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Negative labor cost variance (NLCV) is an important problem in many manufacturing companies today. NLCV refers to the situation that expected or standard costs are less than actual labor costs in production. Management of NLCV, including the identification of causes for NLCV and the elimination or significant reduction of NLCV, is the topic discussed in this paper. The question studied in this paper is thus: what is an effective methodology in the environment of strong privacy protection to identify causes for NLCV and to significantly reduce it ? The study presented in this paper proposed a methodology by combining a simple motion measurement (stopwatch), lean analysis techniques, and historical data review to study the NLCV problem. A case study was taken on a particular company called ABC to test the effectiveness of this methodology. Specifically, the result of the study revealed that (1) the employees in ABC waited for one reason or the other for almost 5 h (idle time) in a 16-h daily operation period (2 shifts running at 8 h each), which accounts for 32% of the total productive time, and (2) the elimination of the waiting time or idle time over the years concerned could account for 83% of all identified wastes in ABC. Through this case study, the effectiveness of the proposed methodology was demonstrated and the applicability of the proposed methodology was also implied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In India, mental health rehabilitation centers run income generation programs (IGP) for therapeutic engagement, skills training, and income generation of clients. The centers have evolved IGP models relevant to their settings. There is a paucity of published literature on practices employed by the centers. Methods: This paper compiles data gathered from visits to 13 centers between November 2018 and April 2019. Information was collected through observation and interviews with staff involved in IGP, using a semi-structured pro forma designed for study. Results: Most centers were based in south India (n = 11) and urban areas (n = 12). Each center ran two to seven IGP. Each center involved 20–50 clients in IGP. Clients involved in IGP were aged 20–60 years. The centers ran a range of IGP, including the manufacturing of household consumables, paper products, textile products, handicraft products, food products, and jute products; animal husbandry and horticulture initiatives; and running cafeterias and petty shops. IGP were mostly selected based on market demand and sales value of products (n = 11); ease of doing (n = 5); interests, abilities, exposure, and experience of clients (n = 5); and availability of resources (n = 3). Products were priced primarily to cover input and labor costs (n = 8), and many centers sold products below the market rates (n = 5). Running stalls during public events was a common strategy for the sale of products (n = 9). Personal contacts and "word of mouth" publicity were used for advertisement (n = 6). Four centers involved family members in IGP. Conclusion: The nature of IGP varied in terms of setting, available resources, and profile of clients availing the services. Marketing and sales were a challenge. A supportive framework of policies and schemes is essential to promote IGP at mental health rehabilitation centers. This report may be helpful for professionals and centers planning to set up an IGP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the association between aggressive tax planning and labor investment efficiency among U.S. firms. Labor is an important input to production that is material to many firms, and prior research suggests that inefficient labor investments can negatively affect future profitability and growth. We provide evidence that firms engaging in aggressive tax planning are associated with deviations from expected labor investments, which is indicative of labor investment inefficiency. We find that our results are concentrated in labor underinvestment, consistent with risks and uncertainties from aggressive tax planning making firms more cautious when investing. Our findings are strongest among firms with greater tax risk, higher labor costs, and weaker corporate governance. Our study contributes to the literature examining tax planning consequences by providing evidence that a tradeoff exists between aggressive tax planning and investments in labor. Therefore, our results suggest that managers should carefully consider the cash flow benefits of tax planning in conjunction with the potential effects of lower labor investments to ensure that the overall long-term effect of the tax strategy is value-increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of linkages between the industrial relations systems of Canada and the United States is hypothesized to depend on the strength of U.S. unions, which cover a majority of Canadian union members, and on the process of social comparison, which extends U.S. wage contours into Canada. A regression analysis, using data for Canadian manufacturing industries from 1957 to 1969, demonstrates the influence of wage changes in U.S. industries on wage movements in Canada. The paper concludes with an examination of the implications of wage linkages with the United States for economic stabilization policy in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor-force withdrawal programs such as government-subsidized early retirement programs are an important unemployment policy instrument in some European countries. Most economists, however, have expressed doubts concerning these programs' efficacy in combating unemployment, in part because they cause a reduction in effective labor supply, which in turn places undue upward pressure on the wage level. This paper analyzes the wage pressure effects of the early retirement program in France in 1984-86. In contrast to most existing studies of such programs, which have analyzed aggregate