on the research activities of women and men, with studies demonstrating that women's research productivity has been disproportionately disrupted, in ways that are likely to have detrimental effects in the short‐ and long‐term. In this paper, I discuss that emerging literature on gender inequalities in pandemic academic productivity. I reflect on the questions asked, the issues centered and the assumptions made within this literature, devoting particular attention to how authors conceptualize academic labor and productivity, on one hand, and gender, on the other. I show that this literature makes major contributions to exposing old and new gender inequalities in academia, but argue that it also risks reproducing some problematic assumptions about gender and about academic work. Discussing those assumptions and their effects, I identify some important questions for us to consider as we expand this literature and deepen our understanding of the complex gendered effects of COVID‐19 on academic labor.

Measuring labour market segmentation for a comparative analysis among countries

This article raises one main question in a comparative analytical exercise between two countries in different continents, Spain and Argentina. To what extent does labour market segmentation generate similar dynamics of structuring of labour inequalities in two countries with different socio-economic contexts and social models, and which aspects are specific to each country? The article is the first an analytical work aimed at comparing European and Latin American countries from the theoretical perspective of labour market segmentation. We set two main objectives. The first was to construct an analysis model to study inequalities in the labour market in comparative terms between Europe and Latin America, taking as a reference Spain and Argentina. To this end, demand and supply variables were combined from an employment perspective. We sought to corroborate the general hypothesis that there is no single labour market that adjusts supply and demand, but that several segments can be expected to structure hierarchical positions in the labour market in line with specific labour supply profiles. We expected to obtain a high correspondence between the employment segments of the two countries, despite the contextual and socio-historical differences. The second objective was to propose a methodology to obtain two synthetic measures of labour market segmentation: first, a categorical measurement through a typology constructed from hierarchical positions and profiles using multivariate techniques (combining multiple correspondence factor analysis [MCA] and cluster analysis [CLA]); and second, a continuous measurement based on the results of factor analysis, resulting in a composite indicator of labour inequality.

Global dimension of labor inequality

The transition of the world economy from Keynesianism to neoliberalism at the end of the twentieth century entailed tectonic shifts in the sphere of labor and employment. The organization of the production process on neoliberal principles under the conditions of the post-Fordist regime of capital accumulation has led to instability and insecurity of employment, a high level of labor underutilization, widespread labor poverty, as well as the rapidly increasing inequality that threatens social development today and stability of society. Based on the economic-sociological approach the author examines the reasons for the expansion and the specifics of the manifestation of inequality in the world of work in the context of the post-Fordist neoliberal reform of the global economic system. The article characterizes the key trends in the functioning of the labor market, contributing to the increase in inequality over the past decades (a decrease of the labor share in the national income, a reduction in the relationship between productivity and wages growth, the erosion of the trade union movement and the destruction of the welfare state). The main attention is paid to the study of the phenomenon of labor income inequality, its dynamics and forms of manifestation in the modern world, as well as to identify the impact on this type of inequality, both individual characteristics of workers and the characteristics of the industry, size of the enterprise, as well as the level of socio-economic development of the country. Based on the study of these processes, the author concludes that the redistribution of income in favor of capital and their high differentiation are the quintessence of neoliberal capitalism. The economic and political depletion of nation states in the context of neoliberal reforms led to their low resources, insufficient either to carry out a broad social policy and help those in need, or to adequately combat the consequences of crises characteristic of capitalism or any force majeure situations, such as, for example, the current COVID-19 pandemic. To get the global economy out of the current crisis requires the implementation of fundamental changes not only in the field of economic policy, but also in the entire system of distribution of public goods.

Remaking the Commons: How Digital Tools Facilitate and Subvert the Common Good

This scoping paper considers how digital tools, such as ICTs and AI, have failed to contribute to the “common good” in any sustained or scalable way. This is attributed to a problem that is at once political-economic and technical. Many digital tools’ business models are predicated on advertising: framing the user as an individual consumer-to-be-targeted, not as an organization, movement, or any sort of commons. At the level of infrastructure and hardware, the increased privatization and centralization of transmission and production leads to a dangerous bottlenecking of communication power, and to labor and production practices that are undemocratic and damaging to common resources. These practices escalate collective action problems, pose a threat to democratic decision making, aggravate issues of economic and labor inequality, and harm the environment and health. At the same time, the growth of both AI and online community formation raise questions around the very definition of human subjectivity and modes of relationality. Based on an operational definition of the common good grounded in ethics of care, sustainability, and redistributive justice, suggestions are made for solutions and further research in the areas of participatory design, digital democracy, digital labor, and environmental sustainability.

