Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, November 20, 2015

November 20, 2015

Announcements:

New Job Posting: Assistant Professor (Tenure Stream) -- Employment Relations/Industrial Relations

The Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto invites applications for a tenure-stream appointment in Employment/Industrial Relations. The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor and will commence on July 1, 2016. Click here for more information.

Call for Papers: Precarious Work: Domination and Resistance in the US, China, and the World

“This conference focuses on analyzing the growth of precarious employment and informal labor, its consequences for workers and their families, the challenges it poses to worker organizing and collective mobilization, and how workers and other social actors are responding to precariousness.”

“We invite original contributions from academics (including young scholars, graduate students, post-docs, and early career researchers), labor organizers, and other practitioners. Completed papers are expected for the conference, and the selected papers will be peer-reviewed for academic publications.”

When: August 19, 2016, 8:30am - 6pm
Where: Seattle, WA

Follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Library Twitter.

World Economic Forum on the Global Gender Gap

“The Global Gender Gap Index featured in the 2015 Report ranks over 140 economies according to how well they are leveraging their female talent pool, based on economic, educational, health-based and political indicators. With a decade of data, this edition of the Global Gender Gap Report -- first published in 2006 -- reveal the pattern of change around the world relative to the 109 continuously covered countries’ own past performance and in relation to each other. The report includes as well the latest research on the benefits of gender equality from a variety of sectors, the current use of policy tools and business practices, and future implications for business leaders and policy-makers, including new findings in the context of disruptions to labour markets.”

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Women's Continued Plight: The Pay Gap & in Comedy

“Progress to close the gender pay gap around the world has all but stopped since the 2008 economic crash and it will be more than 100 years before women can expect equal pay with men, according to the latest global figures.”

“Women’s pay still lags nearly a decade behind, according to the World Economic Forum, meaning that what they are paid now on average is the equivalent of what men were paid in 2006. And the outlook is gloomy: at current rates of change, the World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates it will be 118 years before women around the world can expect equal pay.”

“The pay figures are part of the WEF’s annual report on all aspects of the gender gap, which also covers education, health and political empowerment. Based on scores for dozens of those indicators, Iceland comes out top, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ireland and Rwanda. The UK comes 18th, the US is 28th” and Canada is 30th.

The Guardian, November 18, 2015: “Women will get equal pay ... in 118 years,” by Juliette Jowit

World Economic Forum, November 2015: “The Global Gender Gap Report 2015" [download the PDF here, 387 pages]

Plight of the Funny Female

“On one hand, we live in the golden age of female comedy. Tina Fey, Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, and their ilk certainly aren’t the first women to have wildly popular TV shows based entirely around their own funniness. But they might be some of the first to do it with fearless jokes about their vaginas. Next year, Amy Schumer will be the first female comedian to headline Madison Square Garden.”

“Women, suffice it to say, are funny. On the other hand, happy hours during which one man holds forth to a gaggle of raptly amused female onlookers exist. My deftly hilarious female friends exist, and many are eternally single. If men and women are clearly capable of being equally funny, why does humor by non-famous women so often go unappreciated?”

The Atlantic, November 2015: “Plight of the Funny Female,” by Olga Khazan

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Missing Women: In Canada & from Academia

“Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has started inquiry consultations with families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Many families are determined to be at the forefront of an inquiry and have been vocal on social media through campaigns like #ourinquiry, directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”

“[Bennett] said she intends to “make sure that they feel they’ve had the input on things like the scope, the terms of reference, the length, who should be commissioners and whether there should be one or three.’”

“The Liberals have committed to spending $40 million over two years on the examination of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.”

“So far no one, including Bennett, has mentioned what the scope of the inquiry will be. However, when asked about the possibility of including missing and murdered indigenous men and boys, Bennett didn’t rule it out.’ When you look at the systemic problems and the effects of colonization, the effects of residential school, there is no question that men and boys have also been victims of this system,’ she said.”