labor markets based on the country as the unit of observation, the empirical analysis in this paper employs a partial equilibrium framework and uses less aggregated, sectoral data. The findings suggest, consistent with results from most of the aggregate labor market studies, that the early retirement program had a slight positive impact on wage pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relation between relative prices and the income distribution by examining variations in output and prices occurred over thirty-three US business cycles from 1857 to 2009. Using a broad database, the author shows that average relative prices in twenty-seven industries of the US economy presented a remarkably smaller variation than the corresponding variation in output levels, profits and wages. These time-series results, although not conclusive, may provide additional empirical evidence of the Ricardian claim that even relative market prices in an industrial economy are strongly dominated by the correspondent integrated unit labor costs and that changes along a wage-profit schedule will play only a secondary role in their determination. JEL classifications: E11, E32 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the concept of polarity in global value chains, we explore how the nature of the governance of a global value chain can evolve and how contingencies can reshape governance arrangements. A case-study of the New Zealand fishing industry highlights how parties inside and outside the global value chain came to contest labour standards, laying the base for credible regulation. In 2011 through a series of convergent events, migrant crew on board South Korean fishing vessels, hitherto exploited, abused and isolated, emerged as a significant actor to bring about a clear transition in the governance of a multipolar global value chain. In this paper, we analyse the series of events which led to regulatory change and consider whether the dynamics from the case offer lessons for improving labour standards and regulation in global value chains more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between education and employer-provided training, both on-the-job and off-the-job, using a unique dataset drawn from a survey of Thai employees conducted in the summer of 2001. The authors find a negative and statistically significant relationship between educational attainment and on-the-job training (OJT) and a positive and statistically significant relationship between education and off-the-job training. Since the marginal monetary returns to OJT increase with education, the negative relationship between education and OJT suggests that the marginal costs of OJT are higher for the better educated, perhaps because the opportunity costs of the time spent receiving OJT increase with educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers empirical evidence on the impact of trade unions on wage inequality in Mexico. The results indicate that unions were a strongly equalizing force affecting the dispersion of wages in 1984, but were only half as effective at reducing wage inequality in 1996. Not only did the unionized percentage of the labor force fall considerably over the period, unions also lost some of their ability to reduce wage dispersion among the workers they continued to represent. Had unions maintained in 1996 the same structural power they possessed in 1984, the rise in wage inequality in the formal sector of the labor market between those years would have been reduced by roughly 11%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The particle size composition of sinter plays a decisive role in the output and energy consumption of blast furnace ironmaking. To reduce energy consumption and achieve efficient production, accurate measurement of sinter particle size and distribution has become an important issue. Due to the problems of adhesion, large size difference and edge effect in sinter image, the traditional image segmentation algorithm makes it difficult to effectively separate sinter. This paper proposes an intelligent recognition method of sinter particle size based on an improved BlendMask instance segmentation algorithm. Bidirectional feature pyramid network is used to replace the feature pyramid network structure (FPN), and the attention mechanism Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) is introduced to improve the ability to extract shallow features and enhance the ability to identify adherent sinter. The test results show that the average detection accuracy mean average precision (mAP) of the model proposed in this article is 71.0%, and the mAP50 is 93.8%. The average segmentation accuracy mAP is 68.0% and mAP50 is 93.8%. The identified sinter images were then edge-refined using morphological methods to collect statistics on the particle size distribution of the sinter. Compared with the actual measured sinter particle size, the average relative error is 4.9%. This method can accurately identify sinter in complex environments, improve the production efficiency of sinter, optimise resource utilisation and reduce personnel costs and has important application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies of the effect of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act on employee earnings have reported mixed results: some have found no negative long-run effect of deregulation and others have found a negative effect of up to 10%. Most of these studies relied on cross-sectional analysis of a few years' data. This paper, in contrast, examines the long- term trends in airline earnings, based on 34 years of newly collected firm-level data from the Department of Transportation's Form 41 and airline workers' unions. The author finds that although deregulation had no statistically significant effect on the earnings of mechanics, it strongly affected the earnings of flight attendants and pilots. Flight attendants' earnings were at least 12% lower by 1985 and 