Friday, August 30, 2013

MSN News, August 29, 2013, Thursday

MSN News

August 29, 2013, Thursday

MSN News (full article)

Would wage hike mean a pricier Big Mac or Whopper?

Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, said that in general, companies find other ways to respond to increasing wages other than raising costs more than a small percent because they do not want to lose customers.

"Right now people at McDonald's don't make enough money to buy food at McDonald's," she said. "If discount stores and fast food becomes more expensive for those who are making minimum wage — then who is going to shop at those stores?"

Yahoo! News, August 29, 2013, Thursday

Yahoo! News

August 29, 2013, Thursday

Yahoo! News (full article)

US fast food workers strike to supersize wages

"More people are looking to this as a real job rather than a transition or entry-level job," said Jefferson Cowie, of Cornell University's Department of Labor Relations, Law, and History.

Cowie told AFP that while wages have stagnated in the industry since the 1970s, "the recession really did not help." Neither has unemployment and the increased difficulty of accessing higher education.

Marketplace, August 28, 2013, Wednesday

Marketplace

August 28, 2013, Wednesday

Marketplace (full article)

How much will Microsoft pay its next CEO?

Last year, says Bowie, the median level of CEO pay at large corporations like Apple, Exxon Mobil, and Hewlett Packard, was just over $22 million. And, it’s those big numbers for top executives which are increasingly evoking dissatisfaction among the rank and file. But Kevin Hallock, chair of the economics department at Cornell,  notes the risk can be worth it.

“Well, it must be,” he says, “because they keep doing it.”

Time, August 27, 2013, Tuesday

Time

August 27, 2013, Tuesday

Time (full article)

Workers Expected to Protest Low Wages in 35 Cities

“Because of the difficulty of getting jobs in general…for people with relatively modest education levels, you have a lot of people working in these companies who are trying to support a family based upon their earnings alone,” says Ronald Ehrenberg, a professor of industrial and labor relations and economics at Cornell University. “That’s very, very difficult to do.”

The Atlantic, August 13, 2013, Tuesday

The Atlantic

August 13, 2013, Tuesday

The Atlantic (full article)

Why More Vacation Doesn't Always Mean Happier Workers

The "minimum vacation" factor: This is probably the strongest argument for establishing a country-wide norm for time off. Vacation laws tend to work like minimum wages, Lowell Turner, a professor of international labor at Cornell University, explained. Saying you have to pay workers at least $7.25 an hour doesn't mean everyone in the country makes $7.25 -- it just means you can't pay them less. But from that point, companies compete for workers by piling on more money.

CNNMoney, August 13, 2013, Tuesday

CNNMoney

August 13, 2013, Tuesday

CNNMoney (full article)

Why 26% of U.S. women still choose not to work

Sixty years ago, American women began heading off to the workplace in droves. But in the last couple of decades, that trend has completely stalled out.

"It seems that we are stuck," said Cornell University economist Francine Blau, who co-authored a paper on this topic with her husband Lawrence Kahn, also a Cornell economist.

The Washington Post, August 9, 2013, Friday

The Washington Post

August 9, 2013, Friday

The Washington Post (full article)

LinkedIn connects big data, human resources

By throwing more and more at users, of course, LinkedIn risks undermining the very thing that’s made it the go-to site for recruiters: a mass of high-quality candidates, sorted and evaluated and offered up.

“I think there’s a chance of people getting tired of it and checking out of it,” said Chris Collins, director of Cornell University’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies.

SHRM, August 9, 2013, Friday

SHRM

August 9, 2013, Friday

SHRM (full article)

Using Social Media to Boost Ethics and Compliance

Having a solid social media policy and training employees can change behaviors while improving compliance and reducing risk.

CPR (communicate, prepare and respond) is essential, according to Steve Miranda, SPHR, GPHR, managing director of Cornell University’s Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies and the Society for Human Resource Management’s former chief HR and content integration officer.

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Nonprofit Quarterly, August 8, 2013, Thursday

Nonprofit Quarterly

August 8, 2013, Thursday

Nonprofit Quarterly (full article)

Unions and the Nonprofit Workforce: A Few Considerations

Some union organizers don’t believe that bringing unions into nonprofit workplaces has to be all that contentious and adversarial. Maria Figueroa, director of Labor and Policy Research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, cited examples of labor-management partnerships, such as the agreements between 1199 Healthcare Union/SEIU and voluntary hospitals in New York City and between unions and Kaiser Permanente as alternatives to us-versus-them scenarios.

HR People & Strategy, August 7, 2013, Wednesday

HR People & Strategy

August 7, 2013, Wednesday

HR People & Strategy (full article pdf)

State of the Art in Performance Management

Cornell HRS associate professors Chris Collins and Brad Bell talk about their CAHRS State of the Art in Performance Management working group discussions in this month's issue of People & Strategy.

NPR, August 3, 2013 Saturday

NPR

August 3, 2013, Saturday

NPR (article/interview)

Jobless Rate Falls For Blacks, But It's Not Good News Yet

"Everyone is, unfortunately, sort of shifting out of the middle to either the lower-paying or the very high end," says Linda Barrington, a labor economist at Cornell University. "So we're seeing this hollowing-out of the middle as this recovery continues."

