Measuring Alternative Work Arrangements for Research and Policy (2020) / Chapter Skim
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2 Measurement Needs for Understanding the Changing Nature of Work
2 Measurement Needs for Understanding the Changing Nature of Work
Pages 33-52
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From page 33... ...
Specifically, data are needed to support analyses connecting changes in business structure and employment relationships with job and worker outcomes. In this chapter, we discuss the changing nature of jobs -- whether it is the contingency emphasized in the early Contingent Worker Supplement (CWS)
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From page 34... ...
For other research and policy questions, panel datasets or (as discussed in Chapter 4) high-frequency nonsurvey data, such as commercial and administrative data, can be instrumental in helping to understand emerging labor force dynamics.
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From page 35... ...
provide empirical evidence for a decline in labor market mobility. 3 the earnings, benefits, and conditions of work associated with an occupation or indus If try decline as a result of AWA utilization, the pool of workers in those jobs could decrease, affecting labor force participation for particular segments that were once attracted into the workforce by those types of jobs.
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From page 36... ...
The growth of standard employment relations in the post–World War II period reflected efforts by employers to create strong internal labor markets wherein employers could invest in workforce training and expect to retain those human capital investments. This made sense for employers during the three decades after World War II, as the economy grew and the strong position of companies in domestic markets allowed them to negotiate with unions in a way that increased wages and decreased wage inequality.
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From page 37... ...
In large part this is because the survey asks only about a person's main job, and many people work as independent contractors on a second or third job. Research evidence also suggests that many people working solely in these nonemployee arrangements are not captured in household surveys like the CWS.
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From page 38... ...
. As discussed below, in the CWS, hours may be the best measure of the intensity of the activity.6 We address this issue of demarcating returns to capital and labor in later chapters, where we also discuss nonsurvey data approaches to measuring the extent of independent contracting and other self-employment work and its contribution to the economy.
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From page 39... ...
Data sources such as the CWS are needed to better inform questions about how changes in primary job characteristics are affecting worker outcomes. Similarly, information is needed about the prevalence of additional work beyond the primary job -- much of which is likely to be in AWAs -- and the reasons, including financial reasons, for taking on additional work.
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From page 40... ...
Independent contractor arrangements are often complex, involving tiers of subcontracting that may lead to misreporting and undercounting on tax forms. Independent contractors also include most types of work on plat forms and other informal, nonemployee work arrangements.
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From page 41... ...
By virtue of the fact that they are self-employed, independent contractors are not covered by a host of worker protections, including minimum wage, overtime pay, health and
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From page 42... ...
. Higher rates of violations in health and safety, labor standards, and other workplace requirements have also been documented for those in subcontracted or franchised relationships.11 The implication of these differences between employees and independent contractors is that, if work continues to migrate toward a nonemployer structure, there will be a need to adjust social safety net and employment laws in order to mitigate the potential negative side effect of this trend while realizing its potential benefits.
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From page 43... ...
outcomes. Most AWA measurements in the CWS were intended to capture situations in which workers are not employees of the organization using their labor and where there is a weakening of the attachment between workers and firms (as in firms' use of temporary help workers, independent conractors, contract company workers, or day laborers)
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From page 44... ...
Job Characteristics Hours and Scheduling To support the nation's basic employment statistics, there is clear value in collecting information on total hours from a main job and, in cases where a person has more than one job, total hours from all employment. As pointed out above, however, variability of schedules and reliability of hours are also of considerable interest, given their relationship to job and economic insecurity (Henley and Lambert, 2014)
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From page 45... ...
Compared to many other countries, however, the percentage of workers identified as "temporary" is relatively low in the United States. This renders the category less important than some others, such as independent contracting.15 The characteristic of temporariness is only one factor contributing to the sense of job security a worker feels.
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From page 46... ...
How, then, should job insecurity or reliability be measured to take into account these divergent impacts on outcomes? Because of these nuances in the ways people view job flexibility and job security tradeoffs, it is important to gain a better understanding of worker preferences regarding the kinds of work in which they engage or that they are pursuing.
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From page 47... ...
Additionally, some AWAs are not well identified in the existing data and may appear as traditional employment arrangements. Outside of certain industries, like temporary help, it is notable that contract work, outsourced work, and other fissured work arrangements are simply not measured, so workers in those arrangements may appear to be in regular wage and salary employment.
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From page 48... ...
social welfare protections, workers in alternative arrangements are also likely to be disadvantaged with respect to retirement plans, medical care plans, paid time off, and other benefits. This is another case in which it is important to delineate information about primary jobs and secondary jobs and determine whether the worker has benefits from any job or through the job of someone else in the household.
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From page 49... ...
Data collection will need to be prioritized according to the value the various types of data have in addressing policy issues as well as what it is feasible to collect on a household survey. Among the most important kinds of data are those that illuminate the following: • Distinctions of employee versus self-employed/independent contractor; • Categories of AWAs, such as temporary agency work and platform based work; • Job characteristics, starting with earnings and variability in earn ings (which the CWS is well suited to address)
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From page 50... ...
Workers may not be in the best position, however, to report on the sometimes complex work arrangements they have.20 For example, workers often are employed by firms that are in contract or subcontract arrangements with other firms that, research suggests, may impact the worker outcomes. The CWS only tries to measure workers whose e mployers contract out their services if they primarily work for one client at the client's worksite; otherwise, the contract relationship is deemed too complex to ask about in a household survey.
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From page 51... ...
As firms focus on core activities while shifting other activities to outside businesses within their industries or in other sectors, lead firms may improve their productivity and profitability on paper without fundamentally changing the work being done. Additional data are needed to understand the extent to which the observed divergences between firms directly reflect the standard "superstar" view, in which technology contributes to observed changes (such as by providing lower-cost means of monitoring the performance of other entities)
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