an article by Nikolaus Hammer and Réka Plugor (University of Leicester, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 33 Issue 6 (December 2019)
Abstract
This article focuses on the interlinkages between the labour process and global value chains. It draws on the renewed growth in UK apparel manufacturing, specifically within the fast fashion value chain, and asks how value chain requirements are translated into the labour process as well as how the latter enables quick response manufacturing.
The case study shows how buyer-lead firms engender accelerated capital circuits of fast fashion which rely on an increased segmentation of manufacturers and workers, the elimination of unproductive spaces in the labour process, and a further rise in the informalisation and precarity of labour.
The article demonstrates a strategic disconnection within the fast fashion value chain: upstream manufacturers are only able to satisfy lead firms’ economic and operational standards if they disconnect – informalise – labour from the latter’s ‘ethical’ standards.
Showing posts with label low_pay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label low_pay. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 December 2019
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
Migrants and Low-Paid Employment in British Workplaces
an article by Alex Bryson (University College London, UK) amd Michael White (University of Westminster, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 3434 Issue 5 (October 2019)
Abstract
Using nationally representative workplace data for Britain, we identify where migrants work and examine the partial correlation between workplace wages and whether migrants are employed at a workplace.
Three-in-ten workplaces with five or more employees employ migrant workers, with the probability rising substantially with workplace size.
We find the bottom quartile of the log earnings distribution is 4–5% lower in workplaces employing migrants, ceteris paribus.
However, the effect is confined to workplaces set up before the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the late 1990s, consistent with the proposition that minimum wage regulation limits employers’ propensity to pay low wages in the presence of migrant workers.
Abstract
Using nationally representative workplace data for Britain, we identify where migrants work and examine the partial correlation between workplace wages and whether migrants are employed at a workplace.
Three-in-ten workplaces with five or more employees employ migrant workers, with the probability rising substantially with workplace size.
We find the bottom quartile of the log earnings distribution is 4–5% lower in workplaces employing migrants, ceteris paribus.
However, the effect is confined to workplaces set up before the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) in the late 1990s, consistent with the proposition that minimum wage regulation limits employers’ propensity to pay low wages in the presence of migrant workers.
Wednesday, 6 March 2019
Why city regions should be leading the charge on tackling low pay
a post by Fahmida Rahman for the Resolution Foundation blog
Low pay in Britain is an issue of national importance. With around one-in-five employees classed as low paid, the share of Brits who fall into this category remains well above the levels achieved by the best-performing countries in the OECD.
That said, within Britain, there are huge disparities in terms of where low pay is most prevalent. Our latest study of low pay in Manchester – being published on Tuesday – finds that most city regions have low-pay rates above the national average. That puts their low-pay prevalence at least twice as high as that in London (10 per cent). In some cities, including Sheffield and Tees Valley, almost a quarter of employees are low paid.
Continue reading
Low pay in Britain is an issue of national importance. With around one-in-five employees classed as low paid, the share of Brits who fall into this category remains well above the levels achieved by the best-performing countries in the OECD.
That said, within Britain, there are huge disparities in terms of where low pay is most prevalent. Our latest study of low pay in Manchester – being published on Tuesday – finds that most city regions have low-pay rates above the national average. That puts their low-pay prevalence at least twice as high as that in London (10 per cent). In some cities, including Sheffield and Tees Valley, almost a quarter of employees are low paid.
Continue reading
Monday, 7 January 2019
Linking the Sectoral Employment Structure and Household Poverty in the United Kingdom
an article by Paul Sissons (Coventry University, UK), Anne E Green (University of Birmingham, UK) and Neil Lee (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 32 Issue 6 (December 2018)
Abstract
Structural changes in the labour markets of developed economies, and changes in their institutional characteristics, have led to growing unease about the nature of low-paid employment.
Related concerns have been expressed about the persistence of low pay, the fragmentation of work and the growth of under-employment.
While all these factors have potential implications for individuals’ earnings, less is known about the connection between labour market change, patterns of sectoral growth and decline, and household poverty outcomes.
This article shows distinct patterns of poverty outcomes by sector of employment, after controlling for other factors. However, household characteristics, in particular the presence of a second earner, do strongly mitigate the poverty risk.
Overall, the findings demonstrate that policymakers need to develop a coherent policy towards poverty that recognises the nature of jobs growth and the distribution of ‘good jobs’ across households.
Abstract
Structural changes in the labour markets of developed economies, and changes in their institutional characteristics, have led to growing unease about the nature of low-paid employment.
