How hours of work affect occupational earnings

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 121, Issue 10, 1998, Pages 8-18

  Hecker, Daniel ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0012168425     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (22)

1. Philip L. Rones, Jennifer Gardner, and Randy E. Ilg, "Trends in hours of work since the mid-1970's," Monthly Labor Review, April 1997, pp. 3-14. See also G.H. Moore and J.N. Hedges, "Trends in labor and leisure," Monthly Labor Review, February 1971, pp. 3-11.
2. Philip L. Rones, Jennifer Gardner, and Randy E. Ilg, "Trends in hours of work since the mid-1970's," Monthly Labor Review, April 1997, pp. 3-14. See also G.H. Moore and J.N. Hedges, "Trends in labor and leisure," Monthly Labor Review, February 1971, pp. 3-11.
3. The Current Population Survey is a monthly survey of 50,000 households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
4. In this article, full-time workers are defined as persons who work at least 35 hours per week in their primary job. Most other data published by BLS define full time as 35 hours or more at all jobs combined. Data on part-timers are not presented. Part-timers are defined as those working 34 hours or less in their primary job.
5. A standard workweek often is defined as precisely 40 hours. See Peyton K. Elder and Heidi D. Miller, "The Fair Labor Standards Act: changes of four decades," Monthly Labor Review, July 1979, pp. 10-16. See also Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work," p. 3.
6. A standard workweek often is defined as precisely 40 hours. See Peyton K. Elder and Heidi D. Miller, "The Fair Labor Standards Act: changes of four decades," Monthly Labor Review, July 1979, pp. 10-16. See also Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work," p. 3.
7. Some relatively large occupations that are not included are social workers and receptionists for women, and groundskeepers and gardeners for men.
8. Earnings data for the unincorporated self-employed are not collected in the monthly Current Population Survey. Earnings data for the incorporated self-employed (who receive a salary) are collected, but are not tabulated or incorporated with earnings of wage and salary workers.
9. See Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work," p. 10.
10. This exclusion means that data are not presented for some occupations with relatively large numbers of self-employed workers, but too few wage and salary workers to provide statistically reliable data, such as architects, cosmetologists, and dentists.
11. See "Workers on flexible and shift schedules in 1997," USDL 98-119 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mar. 26, 1998). See also Shirley J. Smith, "The growing diversity of work schedules," Monthly Labor Review, November 1986, pp. 7-13.
12. See "Workers on flexible and shift schedules in 1997," USDL 98-119 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mar. 26, 1998). See also Shirley J. Smith, "The growing diversity of work schedules," Monthly Labor Review, November 1986, pp. 7-13.
13. For a discussion of trends in the proportion of workers with long hours, see Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work."
14. Data for physicians exclude persons working 75 hours a week or more. See footnote 12 for more information.
15. Data for physicians exclude persons working 75 hours a week or more. Data from the Current Population Survey for physicians present a unique problem. The median earnings for men working 55 to 99 hours ($1,241 per week and $18.91 per hour) and for women working 45 to 99 hours ($933 per week and $17.48 per hour), were much less than earnings for those with fewer hours. Further analysis showed the cause: most respondents with the longest hours have weekly earnings well below $800 and hourly earnings of less than $10. It was assumed that most were interns and residents who are medical school graduates in paid on-the-job training, and are not yet licensed as physicians, but it was not possible to clearly identify them. These workers typically put in long hours for relatively low pay. However, almost all persons in the occupational category who reported working more than 75 hours per week had these very low earnings. Some with fewer hours, particularly women, also had very low earnings. The much lower hourly rates for women working 45 to 74 hours per week suggest that these data still include many residents and interns.
16. See Elder and Miller, "The Fair Labor Standards Act"; Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work"; and Minimum Wage and Overtime Hours Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, June 1998).
17. See Elder and Miller, "The Fair Labor Standards Act"; Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work"; and Minimum Wage and Overtime Hours Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, June 1998).
18. See Elder and Miller, "The Fair Labor Standards Act"; Rones and others, "Trends in hours of work"; and Minimum Wage and Overtime Hours Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, June 1998).
19. See Darrell E. Carr, "Overtime work: an expanded view," Monthly Labor Review, November 1986, pp. 36-39.
20. They were less than a third as likely as those in precision production, craft, and repair or operator, fabricator, and laborer positions to receive overtime, even though they were much more likely to have long hours. See Carr, "Overtime work," p. 38.
21. See Classified Index of Industries and Occupations, 1980 Census of Population, PHC80-24 (Bureau of the Census, November 1982).
22. See Report on the American Workforce (U.S. Department of Labor, 1997), p. 39. Data shown are for women only, but men had similar patterns.