CBC News, November 18, 2015: “Indigenous Affairs Minister begins ‘pre-inquiry engagements’ with families of MMIW,” by Tiar Wilson

The Globe and Mail, November 16, 2015: “National inquiry into indigenous women to launch by summer: Minister,” by Kathryn Blaze Baum

“Missing” Women in Economics

“Economist Justin Wolfers recently wrote about how female economists are airbrushed out of academic discussion when they have a male coauthor.”

“We decided to bring together some of the women who’ve had the biggest impact on the subject and the practice of economic policy, whether in academia, business, politics, or education. These women are not just modern academic economists. Several are historical figures who made major contributions to the discipline at a time when female participation was incredibly difficult.”

The most recent from the list of 13 is Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012), the only woman to ever be awarded a Nobel Prize in economics. Although she was “dissuaded from pursuing a Ph.D. in economics, and completed one in political science instead ... [h]er work on the formal and informal political institutions the influence an economy had enormous influence on a discipline that had become more scientific and mathematical, bringing back some of the more politically focused work more common 100 years ago.”

World Economic Forum, November 17, 2015: “13 women who transformed the world of economics,” by Mike Bird

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Hey ... This Is (Still) a Man's World

“Remembering the journalistic cliche that one is an example, two is a coincidence and three is a trend, I figured it worth exploring how female economists are treated.”

“First, consider an example from The New York Times. In a recent article, Adam Davidson wrote that ‘Lawrence Katz, a professor at Harvard and a leading scholar of education economics, co-wrote a paper a few years ago with Claudia Goldin...’ Professor Katz’s apparently uncredentialed co-author in that case was also a professor at Harvard, a leading scholar of education economics, a recent president of the American Economic Association and one of America’s most important economic historians. Moreover, Professor Goldin was actually the first author on the paper, a fact that the public or journalists may not pay much attention to, but one that matters greatly in the academic guild.”

“Second, Ralph Nader decided to enter the debate on monetary policy recently with an open letter to Janet Yellen, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. It was, to be charitable, a rather confused missive -- and confusing enough that history may rate Mr. Nader as a more successful presidential candidate than economist. But the real clunker came with his advice to Ms. Yellen that ‘I think that you should sit down with your Nobel Prize-winning husband George Akerlof.’ His directive continued: ‘Together, figure out what to do.’”

“And most recently, the latest edition of the Slate political podcast, ‘Political Gabfest,’ featured a discussion about the headline-grabbing research by Anne Case and Angus Deaton that found that the death rates of middle-aged white Americans were increasing, even as death rates were falling in other countries. Slate’s David Plotz described the research as having been written by ‘Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton and Anne Case, who is his wife, and also a researcher.’ Likewise, Ross Douthat, writing in The New York Times Sunday Review, described this as research by ‘Nobel Laureate Angus Deaton and his wife, Anne Case.’”

“Ms. Case is far more than a wife and a researcher. She is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton, one of the leading health economists of her generation, and has been elected a fellow of the Econometric Society. She is also the first author of the mortality study.”

The New York Times, November 11, 2015: “Even Famous Female Economists Get No Respect” by Justin Wolfers

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To Negotiate, or to Flirt, Now That Is an Interesting Question

“If teaching women to negotiate won’t work, what could? Kray’s answer to this conundrum is an increasingly popular one among economists and researchers: ban salary negotiations altogether and set a pay range for each position, irrespective of the individual chosen to fill it. This lessens the risk of unconscious bias on the basis of gender, race, or anything else. This was the policy Ellen Pao adopted during her tenure as interim CEO at Reddit. 'Men negotiate harder than women do and sometimes women get penalized when they do negotiate,' she said at the time. “So as part of our recruiting process we don’t negotiate with candidates. We come up with an offer that we think is fair.”

“It’s true that women negotiate less often than men. In their 2003 book Women Don’t Ask, Carnegie Mellon professor Linda Babcock and co-author Sara Laschever found that only 7 percent of women they surveyed on graduation from professional schools were negotiating their initial offers, versus 57 percent of men. But the instincts telling women to keep quiet may, at least in some cases, be good ones.”