Related concerns have been expressed about the persistence of low pay, the fragmentation of work and the growth of under-employment.
While all these factors have potential implications for individuals’ earnings, less is known about the connection between labour market change, patterns of sectoral growth and decline, and household poverty outcomes.
This article shows distinct patterns of poverty outcomes by sector of employment, after controlling for other factors. However, household characteristics, in particular the presence of a second earner, do strongly mitigate the poverty risk.
Overall, the findings demonstrate that policymakers need to develop a coherent policy towards poverty that recognises the nature of jobs growth and the distribution of ‘good jobs’ across households.
Tuesday, 2 October 2018
The ‘Great Recession’ and low pay in Europe
an article by Carlos Vacas-Soriano (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), Ireland) published in European Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 24 Issue 3 (September 2018)
Abstract
This article contributes to the literature on low-paid work by analysing the shares of low-paid employment in the period 2006–2014 and the underlying causes.
I use an inflation-adjusted low-pay threshold anchored at 60 percent of median wages to assess the impact of the Great Recession, which increased the share of low-paid employees in two-thirds of European countries and in the EU as a whole. This was driven by a general decline in real wages, which was particularly intense in European periphery countries and at the bottom of the wage distribution as well as among employees with shorter tenure.
However, compositional effects either prevented a larger expansion of low-pay shares by masking the real extent of the wage correction or were generally negligible in driving low-pay shares. Moreover, growing part-time employment emerges as a significant source of low-paid work from the onset of the crisis.
This article contributes to the literature on low-paid work by analysing the shares of low-paid employment in the period 2006–2014 and the underlying causes.
I use an inflation-adjusted low-pay threshold anchored at 60 percent of median wages to assess the impact of the Great Recession, which increased the share of low-paid employees in two-thirds of European countries and in the EU as a whole. This was driven by a general decline in real wages, which was particularly intense in European periphery countries and at the bottom of the wage distribution as well as among employees with shorter tenure.
However, compositional effects either prevented a larger expansion of low-pay shares by masking the real extent of the wage correction or were generally negligible in driving low-pay shares. Moreover, growing part-time employment emerges as a significant source of low-paid work from the onset of the crisis.
Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Inequality – ‘wicked problems’, labour market outcomes and the search for silver bullets
an article by Ewart Keep and Ken Mayhew (University of Oxford, UK) published in Oxford Review of Education Volume 40 Number 6 (November 2014)
Abstract
In recent years concerns about inequality have been growing in prominence within UK policy debates. The many causes of inequality of earnings and income are complex in their interactions and their tendency to reinforce one another. This makes inequality an intractable or ‘wicked’ policy problem, particularly within a contemporary context in which many of the established policy responses from previous eras are at best discussed in muted terms and more normally deemed to be unavailable.
This reflects the eclipse of ‘equality of outcome’ models and the concomitant rise of ‘equality of opportunity’ as the new policy mantra from Thatcher onwards. As traditional policy responses have withered, the role of education and training as a ‘silver bullet’ that can address a host of economic and social challenges has come to the fore. This article outlines policy makers’ beliefs that improving the educational attainment of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds can enable them to compete more effectively for elite jobs, and also that increasing the supply of educated employees can transform the level of demand for skills from employers.
These beliefs are then critiqued, with reference to occupational congestion, over-qualification and the evidence that skills supply does not always create its own demand.
Yes, I know that this is old but still worth reading. Hazel
Abstract
In recent years concerns about inequality have been growing in prominence within UK policy debates. The many causes of inequality of earnings and income are complex in their interactions and their tendency to reinforce one another. This makes inequality an intractable or ‘wicked’ policy problem, particularly within a contemporary context in which many of the established policy responses from previous eras are at best discussed in muted terms and more normally deemed to be unavailable.
This reflects the eclipse of ‘equality of outcome’ models and the concomitant rise of ‘equality of opportunity’ as the new policy mantra from Thatcher onwards. As traditional policy responses have withered, the role of education and training as a ‘silver bullet’ that can address a host of economic and social challenges has come to the fore. This article outlines policy makers’ beliefs that improving the educational attainment of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds can enable them to compete more effectively for elite jobs, and also that increasing the supply of educated employees can transform the level of demand for skills from employers.
These beliefs are then critiqued, with reference to occupational congestion, over-qualification and the evidence that skills supply does not always create its own demand.