39% lower by 1992 than they would have been if deregulation had not occurred, and the corresponding shortfalls for pilots were 12% and 22%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using Current Population Survey data for the years 1973-86, this study tests the hypothesis that the steep decline of union employment shares since 1973 is related to increases in union wages relative to nonunion wages. The authors show that although the aggregate union wage premium has changed little since 1973, some industry-specific premiums have risen substantially, and the industries with the rising premiums are those experiencing declines in union employment shares. The increase in the premium explains from 21% to 64% of the decline in union shares depending on the equation specification. The paper also presents a detailed set of union wage premiums and employment shares for the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a scheme that forecasts the change in net earnings or in hours worked that results from the introduction of a negative income tax (NIT) program. The authors illustrate this scheme by estimating labor supply functions for married men, married women, and single women who participated in the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiments. These functions are then used to simulate the effects of several NIT programs. The findings suggest that changes in the wage rate of an individual covered by an NIT program result in important changes in the hours of work of the individual's spouse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of unionism on the pension benefits workers expect to receive on retirement. The valuation of future benefits by workers, rather than actual employer expenditures on pensions, is examined because expected benefits should be the more important variable in explaining the labor market behavior of individual workers. Analysis of data for middle-aged men, taken from the National Longitudinal Surveys, suggests that union workers are more knowledgeable than nonunion workers about their retirement benefits, and also the average union worker expects to receive a pension higher than that expected by the average nonunion worker. More specifically, among firms providing pensions, the expected benefits are actually lower in union firms than in nonunion firms, but that difference is outweighed by the fact that nonunion firms are much more likely than union firms to have no pension plan at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence that a trade-off exists between wages and certain characteristics of retirement systems in the public sector. Cross-section econometric estimates for uniformed municipal employees, based upon data from two national surveys of municipalities, suggest that, other things equal, an increase in the contribution made by uniformed employees to their retirement system leads to a compensating increase in their salaries, while retirement systems with more "generous" characteristics are associated to some extent with lower salaries. The estimates also indicate that the extent of retirement system underfunding is related to employers' and employees' perceptions of the probability that promised retirement benefits will not be fully paid and that these perceptions too are reflected in compensating wage differentials. The author concludes that pension reform legislation in the public sector will be likely to have an impact on public sector wages and, therefore, careful consideration should be given to the design of such legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reexamines the changes in wages, unemployment, and prices in the post-World War II period .and considers the effects of unions on the relation between, wages and unemployment. Using a simple, linear model to predict changes in wages, from changes in unemployment rates, the author, shows that quarterly data and observations are more desirable than annual data, that average hourly earnings are more reliable wage 'measures than wage rates, and that during the Korean War period the Wage Stabilization Program reduced the closeness of the relationship between wage changes and unemployment rates. Evidence based upon a comparison of union wage rates mad of average hourly earnings of nonunion and union workers indicates that, in response to unemployment changes, the wage behavior of union labor markets can be distinguished from the wage response of non-union markets. The speed of adjustment of the market to Variations in unemployment is reduced and' a more erratic pattern of wage responses to changes in unemployment is introduced, presumably through non-economic forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the research paper by professor Harold Vatter published in an issue of the journal "Industrial and Labor Relations Review" which argues that three neglected influences on hours of work have impaired the conceptual validity of the short-run, backward-sloping supply curve of labor, at least for operationally significant wage levels in the U.S. economy. Overtime rates implies a much weaker income effect than straight-time rates, therefore the willingness to work longer hours for an overtime premium is perfectly consistent with a preference for shorter hours at higher straight-time rates.

The paper examines the wage determination techniques of the industrial engineer from the point of view of economic theory. In these techniques, the industrial engineer is concerned with the practical problems of a rational wage structure and wage incentives. The author hopes to reveal some of the limitations of the techniques. The engineer has approached the wage problem with engineering methods and has sought a solution by constant refinement of the methods. These problems include: how justly to divide the savings resulting from greater output; how to place a fair value on a worker's invention; and how to relate wage administration techniques to the general wage level.