Slate, November 17, 2015: “How to Close the Gender Wage Gap: Don’t teach women how to negotiate. Just ban salary negotiations altogether,” By Nora Caplan-Bricker

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Women, Minorities Making Gains on Canadian Corporate Boards

“A new report from the Canadian Board Diversity Council shows women now comprise 19.5 per cent of directors of Canada’s 500 largest companies, up from 17.1 per cent last year. The 2.4-percentage-point increase is the largest annual growth rate for gender diversity, exceeding the 1.5-percentage-point gain between 2013 and 2014, CBDC data show.”

“The study also showed a large increase in the number of visible minorities on boards, climbing to 7.3 per cent of directors from just 2 per cent last year.”

“Despite the improvements, CBDC founder Pamela Jeffery said the pace of change in gender diversity feels ‘glacial’ compared with some other major countries.”

“Canada ranked 15th among major industrialized countries for women on boards in 2014, a decline from sixth place in 2009 and ninth place in 2011, Ms. Jeffery said.”

The Globe and Mail, November 19, 2015: “Women, minorities making gains on Canadian corporate boards: report,” by Janet McFarland

Canadian Board Diversity Council, November 17, 2015: “2015 Annual Report Card”

Canadian Board Diversity Council [website]

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The Power of Civic Action

“Toronto’s neighbourhood of Thorncliffe Park, built in the 1960s, was designed for 12,000 people -- young singles and couples with cars to traverse bridges into the city. But by 2008, Thorncliffe Park’s demographic had changed.”

“Few in the low-income neighbourhood had cars and there was no square or commercial main street where residents could meet and socialize. What it did have was a tiny park, albeit quite rundown.”

“In the summer of 2008, a group of women who met in the park came to realize they shared a desire to strengthen their neighbourhood and their community.”

“Over the next few years the Women’s Committee helped improve the quality of green space in the park and increased accessibility to recreational opportunities. Through local celebrations and grassroots programming, including a weekly summer bazaar, food market, and activities for children, they created an engine of economic, environmental, and social activity in Thorncliffe Park.”

Metcalf Foundation, November 2015: “The Power of Civic Action” (28 pages, PDF)

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Student Activism is Serious Business

“Late Saturday night, word spread that [the University of Missouri]’s black football players were planning to strike and refusing to participate in team activities, including games.”

“They created a financial imperative for the university to enact change: If the Tigers didn’t play their next scheduled game against Brigham Young on November 14, Mizzou would have to pay a $1 million cancellation fee.”

“The players’ protest ... is the most high-profile example to date in a continuing revolution in which the athletes who drive the multibillion-dollar college sports machine have begun to use their visibility to demand change.”

“What makes the Missouri team’s protest stand out even more is that it is not about the business of sports: compensation, image rights, labor issues or N.C.A.A. rules. It was initiated by black players showing solidarity with fellow black students who felt their concerns had not been adequately addressed by university administrators. It was athletes lending their standing to a fight that, on its face, did not involve them.”

“In the protests at Mizzou and Yale and elsewhere, students have made it clear that the status quo is unbearable. Whether we agree with these student protesters or not, we should be listening: They are articulating a vision for a better future, one that cannot be reached with complacency.”

New Republic, November 11, 2015: “Student Activism Is Serious Business,” by Roxane Gay

The New York Times, November 8, 2015: “University of Missouri Football Players Exercise Power in Racism Protest,” by William C. Rhoden

“What’s it like to be Black on campus? In wake of the events at Mizzou, thousands of Black professors and students shared their experiences of being marginalized” at hashtag #BlackOnCampus 

University of Toronto Loses $550 Million By Not Divesting from Fossil Fuels 

“A just-released analysis by Corporate Knights, working with 350.org and South Pole Group, has found that University of Toronto lost over $550 million Canadian dollars by not divesting from the largest fossil fuel firms three years ago.”

