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Hourly Wage (hourly + wage)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Intersectoral Labor Mobility and the Growth of the Service Sector

ECONOMETRICA, Issue 1 2006
Donghoon Lee
One of the most striking changes in the U.S. economy over the past 50 years has been the growth in the service sector. Between 1950 and 2000, service-sector employment grew from 57 to 75 percent of total employment. However, over this time, the real hourly wage in the service sector grew only slightly faster than in the goods sector. In this paper, we assess whether or not the essential constancy of the relative wage implies that individuals face small costs of switching sectors, and we quantify the relative importance of labor supply and demand factors in the growth of the service sector. We specify and estimate a two-sector labor market equilibrium model that allows us to address these empirical issues in a unified framework. Our estimates imply that there are large mobility costs: output in both sectors would have been double their current levels if these mobility costs had been zero. In addition, we find that demand-side factors, that is, technological change and movements in product and capital prices, were responsible for the growth of the service sector. [source]

Use of Commercial Sex Workers Among Hispanic Migrants In North Carolina: Implications for the Spread of HIV

PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 4 2004
Emilio A. Parrado
CONTEXT: Rates of HIV and AIDS have risen among U.S. Hispanics and in migrant-sending regions of Mexico and Central America, pointing to a link between migration and HIV. However, little is known about male migrants' sexual risk behaviors, such as the use of commercial sex workers. METHODS: The prevalence and frequency of commercial sex worker use was examined among 442 randomly selected Hispanic migrants in Durham, North Carolina. Logistic and Poisson regression techniques were used to model predictors of commercial sex worker use, and descriptive data on condom use with commercial sex workers were examined. RESULTS: Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported using the services of a commercial sex worker during the previous year; rates reached 46% among single men and 40% among married men living apart from their wives. Men with spouses in Durham were less likely than other men to use commercial sex workers (odds ratio, 0.1). Among men who used commercial sex workers, the frequency of visits declined with greater education (incidence rate ratio, 0.9) and increased with hourly wage (1.1). Frequency and use declined with years of residence, although the results were of borderline significance. Reported rates of condom use with commercial sex workers were high, but were likely to fall if familiarity with a commercial sex worker increased. CONCLUSIONS: Commercial sex workers represent an important potential source of HIV infection. Educational and behavioral interventions that take into account social context and target the most vulnerable migrants are needed to help migrants and their partners avoid HIV infection. [source]

The influence of sociodemographic characteristics on agreement between self-reports and expert exposure assessments,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 10 2010
Grace Sembajwe ScD
Abstract Background Often in exposure assessment for epidemiology, there are no highly accurate exposure data and different measurement methods are considered. The objective of this study was to use various statistical techniques to explore agreement between individual reports and expert ratings of workplace exposures in several industries and investigate the sociodemographic influences on this agreement. Methods A cohort of 1,282 employees at 4 industries/14 worksites answered questions on workplace physical, chemical, and psychosocial exposures over the past 12 months. Occupational hygienists constructed job exposure matrices (JEMs) based on worksite walkthrough exposure evaluations. Worker self-reports were compared with the JEMs using multivariable analyses to explore discord. Results There was poor agreement between the self-reported and expert exposure assessments, but there was evidence that agreement was modified by sociodemographic characteristics. Several characteristics including gender, age, race/ethnicity, hourly wage and nativity strongly affected the degree of discord between self-reports and expert raters across a wide array of different exposures. Conclusions Agreement between exposure assessment tools may be affected by sociodemographic characteristics. This study is cross-sectional and therefore, a snapshot of potential exposures in the workplace. Nevertheless, future studies should take into account the social contexts within which workplace exposures occur. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:1019,1031, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Immigration Policy and Employment Conditions of US Immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic1

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2005
Katharine M. Donato
ABSTRACT Prior studies suggest that the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986 signalled a deterioration in the labour market conditions of Mexican migrants. In this paper, we examine whether and how labour market conditions worsened for Dominicans and Nicaraguans after 1986, and the extent to which these shifts were comparable to those experienced by Mexicans. Our analysis relies on a new source of data that offers comparable data across the three national origins. We estimate multivariate models that capture the effects of demographic attributes, human and social capital, migration-specific human and social capital, legal status, period of trip, national origin, and other controls on the hourly wages earned by household heads and whether they received cash wages on their last US trip. Models with interaction terms reveal significant pre- and post-1986 wage effects, but few differences in these effects between Mexicans and Dominicans or Nicaraguans. In contrast, group differences appear in the risk of cash receipt of wages. Dominicans and Nicaraguans experienced a greater increase in this risk relative to Mexicans pre- and post-1986. Together, these findings depict a broader, negative impact of IRCA on Latino migrant wages than has been documented elsewhere. [source]