Labor Events and Resources Blog

Brookings Trade Forum 2005
Offshoring White-Collar Work:
The Issues and the Implications

Co-chairs: Lael Brainard and Susan M. Collins
May 12-13, 2005
http://www.brookings.edu/es/commentary/journals/tradeforum/about2005.htm·
·
Agenda and Papers:
http://www.brookings.edu/es/commentary/journals/tradeforum/agenda2005.htm
[full-text papers are available at this URL]

"Offshoring" has suddenly entered the lexicon of mainstream America, raising anxieties that whole categories of services jobsformerly considered a "nontradeable" safe havenare up for grabs in the global economy, along with manufacturing. How America handles this challenge will have profound implications not only for its own domestic "social contract" but also for its ability to provide international leadership and to liberalize areas critical to the poorest countries. Understanding these developments requires more than the head-line grabbing assertions, casual empiricism, and shaky estimates that have dominated the public debate on offshoring.

To address these issues, The Brookings Trade Forum has convened a set of world-class academics, policy analysts, government representatives, and business thinkers to present original and thought-provoking new analysis of offshoring. Their contributions range from the broad implications for America's workforce, productivity, and competitiveness to detailed studies of offshoring in financial services, radiology, call centers, software, and semiconductors. The analysis also extends to India's rise as a leading provider of world-class services and questions about the future sustainability of this trend. The conference represented not only a critical step forward in theoretical and empirical understanding of offshoring but also in defining a coherent policy response to the trend.

News Source: The Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City.

Women's Bureau

20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women, 2004
http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/20lead2004.htm

Nontraditional Occupations for Women in 2004
http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/nontra2004.htm

Quick Stats 2004
http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm

Second-Generation Immigrants in California

By S. Karthick Ramakrishnan and Hans P. Johnson

Public Policy Institute of California, May 2005
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/CC_505KRCC.pdf

Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)Press Release
9 May 2005
Union Membership a Key to Health Care Coverage
This will soon appear at - http://www.ebri.org/prrel/index.htm

WASHINGTON Union members are much more likely to have employment-based health insurance than nonunion workers, but the erosion of union membership is likely to coincide with an overall decline in the percentage of workers with health benefits, a new study by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) says.

The study reported that 86 percent of union members were covered by health benefits through their job, compared with 60 percent of nonunion workers, as of September 2003 (the most recent data available). Union workers in several private-sector fields had very high levels of health insurance coverage, as did union workers in public-sector jobs, the study said.

For example:

* 91 percent of union manufacturing workers had health benefits, compared with 74 percent for nonunion workers.

* 88 percent of union workers in agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and construction had coverage, compared with 40 percent for nonunion workers.

* 84 percent of union wholesale and retail trade workers had coverage, compared with 55 percent of nonunion workers.

The study is published in the May EBRI Notes and is available at the Institutes Web site, www.ebri.org. soon to appear at -- http://www.ebri.org/store/notes.htm

Some 17.2 million workers were union members, accounting for 15 percent of all wage and salary workers ages 1864, as of September 2003, the study said. Union workers were typically concentrated in jobs with high levels of employment-based health coverage.

Union members accounted for 36 percent of public-sector workers, but 86 percent of union members had health benefits from their public-sector employers, compared with 68 percent for nonunion workers.

Hence, unionization appears to increase the probability of having health benefits in the public sector by 26 percent,said Dallas Salisbury, EBRI president.

Union membership also had a major impact on the probability of workers in small firms having health care benefits, the study said. Eighty-two percent of union members in firms with fewer than 25 employees had employment-based health benefits, compared with 36 percent of nonunion workers in firms of the same size.

Overall, only 2.5 percent of union workers were uninsured in September 2003, compared with 15 percent of nonunion workers, the study said. Union workers across the board are more likely to have health benefits than nonunion workers,the study concluded. All else being equal, if unionization in the United States continues to decline, the percentage of workers with health benefits will continue to decrease and the percentage of workers who are uninsured will continue to increase.

EBRI previously reported that 44.7 million U. S. residents, or 17.7 percent of the nonelderly population (under age 65), were uninsured in 2003. In 2004, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members. The union membership rate in the United States has declined steadily for the past two decades, according to the Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Established in 1978, EBRI is an independent, nonprofit organization committed exclusively to data dissemination, policy research, and education on economic security and employee benefits. The Institute's mission is to advance the public's, the media's and policymakers' knowledge and understanding of employee benefits and their importance the nations economy.