“The university’s ad-hoc committee on fossil fuel divestment is expected to make a recommendation about whether it should divest its endowment from the 200 largest fossil fuel firms in the first week of December.”

“Currently, fossil fuel divestment campaigns are active at more than 300 schools across North America and a number within Europe as well. To date, 26 universities and colleges have pledged to divest. They include San Francisco State University Foundation, Hampshire College and Green Mountain College.”

National Observer, October 27, 2015: “Advocates pressure U of T to divest of fossil fuels,” by Charles Mandel

CNW, November 16, 2015: “University of Toronto loses $550 million by not divesting from fossil fuels”

Corporate Knights: “Portfolio Decarbonizer”

The Guardian, November 17, 2015: “Stanford students begin ‘indefinite’ sit-in over fossil fuel divestment”

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Recent Grads: Overeducated and Underemployed

“Four out of every 10 young workers with a university degree are overqualified for their job in the years after graduation, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer has warned. The PBO’s wide-ranging report released [November 12, 2015] included an analysis of the labour market. One of the report’s findings suggested that while recent grads have had trouble finding the first job of their career for decades, the problem may be getting worse.”

“The problem is bigger than that, because those young workers spent money, time, and resources to get those qualifications. ‘Many university graduates forgo labour market earnings and experience to attain credentials for a position in their field of choice,’ the PBO said.”

“That’s a problem not just for those workers, but also for the broader economy, the PBO warns. ‘There are costs associated with a rising number of overqualified workers.... These workers may face lower levels of job satisfaction and attachment, which could increase turnover rates for employers.’”

CBC News, November 13, 2015: “PBO report warns recent university grads are overeducated, underemployed”

Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, November 12, 2015: “Labour Market Assessment 2015,” by Helen Lao and Tim Scholz (download PDF here, 31 pages)

The Globe and Mail, November 15, 2015: “Morneau may be suffering from millennial blindness,” by Rob Carrick

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After the Recession: No Degree and High Debt

“One side effect of the 2007-09 recession was a surge in college attendance. Nearly 3 million Americans enrolled in college in the fall of 2009, half a million more than two years earlier. Some of those were new high school graduates who would have gone straight to work if jobs were available. Others were older workers who lost jobs and went back to school to learn new skills or even to qualify for student loans to cover living expenses.”

“Six years later, we are starting to get the first clear look at how all those students fared, and the numbers aren’t pretty. According to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, barely half -- 52.9 percent -- of students who enrolled in fall 2009 had earned a bachelor’s or associate degree six years later. That’s down from a completion rate of 56.1 percent for the students who enrolled in 2007. (Graduation rates were especially low for students at for-profit colleges.)”

“The low graduation rate shouldn’t come as a big surprise. The recession drove people to attend college who wouldn’t have gone otherwise and who were likely less prepared than other students. Many of them ended up in worse shape than if they hadn’t gone to college in the first place: burdened with thousands of dollars in student debt, but without a degree to show for it. The disappointing results emphasize yet again that merely encouraging people to attend college isn’t enough. We also have to find ways to help them graduate, too.”

FiveThirtyEight, November 17, 2015: “Half Of People Who Went To College In The Recession Haven’t Graduated,” by Ben Casselman

National Student Clearinghouse, Research Center, November 16, 2015: “Completing College: A National View of Student Attainment Rates -- Fall 2009 Cohort”

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Studying Abroad Increases Student Employability

“A recent study investigating the impact of mobility on employability, skills development, institutional development and the internationalization of higher education institutions in Europe has shown that students who study abroad have a better shot at finding a job after graduation than those who don’t.”

“On average, Erasmus students were more likely to get a job after studying abroad than 70% of all students. Based on their personality traits as well, the study showed they had a better predisposition for employability even before going abroad. By the time they returned to their country of origin they increased their advantage by 42%, with 81% of them perceiving an improvement in their soft skills, such as team work or familiarity with office software.”

