Gary S. Fields
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794645
- eISBN:
- 9780199928606
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794645.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics, Financial Economics
By this point, readers will have learned how the poorer half of the world's people work and what has been done in different countries to help the poor earn their way out of poverty. For readers who ...
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By this point, readers will have learned how the poorer half of the world's people work and what has been done in different countries to help the poor earn their way out of poverty. For readers who may be asking themselves “What can I do?” this short chapter talks about some of the possibilities ranging from helping spread information and good ideas to making companies more aware of the situations of the workers they employ to working for better public policies to devoting part of one's time or money to help solve the problems of the poor to making the fight against global poverty one's life's work.Less
By this point, readers will have learned how the poorer half of the world's people work and what has been done in different countries to help the poor earn their way out of poverty. For readers who may be asking themselves “What can I do?” this short chapter talks about some of the possibilities ranging from helping spread information and good ideas to making companies more aware of the situations of the workers they employ to working for better public policies to devoting part of one's time or money to help solve the problems of the poor to making the fight against global poverty one's life's work.
Kenneth Hudson and Arne L. Kalleberg
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447348603
- eISBN:
- 9781447348658
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447348603.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
In January 2018, about 17 percent of the workforce in the United States had a part-time job. Part-time employment increased between 1955 and the 1980s as large numbers of women entered the ...
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In January 2018, about 17 percent of the workforce in the United States had a part-time job. Part-time employment increased between 1955 and the 1980s as large numbers of women entered the workforce. Since then it has fluctuated in response to rising and falling unemployment. The majority of part-time workers are between 24 and 60 and about two-thirds are women, who often divide their time between work and family. Like other forms of nonstandard work, part-time workers are more likely to have bad jobs, and they are more apt to live in families that are poor, even when controlling for a multitude of labor related variables. Although some part-time jobs offer health and retirement benefits and wages above the poverty threshold, most do not. Only a small share of part-time jobs-between 16 and 17 percent-are located in the primary labor market. When compared to whites, we find that blacks, Hispanic non-citizens, and persons of mixed-race descent are more likely to work part-time. Part-time workers in these groups are also more likely to have jobs in the secondary labor market. Finally, we find that as percentage of part-time workers in occupations increases, the negative effect on job quality associated with the percentage of women in an occupation is greatly reduced or disappearLess
In January 2018, about 17 percent of the workforce in the United States had a part-time job. Part-time employment increased between 1955 and the 1980s as large numbers of women entered the workforce. Since then it has fluctuated in response to rising and falling unemployment. The majority of part-time workers are between 24 and 60 and about two-thirds are women, who often divide their time between work and family. Like other forms of nonstandard work, part-time workers are more likely to have bad jobs, and they are more apt to live in families that are poor, even when controlling for a multitude of labor related variables. Although some part-time jobs offer health and retirement benefits and wages above the poverty threshold, most do not. Only a small share of part-time jobs-between 16 and 17 percent-are located in the primary labor market. When compared to whites, we find that blacks, Hispanic non-citizens, and persons of mixed-race descent are more likely to work part-time. Part-time workers in these groups are also more likely to have jobs in the secondary labor market. Finally, we find that as percentage of part-time workers in occupations increases, the negative effect on job quality associated with the percentage of women in an occupation is greatly reduced or disappear
Frank Stricker
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780252043154
- eISBN:
- 9780252052033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043154.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effective. Rich people and business owners often do other things with new money than create good jobs. ...