The Evolution of the Mexican-Born Workforce in the United States
http://papers.nber.org/papers/w11281.pdf[full-text, 65 pages]
George J. Borjas, Lawrence F. Katz
NBER Working Paper No. 11281
Issued in April 2005

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of the Mexican-born workforce in the United States using data drawn from the decennial U.S. Census throughout the entire 20th century. It is well known that there has been a rapid rise in Mexican immigration to the United States in recent years. Interestingly, the share of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. workforce declined steadily beginning in the 1920s before beginning to rise in the 1960s. It was not until 1980 that the relative number of Mexican immigrants in the U.S. workforce was at the 1920 level. The paper examines the trends in the relative skills and economic performance of Mexican immigrants, and contrasts this evolution with that experienced by other immigrants arriving in the United States during the period. The paper also examines the costs and benefits of this influx by examining how the Mexican influx has altered economic opportunities in the most affected labor markets and by discussing how the relative prices of goods and services produced by Mexican immigrants may have changed over time.

Mercer issues annual study of CEO compensation at large US firms
CEO pay, company performance show close alignment for 2004
United States
New York, 11 April 2005

Mercer CEO compensation study

Many changes made to CEO compensation programs in recent years were designed to forge a stronger connection between CEO pay and overall company performance. Those efforts appear to be having the desired effect, according to an annual study of 350 of the largest public companies in the US.

According to the 2004 edition of The Wall Street Journal/Mercer Human Resource Consulting CEO Compensation Survey, the median annual CEO bonus rose 20.0% to $1.5 million in 2004, correlating closely to a median annual increase in net income of 23.0% in 2004 among the companies studied. At the same time, median total direct compensation (base salary, annual bonus, and the present value of long-term incentives) for CEOs rose 17.1% to $7.0 million in 2004, mirroring the median 17.4% increase in total shareholder return (TSR) in 2004.

CEO salaries, meanwhile, stayed relatively flat, rising 3.7% to a median $975,000 in 2004, and nearly one-third of the CEOs (112) received no base salary increase last year. This led to an increase in median total annual compensation (base salary and annual bonus) of 14.5% to $2.5 million.


Source: Institute for Workplance Studies, Cornell University

U.S. Department of CommerceEconomics and Statistics Administration
U.S. CENSUS BUREAUCensus 2000 Special Reports

We the People of Arab Ancestry in the United States [8 March 2005]
CENSR-21Issued March 2005

http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/censr-21.pdf[full-text, 21 pages]

This report provides a portrait of the Arab population in the United States, and discusses some of the largest groups within this population at the national level.1 It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents several demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000.

RAND CorporationImmigration Status and Health Insurance Coverage: Who Gains? Who Loses?
Julia C. Prentice, Anne R. Pebley, Narayan Sastry, RP-1154,2005

http://www.rand.org/publications/RP/RP1154/ or
http://www.rand.org/publications/RP/RP1154/RAND_RP1154.pdf
[full-text, 13 pages]

Abstract: Objectives. We compared health insurance status transitions of nonimmigrants and immigrants. Methods. We used multivariate survival analysis to examine gaining and losing insurance by citizenship and legal status among adults with the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey. Results. We found significant differences by citizenship and legal status in health insurance transitions. Undocumented immigrants were less likely to gain and more likely to lose insurance compared with native-born citizens. Legal residents were less likely to gain and were slightly more likely to lose insurance compared with native-born citizens. Naturalized citizens did not differ from native-born citizens. Conclusions. Previous studies have not examined health insurance transitions by citizenship and legal status. Policies to increase coverage should consider the experiences of different immigrant groups.

Monthly Labor Review Online [28 February 2005]
February 2005Vol. 128, Number 2
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/mlrhome.htm

25 Years of the National Longitudinal Survey - Youth Cohort

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth: 1979 cohort at 25
Charles Pierret
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art1full.pdf
[full-text, 5 pages]

Antecedents and predecessors of NLSY79: paving the course
James R. Walker
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art2full.pdf
[full-text, 7 pages]

Education data in the NLSY79: a premiere research tool
Kenneth I. Wolpin
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art3full.pdf
[full-text, 6 pages]

The transition from school to work: education and work experiences
Julie A. Yates
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art4full.pdf
[full-text, 12 pages]

Job mobility and wage growth: evidence from the NLSY79
Audrey Light
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art5full.pdf
[full-text, 7 pages]

