Doing Gender, Paying Low: Gender, Class and Work–Life Balance in Aged Care

an article by Katherine Ravenswood and Candice Harris (Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand) published in Gender, Work & Organization Volume 23 Issue 6 (November 2016)

Abstract

This article examines how interactions between the doing of gender and class at institutional and organizational levels perpetuate inequality for aged care workers.

In particular, it investigates how managers ‘do gender’ and class in relation to their care workers’ work–life balance and the unintended consequences of this for aged care workers. The research data comprised interviews with female managers and aged care workers from four case studies in residential aged care in New Zealand.

We argue that despite best intentions, the consequences of managers’ doing gender and class results in continuing low wages, poor work–life balance and disempowerment at work for aged care workers.

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A Matter of Time: The rise of zero-hours contracts

a research paper by Matthew Pennycook, Vidhya Alakeson and Giselle Cory for the Resolution Foundation published June 2013

Abstract

“Zero-hours” (or occasionally “nil hours”) contracts are anything but a new phenomenon. Employment contracts of this kind have been around for many years. Yet the use of zero-hours contracts has risen sharply in recent years. According to the Office for National Statistics the number of people employed on zero-hours contracts rose from 134,000 in 2006 (0.5 per cent of the workforce) to 208,000 (0.7 per cent) in 2012.

While the clear upward trend is not in dispute there are reasons to believe that these headline figures are a substantial under-estimate of the true scale of the use of zero-hours contracts across the UK.

It is not hard to see why zero-hours contracts can appear attractive to employers. They allow for maximum flexibility to meet changing demand. They can facilitate the management of risk, reduce the costs of recruitment and training, and they can, in certain circumstances, enable employers to avoid particular employment obligations. Yet it is clear that the benefits these contracts provide for employers come at too high a price for the majority of those employed on them.

Full text (PDF 22pp)

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Low Wage Workers

a paper in the Skills in Focus series by Dr Paul Sissons (The Work Foundation) published by Skills Development Scotland (January 2013)

The paper addresses the following issues:

1. The extent of the problem – how do we define low wages and where are they most prevalent?
2. Low wages in Scotland – what are the specific issues here?
3. Those most at risk – who are they and why are they stuck in the low wage trap?
4. Change in the labour market – how will this affect the extent of low paid work?
5. Tackling the problem – what has worked previously and what can we learn from this?

Full text (PDF 20pp)

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Can higher employment levels bring down relative income poverty in the EU? Regression-based simulations of the Europe 2020 target

an article by Ive Marx, Pieter Vandenbroucke and Gerlinde Verbist (University of Antwerp, Belgium) published in Journal of European Social Policy Volume 22 Number 5 (December 2012)

Abstract

At the European level and in most EU member states, higher employment levels are seen as key to better poverty outcomes.

What can we expect the actual impact to be, however?

Up until now shift-share analysis has been used to estimate the impact of rising employment on relative income poverty. This method has serious limitations.

We propose a more sophisticated simulation model that builds on regression-based estimates of employment probabilities and wages. We use this model to estimate the impact on relative income poverty of moving towards the Europe 2020 target of 75 percent of the working-age population in work.

Two sensitivity checks are included:

• giving priority in job allocation to jobless households and
• imputing low instead of estimated wages.

This article shows that employment growth does not necessarily result in lower relative poverty shares, a result that is largely consistent with observed outcomes over the past decade.

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