How Not to Be Poor | NCPA
12 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, economics of education, labour economics Tags: poverty and inequality, welfare reform
The link between paid parental leave generosity and a larger gender pay gap-updated
09 Nov 2014 4 Comments
in discrimination, economics, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender pay gap, labour economics, occupation choice, sex discrimination
But it also turns out that some countries that offer more liberal parental leave policies have higher pay gaps among men and women ages 30 to 34, according to analyses of 16 countries conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
OECD theorizes that this link may be driven by the fact that women are more likely than men to actually use their parental leave, and that time out of the workforce is associated with lower wages.
It is rather obvious if you pay women not to work, they will accumulate less job experience and miss out on promotional and other career advancement opportunities in their prime of their career.
As this OECD paper in 2012 found with regard to paid parental leave and gender gaps in employment and earnings:
…the provision and gradual lengthening of paid leave have contributed to a widening in the gender pay gap of full-time employees.
This may reflect the fact that women experience slower career and earnings progression on returning from leave to full-time employment than men, much fewer of whom take leave.
In sum, the development of parental leave policies in most countries appears to have had a positive, albeit marginal, role in the rise of female employment, although women pay a price in the form of reduced earnings progression.
Claudia Golden found that in some high-powered professions, any career interruption at all, can greatly reduce lifetime earnings.
via The link between parental leave and the gender pay gap | Pew Research Center.
The UK’s welfare benefits cap of £26,000 per year – the income of the average working family
09 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in welfare reform Tags: benefit caps, UK politics, welfare reform
Since the cap was introduced a year ago, more than 38,600 households have had the amount they are paid in benefits limited to £26,000 a year – the income of the average working family.
Despite predictions by critics that the new rule would cause misery, the poll – conducted by Ipsos Mori – found that 45 per cent of those affected say they have been spurred to return to work.
Benefits for couples and lone parents have been capped at £500 per week, or £350 for a single. childless person.
The £26,000-a-year cap is equivalent to an income of £34,000 before tax, which is similar to the salaries of many nurses and teachers.
Cheryl Prudham, her husband Robert and their nine children are going on a trip to Menorca, just weeks after the mum said she should be given a bigger house at the expense of the taxpayer.
HT: Daily Mail – their photos above are a little bit too focused on ethnic minorities. The Daily Mail’s audience is the working class Tory and the lower middle class.
Happy Birthday Marie Curie!
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender Tags: gender, Marie Curie, sex discrimination, The Great Fact
James Tobin on limiting the domain of inequality
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, income redistribution, Public Choice, welfare reform Tags: James Tobin, negative income tax, poverty and inequality, welfare reform
How to argue against the minimum wage when genuinely trying to argue for it – OECD edition
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in labour economics, minimum wage, Public Choice Tags: living wage, minimum wage, social cost of the minimum wage, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
The 2014 OECD employment outlook argued for modest minimum wage increases while at the same time setting out all the steps necessary to manage the unintended consequences of minimum wage regulation:
Mandatory minimum wages, which now exist – or are being implemented – in 26 OECD countries and a number of emerging economies, can help underpin the wages of low-paid workers.
Evidence suggests that, when set at an appropriate level, minimum wages tend to have only a small adverse effect on employment.
Sensible minimum-wage design includes: taking account of differences by region according to the average income level, as well as by age in experience and productivity; ensuring that the level and adjustments of the minimum wage involve independent commissions; and reducing social security contributions to lower non-wage labour costs at the minimum wage (Emphasis mine).
George Stigler made very similar criticisms of the impracticality of a single minimum wage in 1946:
If an employer has a significant degree of control over the wage rate he pays for a given quality of labour, a skilfully-set minimum wage may increase his employment and wage rate and, because the wage is brought closer to the value of the marginal product, at the same time increase aggregate output…
This arithmetic is quite valid but it is not very relevant to the question of a national minimum wage. The minimum wage which achieves these desirable ends has several requisites:
1. It must be chosen correctly… the optimum minimum wage can be set only if the demand and supply schedules are known over a considerable range…
2. The optimum wage varies with occupation (and, within an occupation, with the quality of worker).
3. The optimum wage varies among firms (and plants).
4. The optimum wage varies, often rapidly, through time.
A uniform national minimum wage, infrequently changed, is wholly unsuited to these diversities of conditions
Modest minimum wage increases must varying in their modesty by individual worker quality, occupation, region, firm and plant and the extent to which this modesty can be excessively immodest can change rapidly through time. Little wonder that the OECD refers to minimum wage regulation as a careful balancing act.
In sum, to avoid throwing a good number of low paid, low skilled workers onto the scrapheap of society for the sake of their more employable co-workers, the minimum wage pretty much be set separately for each individual worker. The labour market does that now.
Fraudster Alan Knight jailed for £40,000 scam after pretending to be in a coma for two years | Daily Mail Online
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, welfare reform Tags: crime and punishment
doctors spotted Knight – pictured with wife, Helen – eating, wiping his face and writing while he was in hospital for observations
The slums of Jebson Pl – down and out in New Zealand includes Sky TV
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: poverty and inequality, The Great Erichment, welfare reform
via Whale Oil Beef Hooked and waikato-times
Working for Families and work incentives
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, public economics, taxation, welfare reform Tags: effective marginal tax rates, tax – welfare system interactions
There are 3.38 million individual taxpayers. Of these, about 120,000 (3.4 percent) face EMTRs over 60%, 120,000 (3.4 percent) face EMTRs between 50% and 60%, and 160,000 (4.5 percent) face EMTRs between 40% and 50%. Slightly more than 88 percent of taxpayers face EMTRs below 40%.
HT: New-Zealand-tax-system-and-how-it-compares-internationally
Wellington City Council builds inner city children’s sandpit next to red-stickered buildings marked for collapse in next earthquake
07 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, health and safety, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: economics of natural disasters, expressive voting, health and safety, Taxpayers Union, Wellington City Council
That Catcalling Video and Why “Research Methods” is such an Exciting Topic (Really!) — The Message — Medium
07 Nov 2014 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of media and culture, gender, labour economics Tags: research design, sex discrimination, sexual harassment
The filmmakers claim to have shot this video while walking the streets of Manhattan for 10 hours, but over half of the shots in the video are actually taken from just one street, namely 125th St. in Harlem.
Occupy Wall Street protesters didn’t like what they found when they actually met the bottom 1%
06 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in labour economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: bottom 1%, economics of personality traits, Occupy Wall Street, poverty and inequality, top 1%
The Occupy Wall Street protesters had free food provided by kitchens staffed by volunteers.
These self appointed representatives of the bottom 99% didn’t appreciate brushing shoulders with the bottom 1 percent of the social stratum:
The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday — because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.
For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad.
They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.
To show they mean business, the kitchen staff refused to serve any food for two hours yesterday in order to meet with organizers to air their grievances, sources said…
Overall security at the park had deteriorated to the point where many frightened female protesters had abandoned the increasingly out-of-control occupation, security- team members said.
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