Self-employment, entrepreneurship, and the NLSY79
Robert W. Fairlie
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art6full.pdf
[full-text, 8 pages]

Worker training: what we've learned from the NLSY79
Harley J. Frazis and James R. Spletzer
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art7full.pdf
[full-text, 11 pages]

Children of the NLSY79: a unique data resource
Lawrence L. Wu and Jui-Chung Allen Li
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art8full.pdf
[full-text, 4 pages]

The problem of respondent attrition: survey methodology is key
Randall J. Olsen
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/02/art9full.pdf
[full-text, 8 pages]

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Updated Long-Term Projections for Social Security [31 January 2005]http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6064/01-31-Long-Term_Projections.pdf[full-text, 10 pages]

The Congressional Budget Office most recently released long-term (100-year) Social Securityprojections in The Outlook for Social Security (June 2004). As a result of both economic andtechnical revisions, those projections have changed slightly. The attached tables and figures present theupdated projections. The Outlook for Social Security presented ranges of uncertainty around thecentral projections; those estimates will also be updated and will be posted in the near future.CBO presents future Social Security benefits under two scenarios. In one scenario, outlays include thefull benefits owed. This is the "scheduled benefits" scenario. In the second analysis, outlays include onlythose benefits that the Social Security Administration has legal authority to pay under current law. Thus,that scenario assumes that all benefits are reduced annually once the trust funds are exhausted so thattotal outlays equal available revenues. In the June report, that was described as the "trust-fundfinanced"scenario. This is now labeled "current law."

CBO projects that under current law Social Security outlays will first exceed revenues from payrolltaxes and taxation of benefits in 2020 and that the program will exhaust the trust funds in 2052. Afterthe trust funds are exhausted, Social Security spending cannot exceed annual revenues. As aconsequence, because dedicated revenues are projected to equal 78 percent of scheduled outlays in2053, CBO finds that the benefits paid will be 22 percent lower than the scheduled benefits.

Since the last estimates were released, CBO has updated its economic and budget forecast for the next10 years (see The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2006 to 2015), incorporatedupdated Social Security earnings records, and refined the method used to estimate retroactive disabilitypayments. While the major long-term economic assumptions did not change, there were small revisionsin the estimated historical values and projected values of hours worked in the economy, as well as theprojected differential growth in two measures of prices: the price index for gross domestic product(GDP) and the consumer price index.CBO projects that, over the next 10 years, Social Security outlays will average about 0.2 percentagepoints lower relative to GDP than was projected last summer, primarily because of an increase inprojected GDP. The difference diminishes over the following decade, and

CBO projects that, for 2030to 2050, outlays will average 0.1 percentage points higher as a percent of GDP than projected lastsummer. Projected outlays for later years are essentially unchanged.

CBO revised its projection of Social Security revenues relative to GDP down slightly. By the end ofthe 100-year projection period, CBO projects, revenues will be 4.7 percent of GDP, 0.1 percentagepoint lower than projected last summer.

News Source: Institute for Workplance Sudies, Cornell University

Changes to the occupational and industry classification systems used in the Current Population Survey
[27 January 2005](includes crosswalk information and conversion factors)
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsoccind.htm

In January 2003, the Current Population Survey (CPS or "household" survey) adopted the 2002 Census occupational and industry classification systems, which are derived, respectively, from the 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Previously, the 1990 Census occupational and industry classifications were used; CPS statistics from 1983-2002 were coded to the 1990 classifications. For more information on the significant differences between these systems, see the February 2003 Employment and Earnings article on changes introduced to the Current Population Survey in January 2003 (<http://www.bls.gov/cps/rvcps03.pdf>PDF 133KB)

The 2002 Census Classification Systems with SOC and NAICS Crosswalks

Because the Census occupational and industry classifications are adaptations of the SOC and NAICS, occupational and industry statistics from the Current Population Survey are not strictly comparable with statistics from other sources that use the SOC and NAICS directly. The following documents provide listings of the specific or "detailed" 2002 Census occupational and industry classifications and the broad or "major" groups to which they are aggregated in many data presentations. These listings include SOC and NAICS crosswalk information; that is, they show the corresponding SOC and NAICS codes for the detailed Census occupations and industries. Data users should note that there is not always a one-to-one match between the Census classifications and the SOC and NAICS.

