U.S. Census provides tutorial on using block level demographic data from the American Community Survey (ACS). Block level data is data at the lowest level of aggregation as opposed to a census tract, zip code, or higher. A block may be as small as a few streets in a neighborhood.
Block level data is provided only in the 5 year summary file and for certain tables. The data is quite useful for a number of business, commercial, and research purposes.
Betsy Johnson, Office Managing shareholder in the Los Angeles Office of Ogletree Deakins discusses new California wage and hour and employment legislation in a multi-part series.
AB 10: State Minimum Wage Increase: AB 10 amends section 1182.12 of the Labor Code to increase the minimum wage to $9 per hour as of July 1, 2014 and to $10 per hour as of January 1, 2016.
AB 241: Domestic Worker Bill of Rights: B 241 adds section 1450 to the Labor Code and requires that individuals in household occupations (such as nannies, housekeepers, and individuals providing care for the elderly or disabled within a household) be paid overtime compensation at a rate of 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked in excess of 9 hours per day or 45 hours per week.
AB 442: Liquidated Damages for Unpaid Wages:
SB 435: Recovery Periods: SB 435 extends requirement to pay an additional hour of pay to situations in which employers fail to provide any “recovery” periods required by Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH also known as Cal/OSHA) regulations. A “recovery” period is a cool down period afforded to employees who work outside to prevent heat illness.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Adminstration
U.S. Department of Commerce reports manufacturing wages and employment continues to rise the U.S. The new study uses a relatively new data source, the Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI), to analyze the earnings of new hires relative to incumbent workers in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing.
They find that new hires in the manufacturing sector earn more than new hires in other industries and have done particularly well since the recession began.
Highlight from the study include:
Seyfarth and Shaw attorneys, John R. Giovannone and Brandon R. McKelvey , in their blog series, The Battle After Brinker, explore the current controversy over Brinker and what it means for employers and employees in California.
They discuss Benton v. TNS decision which reversed and remanded a trial court order that had denied class certification to a large class of telecommunication workers.
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.
|
Employment: ADP Sept. Employment Report
Prices: Consumer Price Index,Sept 2013
Earnings: US BLS monthly consumer survey
U.S. BEA provides a short but comprehensive review of the components of GDP and how it is constructed.
Detailed data and the underlying micro data can be found at;
http://www.census.gov/population/foreign/
Two sources of information are:
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
Random sampling of time records is often necessary in wage and hour cases. Some employers maintain handwritten or machine produced records that are not efficiently converted to an electronic format. It is not always possible to convert these types of records in a timely and cost effective manner.
Random sampling is a tool that is frequently called upon in these situations. For instance, it is common to randomly sample a population of employees and then randomly sample a time period from that sample of employees. This type of cluster random sampling is common in these situations.
See for example: Sharon Lohr, Sampling: Design and Analysis, 2nd Edition, Brooks/Cole, 2010.
From the U.S. BEA:
Manufacturing real value added—a measure of an industry’s contribution to GDP—rose 6.2 percent in 2012, after increasing 2.5 percent in 2011. Durable-goods manufacturing, the largest contributor to overall growth in the economy for the third consecutive year, increased 9.1 percent, after increasing 6.8 percent in 2011 and 13.3 percent in 2010.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/industry/gdpindustry/2013/gdpind12_adv.htm