Local government mergers, motivated by promises of cost savings via economies of scale (EoS) and reduced duplication of function, often fail to produce the anticipated savings. An inability or unwillingness to reduce personnel costs is often offered as a reason for this outcome. We explore this explanation by estimating the expenditure effects of court mergers in California. Our main result is that current judicial spending (total expenditures minus capital expenditures) increases significantly following consolidation. This is partially explained by a sustained increase in salaries paid to full-time workers. The number of workers increases in the years immediately following merger however over the long-term merger has no effect on employment levels, suggesting that mergers change the composition of the workforce. These findings have implications for all local governments that provide labor-intensive services, if mergers are to reduce expenditures officials must be willing to make difficult personnel decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, China's "Northwest Highway" was a major conduit for Soviet equipment to support the war effort against Japan. This article investigates the building and operation of the portion of this new motor route in Gansu province. While the Northwest Highway was a remarkable achievement in long-distance motorized logistics—and later became a lever for Nationalist state-building in the region—it came at a heavy cost in energy and labor and negatively impacted state–society relations. This article uncovers the multiple layers of energy inputs involved in the construction and operation of the highway, from organic human and animal power to the colossal fossil fuel demands of truck transportation. Many of these costs were imposed on civilian society in Gansu through corvée labor and requisitioning. To compound these burdens, this article argues, the Northwest Highway brought few positive spillover effects because of restrictions on civilian road use and the limitations of Gansu's wider transportation infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses the impact of disability on labor supply. The importance of ill health and disability on labor supply has been discussed. The author stresses that the appearance of bias in the first stage of the statistical model concerning how an individual view his disability is small in magnitude. This model is used as a separator of the decision to enter the labor force from the decision regarding the amount of labor supplied after the worker is in the labor force. The measurement of welfare payments and nonwage income is referred to the family unit.

We examine how labor-friendly institutional features (i.e., laborism) relate to corporate investment efficiency in labor in a sample of firms from 33 countries over 1996–2012. We consider three dimensions of laborism—the presence of a left-leaning government, rigidity of employee protection laws, and collectivist culture. Our evidence shows that firms operating in stronger laborism countries make less efficient labor investment decisions, which is consistent with higher labor adjustment costs associated with laborism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, both wages and labor supply of poorly educated men fell substantially relative to those of educated men. Some observers have interpreted this positive association between changes in wages and labor supply as reflecting movement along stable labor supply curves. The author casts doubt on this interpretation by showing that the wage elasticity necessary to account, by itself, for the observed labor supply decline would greatly exceed elasticity levels typically found in prior studies. Analysis of Census data shows little relationship between changes in relative wages at the state level and changes in male labor supply. Also, panel data analysis shows no strong correlation between long-run changes in individual hours and wages. The small implied labor supply elasticities suggest that very little of the labor supply changes of men during the 1980s can be related to changes in relative wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicates that young Mexican women and young black women earned, respectively, 9.5% and 13.2% less than young white women in 1994. Differences in education appear to be the most important explanation for the Mexican-white wage gap, whereas differences in labor force attachment are the most important determinant of the black-white wage gap. The authors show that accounting for actual labor market experience, rather than simply imputing experience based on years since leaving school, is crucially important in such analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind turbine cost models can become obsolete due a number of factors such as changes in manufacturing techniques and the price of raw materials. This paper illustrates that, in order to keep the models current, the Producer Price Index (PPI) should be included to escalate and deescalate the costs of producing wind turbine components. The PPI is incorporated into a popular cost and scaling model developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) by using the weighted averages of the PPI for each of the components of the turbine. A single PPI for the entire turbine is calculated which can be used to escalate the costs of the NREL model. The "wind turbine PPI " is then calculated for each year starting in 2002 and ending in 2010. The resulting updated turbine costs are inflated to 2010 US dollars and compared to wind turbine prices in the United States, as reported by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). It is shown that the PPI is able to simultaneously predict the net effects of labor costs, materials prices and energy prices. The results can be used to escalate the costs stated in the NREL model or to update the costs of similar turbines across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a study which explored the causal relationship between unionism and wages. Using simultaneous equation techniques, both the effect of unions on wages in the short run and the effect of unions on wages in the long run are examined. Wages in the short run control the reverse effect of wages on unionism, while wages in the long run allow the changes in production technique and skill mix induced by the short-run wage effect. In contrast to previous literature using similar techniques, the study concludes that unions have a significant wage effect in both the short and long run.