2002 Census Occupational Classification--list of detailed occupations with major occupational groups and crosswalk to the 2000 SOC (PDF 62KB)

2002 Census Industrial Classification--list of detailed industries with major industry groups and crosswalk to the 2002 NAICS (PDF 46KB)

UNION MEMBERS IN 2004 [27 January 2005]
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm or

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf[full-text, 12 pages]

In 2004, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members,down from 12.9 percent in 2003, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau ofLabor Statistics reported today. The union membership rate has steadilydeclined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for whichcomparable union data are available. Some highlights from the 2004 dataare:

--About 36 percent of government workers were union members in 2004, compared with about 8 percent of workers in private-sector industries.

--Two occupational groups--education, training, and library occupations and protective service occupations--had the highest unionization rates in 2004, at about 37 percent each. Protective service occupations include fire fighters and police officers.

--Men were more likely to be union members than women.

--Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian, or Hispanic or Latino workers.

Membership by Industry and Occupation

In 2004, workers in the public sector had a union membership rate morethan four times that of private-sector employees. At 36.4 percent, theunionization rate for government workers was down slightly from 37.2percent a year earlier. The rate for private industry workers, at 7.9percent in 2004, was about half what it had been in 1983. Within thepublic sector, local government workers had the highest union membershiprate, 41.3 percent. This group includes several heavily unionized occu-pations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Amongmajor private industries, transportation and utilities had the highestunion membership rate, at 24.9 percent. Construction (14.7 percent),information industries (14.2 percent), and manufacturing (12.9 percent)also had higher-than-average rates. Within the information industry,telecommunications had a 22.4 percent union membership rate. Financialactivities had the lowest unionization rate in 2004--2.0 percent. (Seetable 3.)

Among occupational groups, education, training, and library occupations(37.6 percent) and protective service workers (37.3 percent) had the high-est unionization rates in 2004. Construction and extraction occupations(19.6 percent), installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (19.4percent), transportation and material moving occupations (18.8 percent),community and social services occupations (17.4 percent), and productionoccupations (16.3 percent) also had higher-than-average rates. Farming,fishing, and forestry occupations (3.1 percent) and sales and related oc-cupations (3.6 percent) had the lowest unionization rates. (See table 3.)

News Source: Institute for Workplace Studies, Cornell University

Organised labour - an agent of EU democracy?
Trade union strategies and the EU integration process
30 October 2004
http://www.ucd.ie/indrel/news.htm#intro)
Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin (UCD),
Belfield, Dublin 4
funded under the IRCHSS Government of Ireland Projects Grant Scheme

Trade Unions and the Politics of the European Social Model
Richard HYMAN , London School of Economics

http://www.ucd.ie/indrel/Hyman.pdf[full-text, 38 pages]
[excerpt]There is a consensus among European trade unions that economic integration should be complemented by a strong .social dimension.. What is far less clearly agreed is what .Social Europe. means, and how it should be defended against the challenges inherent in a neoliberal approach to economic integration, the dominant logic of .competitiveness., and the pressures for .modernization. of social welfare. Unions. ability to resist these challenges is weakened by their integration into an elitist system of EU governance in which mobilization and contention are inhibited. The article concludes that a new mode of trade union action is required if the .social model. is to be sustained.Wage bargaining, National Competitiveness and European coordination

Dr. Philippe Pochet, Observatoire Social Européen, Brussels
http://www.ucd.ie/indrel/papierdublin.pdf[full-text, 29 pages - in FRENCH)
Pochet Diagrams
http://www.ucd.ie/indrel/schema4.pdf
The Role of Labour in an Enlarged EuropeWorker Responses to Multinational Companies in Central Europe

Guglielmo MEARDI, University of Warwick
http://www.ucd.ie/indrel/Meardi.pdf[full-text, 13 pages]

ABSTRACT: The new central European EU member states have emerged as one of the mostattractive regions in the world for foreign investors, according to both FDI data andconsultancy surveys. Low labour costs, high productivity and relatively weak tradeunions at very short geographic distance are certainly an efficiency factor, asexemplified by the dozens of investors in the automotive sector which re-export toWestern Europe more than 90% of their production.The region is often portrayed as a relatively homogeneous permissive environment andpassive receiver of external influences. The paper, by presenting research in progresson case studies of North American and German investors in the automotive componentsector in Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia critically assesses this view. It will bediscussed whether the differences between host countries are a more importantpredictor of MNC employment practices than the notorious distinction betweenGerman and US HRM models. The informal as well as the formal forms of resistance,and the capacity to develop international links are put in evidence.To conclude, considerations will be drawn for the politically sensitive issue ofrelocations and social dumping within the European single market.Connecting employee representatives response across-borders: A comparative study of American-based multinational subsidiaries inEurope in two sectors