Yes, I know that this is old but still worth reading. Hazel
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
Does union membership benefit immigrant workers in ‘hard times’?
an article by Thomas Turner and Christine Cross (University of Limerick, Ireland) published in Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 56 Number 5 (November 2014)
Abstract
Immigrants experience many obstacles in obtaining jobs with comparable pay and conditions to native workers. Arguably, unionisation could offer migrant workers the mechanism to obtain better pay and conditions.
This paper examines whether migrant workers have benefited from unionisation in terms of pay, pensions and health insurance in Ireland.
Based on a large-scale national survey, we find that union membership delivers a modest wage premium of a relatively similar magnitude to both nationals and immigrant workers. Unionised immigrants are twice as likely as non-unionised immigrants to earn above the median hourly earnings and have greater pension coverage.
In particular, immigrants from the new accession states in the European Union, with the lowest mean hourly earnings of any immigrant group, gain the most from union membership.
Nonetheless, Irish nationals enjoy greater benefits from membership than immigrant workers. Addressing this discrepancy will require a greater focus by unions on organising immigrant workers.
Abstract
Immigrants experience many obstacles in obtaining jobs with comparable pay and conditions to native workers. Arguably, unionisation could offer migrant workers the mechanism to obtain better pay and conditions.
This paper examines whether migrant workers have benefited from unionisation in terms of pay, pensions and health insurance in Ireland.
Based on a large-scale national survey, we find that union membership delivers a modest wage premium of a relatively similar magnitude to both nationals and immigrant workers. Unionised immigrants are twice as likely as non-unionised immigrants to earn above the median hourly earnings and have greater pension coverage.
In particular, immigrants from the new accession states in the European Union, with the lowest mean hourly earnings of any immigrant group, gain the most from union membership.
Nonetheless, Irish nationals enjoy greater benefits from membership than immigrant workers. Addressing this discrepancy will require a greater focus by unions on organising immigrant workers.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Onwards and upwards? Young people and the labour market
via UK Commission for Employment and Skills by Paul Sissons (The Work Foundation)
The latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest a fall of 62,000 in the number of young people who are unemployed. This is good news, although with some 957,000 still looking for work there remains a long way to go.
As is now widely understood, the youth unemployment problem is not solely a recession-related phenomenon. The situation for young people in the labour market started to deteriorate in the early to mid 2000s. That youth unemployment is not just a recession induced problem has allowed for a wider debate about the nature of the school to work transition, and how young people move from education into the labour market. It is increasingly acknowledged that the system needs to function better for those not going down a traditional academic route.
The process of transition from education to employment has become increasingly complex for young people, as traditional routes into the workplace have broken down. Back in the 1980s around a quarter of young people worked in the manufacturing sector, it’s now less than one in 10. More young people now struggle to get an initial foothold in the labour market, even before the recession almost half of young people who were not in employment, education or training (NEET) had never had a sustained job.
UKCES’ own research has shown that employer recruitment patterns can also disadvantage young people. Encouraging employers to recruit more young people is clearly a fundamental part of the solution. Employers can also help by providing more pre-employment opportunities, for example through work experience, which can help young people to develop the important soft skills and workplace experiences which will help them to access jobs further down the line.
We also need to think about the experiences of young people once they get into employment, in particular about sustainability of jobs and opportunities for progression. Limited opportunity for progression is a problem for low-wage workers more generally. It is also a problem that disproportionately impacts on young people, who are most likely to enter sectors which pay comparatively low wages and which have poorer rates of wage progression.
In order for young people to progress, employers need to invest in skills, for example through workplace learning or apprenticeships. But they also need to think about progression routes for young people once they get into work. This could be through internal labour markets and progression within a firm, or through developing local or sectoral “career ladder” programmes to help young people move forward. Policymakers can also support this progression by ensuring that young people in workplaces with poorer prospects have access to good quality careers guidance throughout their careers to enable them to successfully navigate change and to increase wages by moving jobs.
It is by bringing together skills development with changes in the labour market that we are best able to develop and utilise the talents of young people. Getting more young people into work is a great start, but it’s not job done.
More @ www.theworkfoundation.com and www.ukces.org.uk/ourwork/youthemployment
The latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest a fall of 62,000 in the number of young people who are unemployed. This is good news, although with some 957,000 still looking for work there remains a long way to go.
As is now widely understood, the youth unemployment problem is not solely a recession-related phenomenon. The situation for young people in the labour market started to deteriorate in the early to mid 2000s. That youth unemployment is not just a recession induced problem has allowed for a wider debate about the nature of the school to work transition, and how young people move from education into the labour market. It is increasingly acknowledged that the system needs to function better for those not going down a traditional academic route.