Aesthetic Grammars of Social Justice: Sex Work Reimagined

ABSTRACT Against a backdrop of the persistence of coloniality through structural forms of privilege and bias across socioeconomic manifestations, inequality and racial stratification of labour in South Africa, creative activism offers a lens, voice and perspective of sex workers. We relate these glimpses to rehumanisation and re-membering, challenging historically distinct modes of turning humans into objects as part of decolonial possibilities. We seek to make decolonization a praxis of making human and hence we ask two central questions: what provocations arise from aesthetics of creative activism? And what might rehumanizing/re-membering concretely mean? We consider these questions through an analysis of the activism, exhibitions and performance with participant sex workers that formed part of the GlobalGRACE project launch in South Africa. Ultimately, we argue that art practices fundamentally engage the imagination and open up possibilities for re-imagining, re-storying and re-centering marginalized knowledges.

Reproducing Global Inequalities in the Online Labour Market: Valuing Capital in the Design Field

Millions of freelancers work on digital platforms in the online labour market (OLM). The OLM’s capacity to both undermine and reproduce labour inequalities is a theme in contemporary platform economy debates. What is less well understood is how processes of social (re)production take place in practice for diverse freelancers on global platforms. Drawing on a study of freelance designers, we use Bourdieu’s notions of capital and field to explore the specific ‘rules of the game’ and the symbolic valuing of skills and identities that secure legitimacy and advantage in the OLM. We contribute to contemporary debates by illuminating the power of Global North actors to shape freelancer positions and hierarchies in the online design field. The ‘cost advantages’ of Global South workers are counterbalanced by the symbolic legitimising of specific cultural and social practices (specifically in relation to language) and the devaluing of others.

Influence of Accession of the Visegrad Group Countries to the EU on the Situation in Their Labour Markets

In 2004, ten new countries, including the Visegrad Group (V4) ones, accessed the European Union. These countries are ex-communist. They are still in the process of transition from a centrally planned to a free-market economy. It is interesting to check how their economies have changed after their accession to the EU. Reducing inequalities in labour markets is one of the aspects of sustainable development. The goal of this research is an assessment of the situation in the labour markets in the V4 countries with respect to the whole EU. The research was carried out on the data from Eurostat (2002–2019) and was conducted by means of the multidimensional scaling technique. Before joining the EU, the situation in the labour market in the V4 countries (excluding Czechia) was much worse than in most EU-member states. After joining the EU, the situation in these countries gradually improved. In 2019, the situation in the labour market in Czechia was one of the best in the EU and the remaining three V4 countries moved into the EU-average. The joining of the V4 countries to the EU had a positive impact on the situation in their labour markets.

Condiciones laborales de las comunidades indígenas en la región metropolitana de Guadalajara, México

espanolEn este trabajo, desde la perspectiva de la sociologia del trabajo, pretendemos analizar las condiciones laborales que experimenta el universo de la fuerza de trabajo indigena, por autodescripcion, que conto, en 2015, con un empleo en la Region Metropolitana Guadalajara (RMG) [1]. Dicho analisis se establece con base en los microdatos de la Encuesta Intercensal de dicho ano. Ello, con la pretension de identificar los distintos niveles de precariedad y, de no precariedad salarial, asi como de distintas prestaciones laborales que registra la fuerza de trabajo indigena. Es decir, pretendemos ofrecer evidencia estadistica sobre las condiciones de desigualdad laboral y de la heterogeneidad que impera en la precariedad y no precariedad laboral que enfrenta la fuerza de trabajo indigena que labora en la RMG. EnglishIn this work, from the perspective of the sociology of work, we intend to analyze the working conditions experienced by the universe of the indigenous labor force, by self-description, which in 2015, had a job in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Region (RMG). Said analysis is established based on the microdata of the Intercensal Survey of said year. This, with the aim of identifying the different levels of precariousness and of non-wage precariousness, as well as different labor benefits registered by the indigenous labor force. That is, we intend to offer statistical evidence on the conditions of labor inequality and the heterogeneity that prevails in the precariousness and non-labor precariousness faced by the indigenous labor force that works in the RMG.

