Labor Relations Commons^™

Sabbaticals, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

With the year end upon you and many workplaces closing, reducing hours or accommodating employee vacations because of the holidays, this column focuses on rewards in the form of time away from work that is not so common -- sabbaticals. Sabbaticals are a generous benefit to those workers who have them. And they can clearly be an important part of a total rewards package. According to inc.com, while 5% of firms in the US offer sabbaticals, 25% of the companies listed in "Best Companies to Work For" offer them. Corporate sabbaticals, however, aren't typically as generous in length as those …

El Caso De Madygraf (Ex-Donnelley): Una Exploración De La Tensión Entre La Legalidad Y La Legitimidad De Las Empresas Recuperadas En Argentina / The Case Of Madygraf (Ex-Donnelley): An Exploration Of The Tension Between The Legality And The Legitimacy Of Recovered Businesses In Argentina, Maggie Joyce

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In December 2001, Argentina declared the largest economic debt default in history. Following the default, Argentina’s economy spiraled into depression and a severe economic crisis plagued the country. Unemployment skyrocketed, dollar shortages continued, and many businesses closed under financial pressures. As private business and large corporations alike shut their doors indefinitely, oftentimes under the auspices of fraudulent bankruptcies, freshly unemployed workers across the country reclaimed their right to work by occupying their workplaces and eventually putting them back into production. These businesses now under worker control are part of the empresas recuperadas, or recovered businesses, phenomenon. The fight for existence …

Five Year Strategic Plan For Economic Development: Prepared For The Town Of Winthrop, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

In the spring of 2014, the Town of Winthrop hired the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston to help develop a Strategic Plan for Economic Development. The Center’s project team began its work by carefully analyzing data in order to understand Winthrop’s current business environment, and to learn how it has changed over time. Multiple sources of information were used, including the Census Bureau’s Decennial Census, American Community Survey, and County Business Patterns, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Claritas retail leakage data. In addition, the project team distributed and …

Retention Pay, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

In many seasonal jobs, such as store clerks during the holiday shopping season, retention is about employers wanting as little employee turnover as possible during the small window they have each year to earn a big part of their profits. One way seasonal businesses might persuade workers to stay is with some sort of cash bonus paid for staying until the season's end or by paying a substantially higher wage at the very end. While the summer beach of Cape Cod may feel worlds away from the corporate office, the need to consider retention strategies for key employees is universal. …

Do Hitters Boost Their Performance During Their Contract Years?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

Each season, baseball fans and journalists alike identify which players are in the final years of their contracts because a lot rides on how the players produce in their “contract year.” Will a player boost his effort and performance in an effort to improve his value and bargaining power? Or will he crumble under the pressure? Or are players’ performances uncorrelated with where they stand in their contract cycles?

Paid Workers And Volunteers, Side By Side, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

Millions of Americans volunteer annually and, on average, volunteers are highly skilled individuals. With unpaid volunteers working alongside W2-paid employees, sometimes it is difficult in a workplace to distinguish one from the other. Motivations for volunteering are many and the author does not intend to fully explore the myriad reasons identified by social scientists for this behavior, including to gain experience, create a path to a paid job, offer service to others or gain personal recognition. An interesting study of volunteerism is Richard Freeman's Working for Nothing: The Supply of Volunteer Labor. Using data from a unique survey, Freeman showed …

Pay, Corporate Location And Donations To Charity, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

State and local governments direct a great deal of effort (and resources) toward incenting companies to locate in their particular jurisdictions. The cited reasons for this effort are often the increase in jobs and boost to the local tax base. In "The Geography of Giving: The Effect of Corporate Headquarters on Local Charities", David Card, Enrico Moretti and the author investigated a number of issues related to the geographical location of corporate headquarters and charitable giving. It turns out that location does matter and the movement of highly paid employees does, too. There are at least two main channels through …

Paying To Put Out Fires, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

There is surprisingly little academic work on the compensation of firefighters. This may be, in part, because their wages are often set by collective bargaining agreements and that those paid as firefighters are regularly paid by seniority. But many aspects of the labor market can still be studied through this interesting occupation, including labor unions, compensation for job risk and even volunteerism. Consider the mountains of papers on Fortune 500 CEOs relative to the number (500) of employees doing this job in the US. In contrast, consider the tiny number of papers on firefighters relative to the large numbers who …

