This paper (ASSA 2016 link below) looks to study revenue and sales volatility at the firm level and how that relates to employee level of wages. The main take away is that employee wages tend to be positively related to revunue shocks. That is, employers tend to keep employee wages steady and increasing over time regardless of the specific shocks that the firm may be experiencing at any given time.
Category: Uncategorized
Using Microlevel BLS data to study aggregate wage dispersion
Can Microlevel BLS data be used to study how and why employees are paid differently at US employers ? This paper and the work ultimately looks to provide a method to use the Microlevel, i.e. individual level survey observations, to match dispersion measures like, the standard deviation, in big data BLS employment data. The first step for the researchers is to try and match the aggregate numbers to the micro numbers.
Median housing prices fell for three largest Eagle Ford Shale MSAs in Jan
Median house prices for all three MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) fell from December 2014 to January 2014.
Image source: http://www.asemooni.com/news/economic-news/the-president-agreed-with-the-increase-in-housing
SHRM question of the day: What is the difference between a discretionary and non-discretionary bonus
In order for a bonus to be considered discretionary, it should be at the sole discretion of the employer to award it, not an expectation by the employees. A discretionary bonus is a form of variable pay; the amount, requirements, timing and announcement of the bonus should not be disclosed in advance, as this may appear to be a motivator or incentive implying that meeting certain levels would guarantee a bonus or reward. In a discretionary bonus, the employer determines after the fact that there is a reason for awarding a bonus, such as reaching company and financial goals, or chooses to reward an individual employee after exceptional performance. A nondiscretionary bonus is the opposite of a discretionary one. The employer from the outset determines the standards that are required to receive a bonus based on meeting specific criteria. The employees expect to earn the bonus if they meet the standards. An employer’s incentive pay plan that provides additional compensation for exceeding performance or productivity goals is an example of how nondiscretionary bonuses are executed in the workplace.
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Studying labor market data for U.S. foreign born workers
Detailed data and the underlying micro data can be found at;
http://www.census.gov/population/foreign/
Two sources of information are:
Current Population Survey Data on the Foreign-Born Population
Detailed tables on the foreign-born population in the United States from the Current Population Survey shown by a wide range of characteristics including age, sex, marital status, employment status, occupation, industry, income, earnings, poverty status, household type, size and tenure, and metropolitan status
http://www.census.gov/population/foreign/data/cps.html
American Community Survey Data on the Foreign-Born Population
Big payday loans make economic sense
Bonuses for large loans are a current trend in payday loan lending circles. As discussed in this blog, larger payday loans have a lower default rate. Offering a bonus for larger loans is equivalent to offering a lower interest rate.
Test 2
This is a second test to twitter…
Test
This is a test
Pennsylvania jury awards $62 Million to plaintiffs in wage and hour class action verdict based on damages calculations by plaintiffs’ economic experts
Braun v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et.al. 2011 PA Super 121, decided June 10, 2011
Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit in 2003 action to recover unpaid wages they earned for overtime work and missed or shortened meal and break periods. The suit asked for mandatory statutory liquidated damages under the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Act (“WPCL”) claiming that defendants failed to pay them for work they performed, failed to allow employees to take their paid, mandatory, rest breaks; and prohibited them from taking promised, paid, rest breaks.
In October 2006, a jury found for plaintiffs on their rest breaks and off-the-clock work claims and for Wal-Mart on the meal period claims. Based on plaintiffs’ expert witness reports and calculations, it found that Wal-Mart required its employees to work without pay by directing them to not record their hours on its computerized pay system, and that Wal-Mart did not have a good-faith reason for refusing to pay its employees everything they had earned. The trial court awarded damages to plaintiffs totaling $62,253,000, as calculated by plaintiffs’ expert witnesses who analyzed Wal-Mart’s business records and extrapolated this data in their calculations. Based on the experts’ findings that 98.81% of the class experienced at least one rest-break violation, the Court ordered that damages be paid as a single, statutory penalty per class member, thus the $62,253,000 total.
Wal-Mart appealed, arguing that the jury verdict was not subject to liquidated damages as mandated by the WPCL, an argument rejected outright by the Superior Court hearing the appeal, which concluded that the Appellees demonstrated a “systemic loss of contractual break time,” based on these experts’ analysis.
Contributed by: Ron Wainrib, Esq.
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