Human capital at work: performance measurement, prospective valuation and labour inequality

ABSTRACT The proximate roots of performance measurement lie in a 1980s shift in management accountancy away from lagging and financial indicators towards leading ones that indicate potential for future value creation, especially regarding intangible assets and functions. This paper proposes that such innovations in accountancy are not merely technical but are driven by contextual economic imperatives. It shows how PM articulates with capital owner demand for maximal value creation under the shareholder value model of the corporation rationalized through neoliberal economic thought and new economy discourses. Performance metrics cascade through organizational levels so as to highlight the apparent contributions of actors held accountable for aspects of value creation. They allow a subtle shift away from Taylorist operational statistics based on demonstrated achievable values towards prospective calculative rationality that enjoins all to manage their own capacity to increase value amid expectations of continuous improvement. Quantifying labour by putative performance outputs also allows for differential levels of reward and the marketization of wage relations favoured by agency theory. It has been central to new ways of eliciting more output for less reward from gig economy and neotaylorist workers, while also enabling the emergence of the equity-owning ‘superstar manager class’ that Piketty sees as distinctive of contemporary inequality. Its members largely configure and benefit from performance-related pay frameworks that reward executives for minimizing costs relative to ‘maximizing’ of the value chains they oversee.

The political ecology of shaded coffee plantations: conservation narratives and the everyday-lived-experience of farmworkers

ABSTRACT Shade-grown coffee conserves biodiversity and often improves peasant livelihoods in Latin America. However, farmworkers have been overwhelmingly overlooked, despite being a vulnerable and marginalized actor in the coffee production chain, facing food and labor inequalities. This ethnographic research explores how farmworkers perceive biodiversity conservation in labor-intensive organic coffee systems. I examine the tensions that arise when conservation narratives meet the everyday-lived-experience of farmworkers, emphasizing material and symbolic effects on farmworkers' lives. Through questioning shade-grown organic coffee as a just imaginary, I expose contradictions and trade-offs of biodiversity conservation in labor-intensive systems, relevant as we transition to more sustainable food systems.

Is employment a panacea for poverty? A mixed-methods investigation of employment decisions in South Africa

Unemployment is a key determinant of poverty in South Africa and labour market inequalities reflect deep-rooted socio-economic inequalities. In a context of high rates of poverty and unemployment, we would expect a job loss to be associated with a decline in wellbeing. Using nationally representative panel data and original qualitative data collected in Cape Town, I find that, on average, this hypothesis holds. However, this aggregate effect conceals heterogeneities in the relationship between labour market transitions and wellbeing which are of special analytic interest. In particular, this study focusses on those cases which go against the grain of the overall labour market-wellbeing nexus – that is, cases in which black, urban youths turn down or quit wage work. An analysis of these examples helps illuminate how disadvantaged workers face non-negligible disincentives to certain forms of low-skill employment and reveals the circumstances under which these disincentives may outweigh the disincentives to unemployment. To aid this investigation, I develop a model which analyses the welfare effect of job losses as being jointly determined by the strength of outside options and disincentives to work. Using qualitative data, I provide evidence in support of this model and show that, under certain circumstances, transitioning out of employment will be the welfare optimising choice for workers: Younger workers with no dependants and with alternative sources of support can be said to have stronger outside options, and are especially likely to turn down or quit low-quality jobs. Older workers, with dependants and without alternative sources of support, are more likely to accept and persist in low-quality jobs. This study argues that understanding the complexity of the incentives that workers face and which inform labour market choices will be indispensable in effectively designing policies which aim to reduce inequalities in labour markets – in South Africa and beyond.