Major League Baseball's Antitrust Exemption And The Impact Of The Curt Flood Act, Gina Scalzo

Senior Honors Theses

For many years, professional baseball has enjoyed a privileged antitrust exemption apart from other professional sports. With the passing of the Curt Flood Act in 1998 this exemption was removed; however, the act may not be as influential as it seems. Court rulings were prominent in initiating and maintaining the antitrust exemption for professional baseball. These include the Supreme Court Trilogy, especially the case of Curt Flood, a baseball player who fought against the reserve clause system which limited his and other players’ employment options. Collective bargaining as well as arbitration became dominant in professional baseball labor relations under the …

Massachusetts Education Partnership: Policy, Leadership, Labor-Management Collaboration, Nancy Peace, John W. Mccormack Graduate School Of Policy And Global Studies, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Edward J. Collins, Jr., Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Massachusetts Education Partnership (MEP) is a collaborative endeavor on the part of four education-related organizations representing teachers, superintendents, and school committees and four research institutions. By working together, the Partnership aims to improve student achievement through labor-management collaboration and to foster the development of collaborative cultures in Massachusetts school districts. As of March 1, 2014, the MEP has trained labor and management leaders from 34 school districts in interest-based bargaining (IBB) and provided intensive facilitation to seven school districts where labor and management are working collaboratively on a program or issue of their choosing.

What Have You Done For Me Lately?, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

The author considers the question of whether some occupations or pay plans can create incentives to strategically time employees' best performance and what problems that might create. There certainly is plenty of evidence across a set of industries that the timing of performance can have real effects on the compensation of employees. To the extent that this gives employees (athletes, salespeople, executives, and others) incentives to shift the timing of effort in ways that may not be in the best interests of the employer, shareholders, and other constituents is certainly something worth thinking about if you want to better curb …

Research Brief: "Unemployment, Earnings, And Enrollment Among Post 9/11 Veterans", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study found that Afghanistan/Iraq era veterans have a higher likelihood of unemployment than non-veterans, with female veterans faring worse than their male counterparts. In practice, female veterans of the post-9/11 era suffer from higher absolute levels of unemployment than male veterans, as well as also experiencing a higher unemployment penalty from their service relative to their civilian counterparts than male veterans do. In policy, policymakers may wish to determine ways to increase utilization of GI Bill benefits among disadvantaged populations to increase their long-term employment and earnings. Suggestions for future study include considering the surge of female veterans, and …

Titles As Compensation, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

Wages and salaries are just part of total rewards. Insurance, vacation time, bonuses, and working conditions are other important forms of compensation. Each of these costs the organization something. But there are other attributes of jobs -- less easily measured in dollars -- that employees value. These can include colleagues, company reputation, and even job titles. At the margin it is possible to imagine a tradeoff between a higher salary and a job title. In fact, some have argued that some firms offer titles in absence of raises where salary budgets are slim. When thinking about job titles as a …

Statedata: The National Report On Employment Services And Outcomes, 2014, John Butterworth, Jean Winsor, Frank A. Smith, Alberto Migliore, Daria Domin, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Allison Cohen Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This report provides statistics over 25 years from several national datasets that address the status of employment and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The authors use abbreviations for both intellectual disability (ID) and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in this report. We do this because data sources vary in the specific target groups that can be described.

We provide a comprehensive overview that describes national trends in employment for people with IDD, and the appendices provide individual state profiles with data from several sources. These include the ICI’s IDD Agency National Survey of Day and Employment …

Data Note: State Intellectual And Developmental Disability Agencies' Service Trends, Jean Winsor

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

In FY2012, an estimated 605,680 individuals received day or employment supports from state IDD program agencies. This number grew from 457,405 in FY1999. The estimated number of individuals in integrated employment services increased from 108,680 in FY1999 to 111,670 in FY2012. State investment continues to emphasize facility-based and non-work services, rather than integrated employment services.

Data Note: Are Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Getting Work Experiences From Participating In The Vocational Rehabilitation Program?, Alberto Migliore, Jean Winsor

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

To learn about whether young adults with intellectual disabilities in the vocational rehabilitation (VR) program are getting work experience, we examined the age at application of people with intellectual disabilities who exited the VR program in 2012.