A lot more needs to be done to get the unemployment rate to fall significantly for black workers, Barrington says. There needs to be much more job creation, and she says it has to be sustained for many years.

WorldatWork's workspan magazine, August 2013


WorldatWork's workspan magazine

August 2013

An monthly column in workspan® applying scholarly research to the "real world" by ICS Director Kevin Hallock.


Compensation Research Summer Camp

Emerging scholars share new research, extend professional network

Time, July 30, 2013, Tuesday

Time

July 30, 2013, Tuesday

Time (full article)

Unable to Unionize, Workers Borrow Tactics From 'Occupy'

“It’s very easy for management to intimidate workers under the current structure, to run an aggressive campaign” to discourage unionization, says Richard Hurd, a labor relations professor at Cornell University. “Why put up with management pressure and try to hold out and get union recognition if you know realistically that you’re not going to be there that long?”

KGO 810 News, July 26, 2013, Friday

KGO 810 News

July 26, 2013, Friday

KGO 810 News (full interview)

How Public Opinion Can Effect BART Negotiations

The way the public feels can directly effect the outcome of the negotiations between BART management and workers.

The unions negotiated with BART today but are unable to touch the economic package until BART's lead negotiator is back from vacation.

KGO's Kristin Hanes spoke with Ken Margolies, associate of the worker institute at Cornell University, about how public opinion can play a role in how things turn out.

WBFO-FM, July 25, 2013, Thursday

WBFO-FM

July 25, 2013, Thursday

WBFO-FM (article/interview)

Labor expert weighs in on drop in Buffalo Niagara unemployment

"It's fantastic news, and I think part of the reason can be attributed to the high numbers of manufacturing jobs that as a percentage of jobs in Buffalo," said Arthur Wheaton, Director, Western NY Labor and Environmental Programs at Cornell International Labor Relations School in Buffalo.

In These Times, July 25, 2013, Thursday

In These Times

July 25, 2013, Thursday

In These Times (full article)

Thank You, Strike Again

The strikes have typically been sudden and short, lasting just long enough to broadcast their message. A few campaigns have won union recognition; more have won small victories like a pay raise or a scheduling change. But taken together, the campaigns have surprised experts like Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, who says she could not have imagined such an upsurge even two years ago.

New York Times, July 23, 2013, Tuesday

New York Times

July 23, 2013, Tuesday

New York Times (full article)

Pro-Baby, but Stingy With Money to Support Them

This suggests increasing tension between women’s responsibilities at work and at home. In a study this year, Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn of Cornell found that the labor supply of American women fell compared to those of other rich countries partly because the United States does not provide the generous family benefits common in the rest of the industrial world — like direct subsidies for children, mandatory paid maternity leave and free child care.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 22, 2013, Monday

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 22, 2013, Monday

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (full article)

Prospect D'Agostino has listened, learned from many

Another lesson Nick D'Agostino got about the NHL -- and even the NFL and NBA -- came in the classroom at Cornell. He graduated this year with a degree in industrial and labor relations, and the lockouts that those three major pro leagues endured the past couple of years were a discussion point.

"You'd be surprised how the sports world is a microcosm for labor relations, stuff like that," he said. "We've been learning about that all along."

New York Times, July 22, 2013, Monday

New York Times

July 22, 2013, Monday

New York Times (full article)

Three Men, Three Ages.  Which Do You Like?

One grantee, Sarah von Schrader, a Cornell research associate, says that more than 60 percent of equal employment complaints are related to job dismissals; only 10 percent involve hiring bias, which, she says, is the most difficult of age cases to document.

The Columbus Dispatch, July 21, 2013, Sunday

The Columbus Dispatch

July 21, 2013, Sunday

The Columbus Dispatch (full article)

Families forced to cope with the rising cost of college

“Students are beating down the doors to get in,” said Ron Ehrenberg, an economist at Cornell University. “There’s no reason to hold down price.”

Times Free Press, July 20, 2013, Saturday

Times Free Press

July 20, 2013, Saturday

Times Free Press (full article)

Bob Corker ties UAW to Detroit troubles

"It's a bias against unions," said Lowell Turner, a professor of international and comparative labor. "There's not a scientific basis for that at all. There's no basis in fact for that at all."

PBS Newshour, July 2013

PBS Newshour

July 2013

PBS Newshour (full article)

Should We Fear 'the End of Work'?

Lars Vilhuber is a Cornell labor economist who's previously worked with the Census Bureau. He echoed the call for more accurate information about who's being hurt and how:

    "There are a lot of things that we don't know, and that at least with current data, we cannot know. We'd like to be able to say which are the jobs that are turning over a lot, which are the jobs that are being permanently lost, and where are people going to and from these different occupations, while at the same time capturing the huge local variations (across the country) ... We've got some of that, but only a small snapshot of the real whole picture."

And yes, confirmed Steven Berkenfeld, a managing director in the investment division of Barclays Capital, the reluctance to hire any new employees at all has now become very widespread, for understandable reasons:

    "When I speak to small companies, emerging companies, the general sense I get is that they will do anything possible not to hire a full-time, permanent employee. There are a lot of real disincentives to hiring people when you can outsource it, and so hiring someone is a big commitment. It comes with a lot of responsibilities and costs for the person doing the hiring throughout the whole tenure of that new employee, and it's something that employers would rather avoid if at all possible."