The relation of gender role attitudes with depression and generalised anxiety disorder in two Russian cities

BackgroundReported traditional gender role attitudes (GRAs) have been related to worse mental health in western countries. This study examined the link of GRAs with symptoms of depression and generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in two Russian cities. MethodsWe used interview data from the cross-sectional Know Your Heart Study conducted among 5099 adults aged 35-69 in the Russian cities of Arkhangelsk and Novosibirsk between 2015 and 2017. Attitudes about gender inequality and division of labour between women and men at home or in the public sphere were measured by single items. Binary variables indicating presence of symptoms of depression and GAD were defined by a cut-off of ≥ 5 of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores respectively. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine crude and adjusted associations. ResultsThere was evidence that all types of GRAs were associated with symptoms of depression and GAD consistent with a U-shape after controlling for confounding with stronger evidence for all relationships for depression than for GAD. Odds of depressive symptoms were elevated among participants strongly agreeing to gender inequality and gender division of labour. There was good evidence for effect measure modification by age. LimitationsThe possibilities of measurement error of the exposure and outcomes, residual confounding and reverse causality are important limitations of this study. ConclusionsAgreeing to gender inequality and gender division of labour was associated with reporting symptoms of common mental disorders in Russia. This study adds evidence for a link of GRAs with mental health from a non-western context.

Creative Connections: The power of contemporary art to explore European citizenship

Across Europe, educational institutions are essential in assisting exploration of politics, culture and history, and the use of creative arts appears crucial to supporting this aim. This article reports on Creative Connections, a multi-partner research project that facilitated exchanges for young people to explore their European identities using online art galleries and blogging technologies. Their multimodal conversations revealed an openness to consider artworks as sources of knowledge and experience. Participants did not focus on the nationality of the artist, but concentrated on the relationship that the subject matter of the work had with their own concerns. Anxiety related to populism, exclusive nationalism, social inequality and new forms of labour appeared to impact young European citizens’ relationships and their perceptions of democracy.

The Technologies of Discrimination: How Platforms Cultivate Gender Inequality

Abstract The changes created by platform-facilitated labor are considered fundamental challenges to the future of work. As more data accumulates on gender discrimination in online platforms, this Article explores how inequality is cultivated by platforms in the gig economy. Looking at technological architecture as organizational structure, this essay bridges a gap between three bodies of scholarship that have not yet been in conversation but considering them together is necessary if we are to think about gender equality in platform-facilitated labor. The first concerns data driven discrimination, the second concerns the role of platform affordances and the third concerns organizational policies. These point to the gender inequality regime that platforms may enact. Thus, the Article theoretically contributes to unpacking platforms’ role in perpetuating and institutionalizing gender inequality. Finally, it offers some suggestions on the ways in which law, policy and technology can disrupt the institutionalization of gender inequality in platform-facilitated labor.

A critical discussion of theoretical foundations and measurement methods of gender roles

Abstract Background Public health researchers have frequently investigated associations of individual gender role norms or attitudes with a variety of health outcomes. It has been suggested that the construct of gender roles is multidimensional, including norms about gender inequality and gender-related division of labour. Implications of multidimensionality and limitations of applied measurement methods, however, have rarely been discussed critically in published studies. Methods I will summarise theoretical considerations about the multidimensionality of the construct of gender roles. Examples of recently applied approaches to operationalise gender role attitudes in mental health research will be presented. The talk will conclude with a discussion of advantages and limitations of these approaches regarding consistency with theory, applicability, and reduction of measurement error. Results Gender role norms include assumptions about inequality and division of labour in the public and private sphere. Items about gender role attitudes are regularly included in questionnaires of large social surveys and are suitable to explore associations with disease occurrence or quality of healthcare. Data reduction methods such as factor analysis might be applied to differentiate dimensions and to reduce measurement error. Conclusions Shortcomings in considering theoretical foundations and inconsistencies in operationalisation might have contributed to the limited recognition of findings about possible impacts of gender roles on health. We need to advance measurement methods to increase the quality of public health research on gender. Finally, aspects of gender on the contextual level should complement investigations of individual gender roles.

Відтворення нерівності трудового потенціалу сільської і міської молоді: причини та шляхи подолання

Відтворення нерівності трудового потенціалу сільської і міської молоді: причини та шляхи подолання