Employment Status, Benefits, and Job Quality

2018-06-28 12:25 pm

Measuring Mobility Toolkit > Measure Selector > Employment Status, Benefits, and Job Quality

Employment Status, Benefits, and Job Quality

Factor: Economic Success

Age: Adult

Duration: Less than 3 minutes

Reading Level: Less than 6th grade

What

These 12 items are used to assess: whether individuals are working for pay; whether they receive non-wage compensation, such as employer-sponsored health insurance and pension plans; and other dimensions of job quality, such as overtime schedules and paid time off.

Who

The adult(s) in a household.

How

INSTRUCTIONS

These questions are administered by an interviewer.

RESPONSE FORMAT

These questions are administered verbally by an interviewer. The questions have different answer formats and can be used individually.

All Survey Questions

Employment Status

The next few questions ask about your employment.

1. Are you currently working for pay or self-employed?

If yes, then ask,

2. Are you employed by government, by a private company, by a nonprofit organization, or self-employed?

3. Do you have more than one job including part time, evening, or weekend work? Do not include unpaid or volunteer work.

4. How many hours per week do you usually work at your [main] job?

5. How many hours per week do you usually work at all of your other jobs?

Job Features

Regular Hours/Shifts

6. How many employers did you/he/she work for during a typical week?

7. How many hours per day/days per week did you/he/she work that week for each of your/his/her employers?

8. Which days per week? What time did you/he/she begin work most days? What time did you/he/she end work most days?

9. Which of the following best describes your/his/her work schedule at this job?

10. Do you work for pay for as many hours as you would like?

11. How much do each of the following impact your ability to work for pay or work as much as you would like?

Child care responsibilities

Caretaking responsibilities for someone other than a child (such as a parent, spouse or partner, or other adult family member or friend)

Health problems of your own

Difficulty arranging transportation to or from work

Employer’s restrictions on how many hours you work

Employer sets or schedules the times or shifts that you work

Non-wage Benefits

12. Thinking about your main job, does your employer offer you each of the following benefits, even if you do not personally use the benefit?

Why It Matters

Common paths to mobility are employment and increasing hours at work, depending on prospects for advancement and family circumstances. But even jobs with similar pay vary in quality and prospects for advancement. Conventional job quality indicators include non-wage compensation (e.g., employer-sponsored health insurance), paid time off, and work schedules.

HEADS UP

Even if certain benefits are available to a worker, that worker may not be able to use them. For example, a worker may decline employer-sponsored health insurance because the cost-share for premiums is too high. In addition, survey respondents may misreport some information. Also, proxy respondents may not know all the details of other household members’ jobs.

SEE ALSO

Income and Income Sources

Earnings

References

Employment Status

Items adapted from:

U.S. Census Bureau (2015). Current Population Survey Interviewing Manual. Retrieved from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/methodology/intman/CPS_Manual_April2015.pdf.

For more information on the Current Population Survey see: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/about.html

Job Features

Regular Hours/Shifts

Items adapted from:

U.S. Census (2008). Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) 2008 Panel Wave 5 – Topical Module Microdata File. Retreived from https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/programs-surveys/sipp/tech-documentation/complete-documents/2008/SIPP%202008%20Panel%20Wave%2005%20-%20Topical%20Module.pdf

Federal Reserve Board of Governors (2016). Codebook for 2016 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking. Retrieved from https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/files/shed_2016codebook.pdf

For more information on the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking see: https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/shed.htm

Non-wage Benefits

For more information on the Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking see: https://www.federalreserve.gov/consumerscommunities/shed.htm