Valeria PULIGNANO,
University of Warwick
http://www.ucd.ie/indrel/Pulignano.pdf[full-text, 33 pages]

Abstract: Discussion regarding the extent to which European Works Councils (EWCs) can be considered aspotential mechanisms to foster a progress towards European trade union co-operation has been atthe forefront of the industrial relations research agenda since mid-1990s. The paper argues that inorder to explore prospects and constraints underlining cross-national union representatives co-operation within the context of European regional integration, co-ordination at both horizontal(across-borders) and vertical (articulation between central and local union representatives) levels,need to be examined. Comparative research in three European Works Councils (EWCs), across-twosectors (i.e. metalworking and chemical), within three business divisions of the same Americanmultinational company, reveal divergence in the nature and the mode of co-ordination withinEWCs. This is because of the diverse European Industry Federations. engagement to monitor thesetting up of EWCs agreements within each sector. However, convergence is also highlighted as theresult of the diverse union attitudes and orientations across (and within) countries towards theEuropean union initiatives at sector level.The unions, the movements, Europe, and democracy.

--Source: Institute for Workplace Studies, Cornell University

Institute of Industrial Relations eNews
May 2005 (No. 7)
On the Web at:http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/enews

News, Events and SeminarsSelected for Interest to the IIR Community
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In This Issue:
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IIR NEWS AND EVENTS
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Reminder: Deadlines for Statewide Labor and Employment Fund and IIR Research Grants
Chancellor Robert J. Birgenau Addresses Large Audience at IIR
Michael Reich and Marcy Whitebook Testify in Sacramento
Faculty Seminar: Sandra Smith
New IIR Faculty Working Papers
Important Computing News: New Campus Minimum Security Standards
CPER ActivitiesLabor Center NewsCenter for the Study of Child Care Employment
Labor Project for Working FamiliesInstitute of Industrial Relations Library
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UC BERKELEY CAMPUS EVENTS:
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Bancroft Library Lecture
Economics Department Seminar
Goldman School of Public Policy

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Special Note: The next edition of eNews will appear on September 1, 2005.

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IIR NEWS AND EVENTS

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Reminder: Deadlines for Statewide Labor and Employment Fund and IIR Research Grants

The deadline for applications for funding under the UC Systemwide Labor and Employment Fund program is May 6, 2005. All interested researchers should be sure to check the Web page for guidelines and to meet this deadline. Information may be found at http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/lefund.html.

Also, the IIR deadline for 2005-2006 IIR Research Grants is May 16. The grant program includes several new categories this year and is an important new opportunity for IIR’s affiliated faculty. Information may be found at http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/faculty/grants/index.html.

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CHANCELLOR BIRGENEAU ADDRESSES LARGE AUDIENCE AT IIR

Berkeley’s newly appointed Chancellor, Robert J. Birgeneau, spoke at IIR on March 30, 2005, at a welcoming reception in his honor. Art Pulaski, Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO spoke as well. The event was attended by many of IIR’s affiliated faculty members, staff and students, together with many community friends and leaders from the labor movement.

In introducing the Chancellor and Mr. Pulaski, IIR Director Michael Reich commented on the resurgent interest in labor and employment among newly recruited faculty members. “We have seen a growing interest in labor issues among our new colleagues, and the trend spans many disciplines. New recruitments in public policy, sociology and environmental resources have brought new vitality to Berkeley’s already-strong focus on industrial relations issues.”

Chancellor Birgeneau spoke about his overall career, during which he worked closely with labor groups in many settings. While at MIT, he was instrumental in advancing faculty equity and recruiting women to MIT. At the University of Toronto, he inherited a fragmented labor relations environment that was marked by tense relations. “If you looked at the bigger picture, everybody, including the faculty, was upset about compensation issues. The big difference was that the faculty was treated with more respect than the labor unions that were represented on campus. When I started according the labor unions the same respect as everyone else expected, the result was four years of labor ‘peace’ at the University of Toronto.”