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The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effective. Rich people and business owners often do other things with new money than create good jobs. Government should directly create jobs in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. An umbrella program, such as the proposed Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, must guarantee jobs for all and especially for people in distressed communities. Specific focuses include infrastructure repair, more subsidies for weatherizing low-income dwellings and enlarging Head Start, money for wind farms, affordable housing, and bolstering the Affordable Care Act, which has been a job creator. The chapter uses opinion surveys and analyzes Democratic and Republican values to weigh support levels for programs that guarantee full employment.Less
The chapter argues that deficit spending is useful but scattershot tax cuts are not very effective. Rich people and business owners often do other things with new money than create good jobs. Government should directly create jobs in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. An umbrella program, such as the proposed Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act, must guarantee jobs for all and especially for people in distressed communities. Specific focuses include infrastructure repair, more subsidies for weatherizing low-income dwellings and enlarging Head Start, money for wind farms, affordable housing, and bolstering the Affordable Care Act, which has been a job creator. The chapter uses opinion surveys and analyzes Democratic and Republican values to weigh support levels for programs that guarantee full employment.
Gary S. Fields
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199794645
- eISBN:
- 9780199928606
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199794645.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Macro- and Monetary Economics, Financial Economics
More than three billion people in the world—half of humankind—live on less than two-and-a-half US dollars per person per day. Excellent books can be found on ending world poverty. These books go into ...
More
More than three billion people in the world—half of humankind—live on less than two-and-a-half US dollars per person per day. Excellent books can be found on ending world poverty. These books go into depth on many important aspects of economic development but do not focus on employment and self-employment, work and nonwork. The present volume fills in where these others leave off. For the last several decades, Gary Fields has been teaching, conducting research, and working as a policy advisor on labor market issues. Policy makers, businesspeople, and researchers know a great deal about how the world's poor work and what has improved conditions for them. We know how the poor have managed to invest in improving their own self-employment earning opportunities. We know what it takes for the private sector to want to set up operations in a developing country, thereby creating jobs and paying the taxes that can be used to build roads and schools and fund social programs. We know how poor-country governments can stimulate economic growth and make that growth more inclusive of the poor. And we know how the development banks, the rich-country governments, and other development organizations can help poor-country governments and other organizations do what they do not have the means to do on their own: create more good jobs, improve earnings levels in the poorer jobs, and enhance the skills and productivity of their working people. This book shares those lessons with you.Less
More than three billion people in the world—half of humankind—live on less than two-and-a-half US dollars per person per day. Excellent books can be found on ending world poverty. These books go into depth on many important aspects of economic development but do not focus on employment and self-employment, work and nonwork. The present volume fills in where these others leave off. For the last several decades, Gary Fields has been teaching, conducting research, and working as a policy advisor on labor market issues. Policy makers, businesspeople, and researchers know a great deal about how the world's poor work and what has improved conditions for them. We know how the poor have managed to invest in improving their own self-employment earning opportunities. We know what it takes for the private sector to want to set up operations in a developing country, thereby creating jobs and paying the taxes that can be used to build roads and schools and fund social programs. We know how poor-country governments can stimulate economic growth and make that growth more inclusive of the poor. And we know how the development banks, the rich-country governments, and other development organizations can help poor-country governments and other organizations do what they do not have the means to do on their own: create more good jobs, improve earnings levels in the poorer jobs, and enhance the skills and productivity of their working people. This book shares those lessons with you.
Tracy Shildrick, Robert MacDonald, Colin Webster, and Kayleigh Garthwaite
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781847429117
- eISBN:
- 9781447307907
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847429117.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This final chapter connects the findings of the research with broader debates, research and theory in respect of work, unemployment, labour markets and welfare. Particular attention is focussed ...