The process of transition from education to employment has become increasingly complex for young people, as traditional routes into the workplace have broken down. Back in the 1980s around a quarter of young people worked in the manufacturing sector, it’s now less than one in 10. More young people now struggle to get an initial foothold in the labour market, even before the recession almost half of young people who were not in employment, education or training (NEET) had never had a sustained job.
UKCES’ own research has shown that employer recruitment patterns can also disadvantage young people. Encouraging employers to recruit more young people is clearly a fundamental part of the solution. Employers can also help by providing more pre-employment opportunities, for example through work experience, which can help young people to develop the important soft skills and workplace experiences which will help them to access jobs further down the line.
We also need to think about the experiences of young people once they get into employment, in particular about sustainability of jobs and opportunities for progression. Limited opportunity for progression is a problem for low-wage workers more generally. It is also a problem that disproportionately impacts on young people, who are most likely to enter sectors which pay comparatively low wages and which have poorer rates of wage progression.
In order for young people to progress, employers need to invest in skills, for example through workplace learning or apprenticeships. But they also need to think about progression routes for young people once they get into work. This could be through internal labour markets and progression within a firm, or through developing local or sectoral “career ladder” programmes to help young people move forward. Policymakers can also support this progression by ensuring that young people in workplaces with poorer prospects have access to good quality careers guidance throughout their careers to enable them to successfully navigate change and to increase wages by moving jobs.
It is by bringing together skills development with changes in the labour market that we are best able to develop and utilise the talents of young people. Getting more young people into work is a great start, but it’s not job done.
More @ www.theworkfoundation.com and www.ukces.org.uk/ourwork/youthemployment
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Low pay, no pay churning: the hidden story of work and worklessness
a feature article by Tracy Shildrick (School of Social Sciences and Law, Teesside University) published in Poverty Number 142 (Summer 2012)
Rather than the popular image of feckless people languishing in long-term unemployment, recent research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that the predominant experience of being out of work is one of moving in and out of low-paid, short-term jobs, and on and off benefits.
This cycling, or ‘churning’, between work and no work, with people taking poor quality jobs that are often paid too little to move them away from poverty, not only runs directly counter to the dominant story about welfare dependency, but has also been largely ignored by successive governments.
Tracy Shildrick outlines some of the research findings and argues that policy must now focus on the quality, as well as the number, of jobs available if work is to provide a lasting route out of poverty.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
Rather than the popular image of feckless people languishing in long-term unemployment, recent research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that the predominant experience of being out of work is one of moving in and out of low-paid, short-term jobs, and on and off benefits.
This cycling, or ‘churning’, between work and no work, with people taking poor quality jobs that are often paid too little to move them away from poverty, not only runs directly counter to the dominant story about welfare dependency, but has also been largely ignored by successive governments.
Tracy Shildrick outlines some of the research findings and argues that policy must now focus on the quality, as well as the number, of jobs available if work is to provide a lasting route out of poverty.
Full text (PDF 4pp)
Thursday, 5 July 2012
How real is mobility between low pay, high pay and non-employment?
an article by Dimitris Pavlopoulos (VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and Ruud Muffels and Jeroen K. Vermunt (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) published in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) Volume 175 Issue 3 (July 2012)
Summary
The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of measurement error on low pay transition probabilities.
Our approach combines the virtues of panel regression and latent class models, though it does not require the use of validation or reinterview data. Using British, German and Dutch panel data, we show that the true estimated low pay transition probability is much lower that what previous research has found.
This implies that almost half of the observed transitions can be attributed to measurement error. The highest low pay transition probabilities are found in Germany and the lowest in the Netherlands. When applying this correction for measurement error in a multivariate model of low pay transitions, the results indicate that measurement error attenuates considerably the effects of the main covariates, such as training, job change, change in the type of employment contract and shift from part-time to full-time employment.
Summary
The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of measurement error on low pay transition probabilities.
Our approach combines the virtues of panel regression and latent class models, though it does not require the use of validation or reinterview data. Using British, German and Dutch panel data, we show that the true estimated low pay transition probability is much lower that what previous research has found.
This implies that almost half of the observed transitions can be attributed to measurement error. The highest low pay transition probabilities are found in Germany and the lowest in the Netherlands. When applying this correction for measurement error in a multivariate model of low pay transitions, the results indicate that measurement error attenuates considerably the effects of the main covariates, such as training, job change, change in the type of employment contract and shift from part-time to full-time employment.
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