Art Pulaski, Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, expressed his strong interest in working closely with Chancellor Birgeneau. “Throughout California’s history, the Labor Movement has always supported the University—indeed, the movement was instrumental in its formation and development. The California Labor Federation is looking forward to working with Chancellor Birgeneau and his administration to advance Berkeley, which is a great public institution and resource for the people of California.” Pulaski also highlighted the influential role of IIR and CLRE on public policy, citing recent studies on such topics as paid family leave, minimum wage impacts and the hidden public costs of low-wage employment.

Chancellor Birgeneau also addressed the points in his March 27, 2005 opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times. In that opinion piece, the Chancellor reaffirmed the University’s historic role as one of the most important gateways to education and career success for California’s multicultural population. He cited the fact that many business leaders agree that it is crucial for the University to train a student body that reflects every ethnic and cultural group within the state, because Berkeley graduate will be leaders in the future. “The system is broken,” the Chancellor said, “and it is up to us to fix it.”

The Chancellor’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the event was reminiscent of the reception that was held in honor of Dolores Huerta, when she was appointed as a Regent. “It was opportune for the Chancellor to visit IIR just now,” Michael Reich said. “The University of California at Berkeley is strongly positioned at the ‘crossroads’ where labor and employment issues intersect, with clear benefits not only for policy makers and academics, but also for the working people of California. IIR is very pleased to welcome the Chancellor to Berkeley, and we’re expecting great things in the coming years.”

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Michael Reich and Marcy Whitebook Testify on Minimum Wage and Universal Pre-School Bills

Michael Reich testifies before the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee

Michael testified in Sacramento in support of minimum wage adjustments. Assembly Bill 48, authored by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-San Jose), seeks to increase the minimum wage for the state's poorest workers from $6.75 an hour to $7.25 in July 2006, to $7.75 in July 2007, and then to be indexed annually according to the Consumer Price Index beginning in 2008.

Marcy Whitebook Testifies before the Assembly Higher Education Committee

Marcy Whitebook, Director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, also testified recently in Sacramento, before the Assembly Higher Education Committee regarding AB 172 (Chan). Marcy focused on the potential impact of pending legislation on the higher education system’s ability to train child care workers in response to those new programs.

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May 2, 2005 Faculty Seminar: Sandra Smith

Monday, May 2, 2005 ~ 12noon – 1pm
"I LIKE DOING THINGS ON MY OWN" THE IRONIES OF INDIVIDUALISM AMONG BLACK, URBAN POOR JOBSEEKERS

Sandra S. Smith, Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley

In the urban poverty, joblessness, and job search literatures, the assumption is that when connected to friends, relatives and acquaintances in possession of job information and influence, jobseekers will embrace assistance from these relations to find work. Thus, black joblessness results in part from the lack of these vital social resources. My research suggests that the problem is far more complicated. Drawing from 105 in-depth interviews of low-income blacks from Southeast Michigan, I find that roughly one-third refused to seek or accept assistance from their personal contacts with job information and influence and instead chose to go it alone. In this paper, I investigate why and examine the conditions that facilitate social resource mobilization for job-finding. I link reluctance to accept aid to fears of losing face—of falling short of expectations and/or being maligned by their personal contacts for being jobless—and I show that fears of losing face were greatest among those who deployed joblessness discourses that give primacy to individual and cultural deficiency explanations. In other words, reluctant jobseekers embraced self-reliance during the job search process in an effort to avoid failure and to show their worth, but in so doing, reduced their chances of finding work in low-wage labor markets where employers rely heavily on informal job referral networks for screening and recruitment of job applicants.

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New IIR Faculty Working Papers

The following new working papers have been received and will be posted in the eScholarship Repository (http://repositories.clib.org). Additional faculty working papers will be appear in the series in the next two months.


Neil Fligstein and Jennifer Choo (March 1, 2005) Law and Corporate Governance

(There is no abstract for this paper)


Neil Fligstein and Taek-Jin Shin (February 1, 2005)
Shareholder Value and Changes in American Industries, 1984-2000

There is now a solid set of results from economic sociologists concerning the spread and implementation of "shareholder value" strategies across publicly held corporations in the United States during the 1980s. Corporations were financially reorganized and used the tactics of selling off unrelated product lines, engaging in mergers with firms in similar industries, various financial ploys such as stock buybacks, and downsizing their labor forces. This paper explores empirically the connections between mergers, layoffs, de-unionization, computer technology, and subsequent industry profitability. Mergers occurred in sectors where economic conditions were not good in line with shareholder value arguments. Mergers subsequently led to layoffs, consistent with the shareholder value perspective that emphasizes that firms needed to deploy their resources more efficiently as they reorganized. There is also evidence that managers who engaged in mergers invested in computer technology. This technology directly displaced workers through layoffs and was focused on reducing unionized work forces. There is no evidence that mergers or layoffs returned industries to profitability. Only industry growth and computer investment led to increased profits. This suggests that shareholder value ideology was not, by itself, successful in righting the problems of American business.