World Economic Forum, November 11, 2015: “Why studying abroad could help you get hired,” by Jose Santiago

The Erasmus Impact Study, November 2015: “Effects of mobility on the skills and employability of students and the internationalisation of higher education institutions” (227 pages, PDF)

Note: “Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a non-profit international student organisation. Our mission is to represent international students, thus provide opportunities for cultural understanding and self-development under the principle of Students Helping Students."

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There's No Such Thing as a Free Journal

“Open access publishing and data sharing has created unprecedented opportunity for exploratory scientific research. In the wake of more open science, the existing models for scientific networking and communication have evolved to fit the Internet age. Researchers and scientific communicators have adapted their methods to fit an increasingly open and collaborative online environment.”

“Many of the reviewers and authors at open-access journals work on a volunteer basis. So what are the true costs of running such a publication? The Chronicle asked the Open Library of the Humanities, a nonprofit group that publishes seven peer-reviewed journals in the humanities and social sciences.”

“The Open Library of the Humanities is completely open access, and authors are not charged to publish in its journals. But like any nonprofit, the organization needs money to function. The publisher started up this year, and its estimated first-year costs are $320,000.”

“As at traditional academic journals, all of the peer reviewers for the group’s publications work without pay, the idea being that academic editing is a function of academic jobs. The company is trying to steer clear of volunteer labor in other areas, although some volunteers help with outreach.”

“Unlike commercial publishers, nonprofit open-access journals don’t have a traditional profit margin -- but they also don’t break even. At the Open Library of the Humanities, surplus money goes toward a safety net, to be used for unforeseen costs. At PLOS, surplus money goes back into the organization.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 9, 2015: “What Open-Access Publishing Actually Costs,” by Ellen Wexler

The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 17, 2015: “Open Access & Copyright: A View from the South,” by Maha Bali

PLOS Blogs, October 20, 2015: “Open for Collaboration: Why open access publishing creates more networking opportunities for young scientists,” by Farzana Rahman

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The Mental Health Impact of Work Capability Assessments

“Tougher ‘fit for work’ tests to assess eligibility for disability benefit may have taken a serious toll on mental health in England, according to a study that linked the tests to 590 extra suicides and hundreds of thousands of additional antidepressant prescriptions.”

“In what is believed to be the first research of its kind to examine the mental health impact of the work capability assessment (WCA) in England, experts said there could be “serious consequences” of the policy to move people off benefits, which they said had been introduced without any evidence of its potential impact.”

“Published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the analysis follows research published last week which found that debt, austerity and unemployment were significant factors in the rising number of British men who have killed themselves since the tests were introduced in 2008.”

The paper states:

“Although the explicit aim of welfare reform in the UK is to reduce ‘dependency’ it is likely that targeting the people living in the most vulnerable conditions with policies that are harmful to health will further marginalise already excluded groups, reducing rather than increasing their independence.”

The Guardian, November 17, 2015: “Fit-for-work tests may have taken serious toll on mental health -- study,” by Karen McVeigh

The Guardian, November12, 2015: “Austerity a factor in rising suicide rate among UK men -- study," by Karen McVeigh

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, November 16, 2015: “‘First, do no harm’: are disability assessments associated with adverse trends in mental health? A longitudinal ecological study,” by B. Barr, D. Taylor-Robinson, R. Loopstra, A. Reeves and M. Whitehead (7 pages, PDF)

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Book of the Week

Managing Performance Through Training and Development, by Alan M. Saks and Robert R. Haccoun. 7th ed. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2016. ISBN 9780176570293 (pbk.)

From the publisher: "Organizations are challenged to provide training and development programs in order to equip their employees with the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes to be productive and innovative. These are critical factors to an organization's ability to be innovative, evolve, and stay competitive. Managing Performance Through Training and Development provides comprehensive and current coverage of training approaches in practice by successful organizations today. The seventh edition reflects the advances in both science and practice, including the use of technology, gamification, and social media, all of which help bridge the gap between theory and application, providing students with relevant and real examples."

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