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This final chapter connects the findings of the research with broader debates, research and theory in respect of work, unemployment, labour markets and welfare. Particular attention is focussed towards the myth of the high skills economy, the growth of underemployment and poor work and the idea that we have witnessed the rise of a new class at the bottom of society – ‘the Precariat’ - characterised by its general insecurity and precarious work opportunities. The final part of the chapter gives a critique of current political and policy approaches that bear on questions of work, welfare and poverty, highlighting their potential to seriously worsen the conditions and prospects of the sort of people whose testimonies provide the backbone of this book. It argues for – and describes - policies that would tackle the insecurity and poverty of low-pay, no-pay Britain, particularly strategies ‘to make bad jobs better’.Less
This final chapter connects the findings of the research with broader debates, research and theory in respect of work, unemployment, labour markets and welfare. Particular attention is focussed towards the myth of the high skills economy, the growth of underemployment and poor work and the idea that we have witnessed the rise of a new class at the bottom of society – ‘the Precariat’ - characterised by its general insecurity and precarious work opportunities. The final part of the chapter gives a critique of current political and policy approaches that bear on questions of work, welfare and poverty, highlighting their potential to seriously worsen the conditions and prospects of the sort of people whose testimonies provide the backbone of this book. It argues for – and describes - policies that would tackle the insecurity and poverty of low-pay, no-pay Britain, particularly strategies ‘to make bad jobs better’.
Joy Takako Taylor
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496815064
- eISBN:
- 9781496815101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496815064.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter addresses Native Hawaiian representation in Young Adult literature, focusing on the American Girl (AG) books, Aloha, Kanani and Good Job, Kanani. Both texts promote a multicultural ...
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This chapter addresses Native Hawaiian representation in Young Adult literature, focusing on the American Girl (AG) books, Aloha, Kanani and Good Job, Kanani. Both texts promote a multicultural ideology, or the myth of friendship and peaceful coexistence between white and non-white characters. Most importantly, “race” becomes synonymous with “culture,” which allows for the erasure of the historical context of Hawai‘i despite the fact that the AG corporation markets its books and expensively-priced dolls as being historically accurate. Within the context of a beautiful, laid-back, and peaceful Hawai‘i, Kanani Akina, of Japanese, Native Hawaiian, and European heritage, is a liminal white figure who functions as a go-between to the busy metropolis (read: the West) and rustic Hawai‘i (read: the non-West). Kanani becomes an important figure that allows readers, through their consumption of the books and dolls, to position themselves as both antiracist and anticolonialist.Less
This chapter addresses Native Hawaiian representation in Young Adult literature, focusing on the American Girl (AG) books, Aloha, Kanani and Good Job, Kanani. Both texts promote a multicultural ideology, or the myth of friendship and peaceful coexistence between white and non-white characters. Most importantly, “race” becomes synonymous with “culture,” which allows for the erasure of the historical context of Hawai‘i despite the fact that the AG corporation markets its books and expensively-priced dolls as being historically accurate. Within the context of a beautiful, laid-back, and peaceful Hawai‘i, Kanani Akina, of Japanese, Native Hawaiian, and European heritage, is a liminal white figure who functions as a go-between to the busy metropolis (read: the West) and rustic Hawai‘i (read: the non-West). Kanani becomes an important figure that allows readers, through their consumption of the books and dolls, to position themselves as both antiracist and anticolonialist.
Francis Green, Alan Felstead, and Duncan Gallie
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198712848
- eISBN:
- 9780191781179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712848.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History, Public Management
There are contrasting views about how the average level and the dispersion of job quality have evolved in modern capitalism. Against the backdrop of political and economic change, this chapter tracks ...
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There are contrasting views about how the average level and the dispersion of job quality have evolved in modern capitalism. Against the backdrop of political and economic change, this chapter tracks the evolution of job quality in Britain between 1986 and 2012, using the Skills and Employment Survey series and other data. Wages rose, but then fell sharply after the economic crisis in 2008. Physical working conditions, the overall quality of working time and required skills also improved, but work became more intense. Perceptions of job insecurity broadly followed the business cycle, and have deepened and broadened following the crisis. Wages became much more unequal over the quarter century. In contrast, there were smaller changes in the dispersion of non-pay job quality. Work intensity and working-time quality became less unequal, and the gender pay gap has diminished. Yet job quality in Britain remains lower and more unequal than in the Nordic countries.Less
There are contrasting views about how the average level and the dispersion of job quality have evolved in modern capitalism. Against the backdrop of political and economic change, this chapter tracks the evolution of job quality in Britain between 1986 and 2012, using the Skills and Employment Survey series and other data. Wages rose, but then fell sharply after the economic crisis in 2008. Physical working conditions, the overall quality of working time and required skills also improved, but work became more intense. Perceptions of job insecurity broadly followed the business cycle, and have deepened and broadened following the crisis. Wages became much more unequal over the quarter century. In contrast, there were smaller changes in the dispersion of non-pay job quality. Work intensity and working-time quality became less unequal, and the gender pay gap has diminished. Yet job quality in Britain remains lower and more unequal than in the Nordic countries.