Mary C. Noonan, Sandra S. Smith, and Mary E. Corcoran (April 1, 2005)
Examining the Impact of Welfare Reform, Labor Market Conditions, and the Earned Income Tax Credit on the Employment of Black and White Single Mothers
(Note: This paper will be posted to the Web during May 2005)

Using the Annual Demographic Files of the March Current Population Survey, we determine the extent to which change in welfare policies, labor market conditions, and the earned income tax credit (EITC) account for the changes in employment of black and white single mothers from 1991-2003. Compared to white single mothers, black single mothers are more likely to be high school dropouts, never married, and central city residents, and our results show that policy and labor market changes had a more profound affect on the employment of these groups. However, these demographic differences and interaction effects are not substantial enough to produce dissimilar explanations for the changes in employment by race. During the period 1991-2000, the increase in the EITC was the most important factor, accounting for approximately 25 percent of the increase in employment. Declines in the unemployment rate and welfare reform were less important, together accounting for an additional 25 percent of the increase. Our results also show that the decline in employment between 2000 and 2003 for both black and white single mothers was primarily due to the weakening economy during those years.


Marko Tervio (April 27, 2005)
Overworked and Overpaid: The Costs of Learning-By-Doing

In medicine, law, consulting, and many other careers, a significant proportion of human capital is created through profession-specific learning-by-doing (LBD. In the absence of long-term wage contracts, if LDB effects are sufficiently large, then young workers should face a negative wage in return for high future wages. However, if workers are liquidity constrained, then young workers compete away those returns to experience by working inefficiently hard. This inefficiency results in higher lifetime earning, causes older workers to exert too little effort, and tends to lower the observable (monetary) returns to experience. Unlike traditional models, this can explain "career concerns" in professions where effort and ability are observable.


Ximing Wu and Jeffrey M. Perloff (March 1, 2005)
GMM Estimation of a Maximum Distribution With Interval Data

We develop a GMM estimator for the distribution of a variable where summary statistics are available only for intervals of the random variable. Without individual data, once cannot calculate the weighting matrix for the GMM estimator. Instead, we propose a simulated weighting matrix based on a first-step consistent estimate. When the functional form of the underlying distribution is unknown, we estimate it using a simple yet flexible maximum entropy density. our Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed maximum entropy density is able to approximate various distributions extremely well. The two-step GMM estimator with a simulated weighting matrix improves the efficiency of the one-step GMM considerably. We use this method to estimate the U.S. income distribution and compare these results with those based on the underlyign raw income data.

Ximing Wu and Jeffrey M. Perloff (February 1, 2005)
China's Income Distribution, 1985-2001

We employ a new method to estimate China's income distributions using publicly available interval summary statistics. We examine rural, urban and overall income distributions from 1985-2001. We show how the distributions change directly as well as examine trends in equality. Using an inter-temporal decomposition of aggregate inequality, we determine that increases in inequality within rural and urban sectors and the growing rural-urban income gap have been equally responsible for the growth in overall inequality over the last two decades. However, the rural-urban gap has played an increasingly important role in recent years. We also show that urban consumption inequality rose considerably.

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Important Computing News: New Minimum Standards for Security of Berkeley Campus Networked Devices

On May 1st, 2005, U.C. Berkeley will require that any computer that will connect to the UCB network comply with the following minimum standards. Devices that do not meet these minimum standards may be disconnected.

(1) Install anti-virus software with regular virus definition updates.
(2) Make sure you have the latest software patches for your computer.
(3) Have a personal firewall installed and running at all times.
(4) Create a strong administrative password.
(5) No unencrypted authentication
(6) No unauthenticated email relays
(7) No unauthenticated proxy services
(8) Physical security
(9) No Unnecessary services

The full document on the standards can be found here:
http://security.berkeley.edu/MinStds/

For more information about computer security, please visit:
http://security.berkeley.edu

If you still have questions, please feel free to contact your IT staff.Remember: Security is not a goal – it is an ongoing process.

