Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Captive Labor Markets and Migration

May 13, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
working-mother

I cultivated an interest in talent migration via human rights advocacy. How could I get American voters to support the ratification of United Nations conventions? I settled on matters of citizenship. Non-citizens didn't enjoy the same constitutional protections as citizens. In fact, I learned that where you are located determines the force of international treaties. Geography and sovereignty impact international human rights law. Places, not people, have rights. Not all migrants fall into legal spatial loopholes such as Guantanamo. Cosmopolities above the fray hop from global city to global ... Read More

More like this: Burgh Diaspora
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws

February 10, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

The wage gap between the sexes in America has been narrowing much faster than observers ever realized, although this revelation by a pair of University of Georgia researchers isn’t as good a tiding as it could be. Jeremy Reynolds and Jeffrey Wenger, who have stumbled upon a quirk in existing survey data that could also color how we measure all types of other sociological trends, say statisticians have been as much as 50 percent off in tracking the progress of women’s wages in the work force. “But that’s only because things were worse in the past than we had realized,” Reynolds ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics, The Idea Lobby
Tags: , , , ,

Why Mexican Immigrants Can’t Get Ahead

December 22, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

An annual Christmas pilgrimage used to see perhaps millions of Mexican immigrants, documented or not, return to Mexico from the U.S. for the holidays. But that flow has slowed as the U.S. militarizes its southern border and violence back home reduces the motherland's charms. But the economic charms of working in the U.S. are paling, too. Among the so-called 99 percent of people in the United States who have not shared in the rising prosperity of recent decades, Mexican immigrants have fared worse than most. While the real wages of other groups have remained fairly stagnant since 1970, ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics
Tags: , , ,

The Cash Benefits of a Catholic Education

April 3, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Catholic high schools in the United States have long boasted a 99 percent graduation rate compared to 73 percent for public schools, and they report sending twice as many students to four-year colleges. Now, an education study from Michigan State University system's Oakland University finds there may be a substantial cash benefit for those who obtain a Catholic high school degree. On average, it shows, students who graduated in 1957 from Catholic high schools earned 18 percent higher wages in their mid-30s and mid-50s than their peers in public high schools. It's true that Catholic ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics, Education
Tags: , , , ,

Unions, Wages and the ‘Moral Economy’

March 25, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

The public sector unions fighting for their lives in Wisconsin likely have had an influence well beyond their own members. It's called the "threat effect," as when a private schoolteacher gets a wage increase because her peers in public schools are under union contract. In this way, workers who don't pay union dues are beholden to those who do. But it's not just the direct threat of unions that can make employers more generous, researchers say. A new study from Harvard University ("Unions, Norms and the Rise in American Wage Inequality") contends that unions historically have been the ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics
Tags: , , , , , ,

Are Federal Employees Overpaid?

June 15, 2010 • By • 17 Comments

From the moment the economy began to tank three years ago, frustrated workers have found productive outlet in grousing about the excessive compensation of hedge fund managers, auto execs and Wall Street CEOs. A less likely candidate for public pillory: government bureaucrats. But is it possible federal employees also make too much money? (And, come to think of it, too much of the money originally supplied by taxpayers.) Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies with the libertarian Cato Institute, has corralled data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis that gives lie to the more ... Read More

More like this: Politics, The Idea Lobby
Tags: ,

Blondes Have More Funds

May 15, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

As a (natural) blonde, I have heard my fair share of "dumb blonde" jokes, ranging from the insidious to the relatively harmless. "How do you keep a blonde busy for hours?" (Write 'Please turn over' on both sides of a piece of paper.) "What do you call a blonde behind the steering wheel of a car?" (An air bag.) The list goes on. But a new study suggests that blondes are the ones having the last laugh. Research by David W. Johnston, a postdoctoral fellow at the Queensland University of Technology, School of Economics and Finance, indicates that there is a "pretty premium" for blondes in the ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics, Culture, Findings
Tags: ,

Money Can Buy Happiness — If You’re Paid By the Hour

October 8, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

Why are Americans such workaholics? The issue has long perplexed sociologists, who have put forth various theories on why workers in the U.S. tend to put in longer hours and take shorter vacations than their counterparts in Europe. Why do so many Yanks believe earning extra income is more important than enjoying leisure time? Newly published research provides a possible answer. Americans, it turns out, are more likely to be paid by the hour than workers in most industrialized nations. And people who get paid an hourly wage are more likely to link well-being to income. In the Personality ... Read More

More like this: Culture & Society, Findings
Tags: , , ,

Furthering the Myth of Gender Equity

March 31, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

Citing 2005 income statistics for one small cohort of women and men — those in their 20s living in New York City — recent media reports have suggested that the "gender gap" is closing. This would be welcome news, were it true, but economic inequality, between genders as well as between races and ethnic groups, remains an important and continuing problem. In July of 2007, The Howard Samuels Center issued a report, "The Economic Status of Working Women in New York," which analyzes U.S. Census 2000 data and concludes that white men reap the greatest rewards in the New York economy, with ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics
Tags: , ,

Same Job, Different Pay

February 8, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

If you want to understand why income inequality is on the rise, look no further than Arthur Sakamoto’s prostate. Last year, the University of Texas sociologist was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a common disease of older men. His friends urged him to visit a prestigious cancer center in Houston, where, they argued, he would get the best possible care. While appreciating their concern, he ultimately opted to be treated at an Austin hospital. His operation was, after all, routine; there was no reason he needed to go to one of the nation’s premier health care facilities. But his ... Read More

More like this: Business & Economics
Tags: , , ,