Daniel P. Gitterman and Peter A. Coclanis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807873359
- eISBN:
- 9781469602424
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807872895_gitterman.14
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This chapter discusses a marked transformation undergone by work in North Carolina in the past several decades. Social, political, and economic forces have made the quality of jobs problematic. The ...
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This chapter discusses a marked transformation undergone by work in North Carolina in the past several decades. Social, political, and economic forces have made the quality of jobs problematic. The notion of job quality, or a “good job,” communicates that workers are concerned about the nature of their work, not just whether they have a job. Concerns about job quality have been overshadowed in recent years by the fact that many Southerners have no jobs at all as a consequence of the Great Recession and its aftermath. Nevertheless, the quality of available jobs has been a continuing source of distress for some time. The importance of job quality stems from the centrality of work to human welfare and to the functioning of businesses and communities.Less
This chapter discusses a marked transformation undergone by work in North Carolina in the past several decades. Social, political, and economic forces have made the quality of jobs problematic. The notion of job quality, or a “good job,” communicates that workers are concerned about the nature of their work, not just whether they have a job. Concerns about job quality have been overshadowed in recent years by the fact that many Southerners have no jobs at all as a consequence of the Great Recession and its aftermath. Nevertheless, the quality of available jobs has been a continuing source of distress for some time. The importance of job quality stems from the centrality of work to human welfare and to the functioning of businesses and communities.
Jeffrey Bloodworth
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813142296
- eISBN:
- 9780813142326
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813142296.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Political History
During the 1970s and 1980s, no single domestic issue harmed liberals more than “welfare.” Though actual “welfare cheats” were few and far between, popular antipathy toward the welfare state was ...
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During the 1970s and 1980s, no single domestic issue harmed liberals more than “welfare.” Though actual “welfare cheats” were few and far between, popular antipathy toward the welfare state was founded upon a popular belief that benefits to the non-working poor ballooned the deficit. Regarded as the “Middle East of domestic politics,” Jimmy Carter, nevertheless, pledged comprehensive welfare reform. Doomed from the start, Carter's legislation, the Program for Better Jobs and Income (PBJI), revealed divisions between Entitlement and Opportunity liberals. With the former pushing for a guaranteed income and the latter calling for a jobs program, the president split the difference. Instead of heeding popular revulsion to aid to the non-working poor, PBJI massively expanded spending and became a “guaranteed jobs” program. Unable to reform their creed and heed voters’ primary concern about the welfare state, liberals enabled Ronald Reagan to capture the political center.Less
During the 1970s and 1980s, no single domestic issue harmed liberals more than “welfare.” Though actual “welfare cheats” were few and far between, popular antipathy toward the welfare state was founded upon a popular belief that benefits to the non-working poor ballooned the deficit. Regarded as the “Middle East of domestic politics,” Jimmy Carter, nevertheless, pledged comprehensive welfare reform. Doomed from the start, Carter's legislation, the Program for Better Jobs and Income (PBJI), revealed divisions between Entitlement and Opportunity liberals. With the former pushing for a guaranteed income and the latter calling for a jobs program, the president split the difference. Instead of heeding popular revulsion to aid to the non-working poor, PBJI massively expanded spending and became a “guaranteed jobs” program. Unable to reform their creed and heed voters’ primary concern about the welfare state, liberals enabled Ronald Reagan to capture the political center.