--Robert Hiramoto

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CPER Activities

CPER is working its June issue (No. 172), which will include articles on bargaining in Los Angeles County, learning lessons about negotiations from major league baseball, and privacy in the workplace (focusing specifically on employer medical inquiries under state and federal law.

For a full report on CPER activities, take a look at the CPER Web at
http://cper.berkeley.edu.

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Center for labor Research and Education

CA Union Leadership School
June 5-10, 2005
Deadline extended to: May 1, 2005
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/leadershipschool/index.shtml

The Labor Center is once again offering the California Union Leadership School, which will be held at Asilomar, June 5-10, 2005. This educational and interactive program brings together senior-level union leaders in a unique learning environment with experienced labor educators. This year, the school is launching a special recruitment for participants from the Central valley, and a principal outcome of the school with be the deveoplment of collaborative projects in the north and valley regions.

Strategic Training Workshop
June 20-23, 2005
Deadline for Registration: Friday, May 27, 2005
Information on this workshop will be posted on the Labor Center Web in the near future.
(http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu)

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Center for the Study of Child Care Employment

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has appointed Marcy Whitebook as one of 44 members of the newly established Superintendent's California P-16 Council. The Council has been charged with developing strategies to better coordinate, integrate, and improve education for California students from preschool through college.

"Different segments of California's education system have been working in isolation for too long," O'Connell noted during his announcement of the council. "We can better help our students meet the challenge of high standards and high expectations if the entire system is better coordinated. I have asked this impressive group of education leaders and experts to find ways to break down traditional barriers and work toward building a seamless education system that better serves all California students."

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Institute of Industrial Relations Library

IIR Library to Pursue NEH Grant for UC Berkeley Labor Collections

The IIR Library is joining with the Bancroft Library to pursue funding for campus labor collections, from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project will involve surveying all locations where labor materials reside, and identifying good prospects for digitization. Chief among these is the IIR Library’s full run of the publications of IIR-Berkeley and UCLA—which constitute an important resource, especially for scholars interested in mid-century U.S. industrial relations.

IIR Library Labor Blog Relaunched

The IIR Library is blogging again, capturing global news on labor events, local events, and reports of interest to researchers. The Blog enables the Library to make a selective digest of news and events available using RSS (Rich Site Summary), which allows enables automated newsfeeds, and is increasingly popular with non-governmental organizations that track labor issues. Find the link to the blog at http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/library/laborportal.html .

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CAMPUS EVENTS

Bancroft Library Lecture
Economics Department Seminar

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Bancroft Library

Thursday, May 19, 2005
Noon
Faculty Club, Lewis-Latimer Room

Working Women and Racial Politics in San Francisco During the Late 19th Century
Hellen Lee (UC San Diego Literature Department, Bancroft Study Award winner)

The circulation of contradictory visual images and journalistic accounts of prostitutes negatively shaped perceptions of racialized working women in San Francisco in the late 19th century. Ms. Lee explores issues of entrepreneurship, sexuality, media representation and the role of the legal system.

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Economics 251 - Labor Economics Seminar
Thursday May 5, 2005 2:pm – 4:pm
Evans Hall, 608-7
Judy Hellerstein, University of Maryland

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Goldman School of Public Policy

Wednesday May 4, 2005
5:pm
Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business

The Nation’s Growing Fiscal Imbalance: Perspectives and Issues
David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the US

The United States and other major industrialized nations face a large and growing fiscal imbalance that, if left unchecked, will impede economic growth and imperil key government programs. Largely because of rising health care costs, a growing elderly population, and reduced federal revenues, the federal government now faces decades of deficits. Without changes to current policy, these trends will put increasing pressure on the nation’s spending and tax policies.

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Editor: Terry Huwe (thuwe@library.berkeley.edu) Contributors: Elizabeth del Rocio Camacho, Janice Kimball

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Scope of This Newsletter: This email newsletter alerts the IIR community and affiliates to new resources and upcoming events on labor and employment-related topics at IIR, around the campus and beyond the campus. The goal of this service is to provide you with news at a glance, with links to Web-based information for further information. For those of you in a hurry or overloaded with email, you can view this eNewsletter on the IIR Web, at http://www.iir.berkeley.edu/enews.
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How to Subscribe: Send a message to thuwe@library.berkeley.edu expressing an interest in receiving this email publication. You may also wish to subscribe to our general community email listserv, available to all interested friends of IIR. This list is called iirucbnews@lists.berkeley.edu . Please indicate if you wish to be added to that list in your message.