For nearly all call centers, agent schedules are typically created several days or weeks before the time that agents report to work. After schedules are created, call center resource managers receive additional information that can affect forecasted workload and resource availability. In particular, there is significant evidence, both among practitioners and in the research literature, suggesting that actual call arrival volumes early in a scheduling period (typically an individual day or week) can provide valuable information about the call arrival pattern later in the same scheduling period. In this paper, we develop a flexible and powerful heuristic framework for managers to make intra-day resource adjustment decisions that take into account updated call forecasts, updated agent requirements, existing agent schedules, agents' schedule flexibility, and associated incremental labor costs. We demonstrate the value of this methodology in managing the trade-off between labor costs and service levels to best meet variable rates of demand for service, using data from an actual call center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information technology has brought gains in productivity and market share in every field of industry. We are now living in the age of information. Mining operations are complex and they are composed by a group of physical, mechanical and logistical activities offering a vast field for development of automation and information technology. The opportunities exist for the Indian mining industry to undertake business process re-engineering through information technology (IT). The scenario presented in this paper is only an illustration of the possibilities that can be achieved through the implementation of information technology for the Indian mining industry. Information technology will drive continuing improvements in efficiency and reduction in the cost of coal extraction in India. Health and safety concerns will further encourage automation and technological developments among Indian coal mining companies to reduce labour costs and the cost of meeting increasingly stringent environmental requirements, and to improve productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tendency of acquiring information systems and other high technology services from international suppliers continues at unprecedented levels. The primary motivation for the offshore sourcing of technology and services continues to be labor cost arbitrage, and secondly, access to higher levels of expertise. Yet paradoxically, large gaps in technical proficiency, cultural values, and communication styles between client and vendor can undermine the overall success of the offshore relationship. This paper argues that a new breed of entities have emerged, brokering or intermediating offshore relations. The capabilities of such ‘middlemen’ include moderating disparities in expertise, culture, and communication styles that often deteriorate performance in offshore relationships. The paper presents a preliminary theoretical justification for the emergence of offshore intermediaries, describes how and why they develop boundary spanning capabilities, and offers a case study as initial evidence substantiating the function and processes in intermediating transnational offshoring relationships. Our theory development concludes with propositions concerning four major offshore intermediary capabilities: (i) intermediating cultural distance, (ii) intermediating cognitive distance, (iii) pre-contractual preparation and negotiation, and (iv) post-contractual operational management.Journal of Information Technology (2008) 23, 18–30. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jit.2000124 Published online 29 January 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's reply to a comment made by professor Edward Saraydar regarding his article "Wage Negotiation and Bargaining Power," published in the January 1968 issue of the periodical "Industrial and Labor Relations Review." The author says that the principal object of his article was to pursue the hypotheses that the subjective probabilities of the bargainers in the U.S. are functions of their bargaining powers. Furthermore, he states that bargaining powers are in turn functions of the utilities of their respective current demands and offers.

In this article the major hypotheses which have been advanced to explain the movement of interindustry earnings differentials are tested in terms of the Canadian wage structure, which has been largely ignored in the extensive literature on this subject. The author concludes that Canadian interindustry differentials have widened since 1949 and that for the entire 1945-1956 period, the most important determinants of relative wage changes among industries were the original level of earnings and changes in employment. She also examines the effect or the wage structure of unionism, productivity changes, and other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis, advanced by Dunlop, Garbarino, and others, that interindustry differences in output per man-hour may be significant in explaining observed differences among industries in levels of average hourly earnings is subjected to further statistical exploration in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between domestic labor and wage labor by estimating the relative influence of hours spent in domestic labor (e.g., housework and child care) on women's and men's wages. It is hypothesized that involvement in domestic activities negatively affects wages and is likely to be an important factor in explaining women's lower wages relative to men. Findings from OLS regression analyses of white, currently employed, currently married women and men indicate that domestic labor time significantly decreases both sexes' wages. In order to assess whether this relationship differs by class, the sex-specific earnings equations also are estimated within the working class and the non-working class. The negative effect of domestic labor time on both sexes' income persists in the within-class analyses. Working-class men are more vulnerable to the detrimental influence of domestic production. Unexpectedly, housework and child care time decreases non-working- class women's wages more so than working-class women's wages. It is noted that these findings should be interpreted with caution due to the cross-sectional nature of the data which precludes an unequivocal assessment of potential nonrecursivity in the linkages among key variables in the model. Overall, the findings imply that a more equitable distribution of work in the home is necessary before labor, market inequalities between the sexes can be ameliorated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on news and developments concerning the labor sector in the United States. The year 1986 has been one of decisions for the committee. At the annual meeting in Piney Point, Md., the committee adopted a model budget for the four regional summer schools. The budget lists variable costs, such as room and board, and fixed costs, such as brochures. Also listed is the payment of room and board for instructors by each regional school, which is part of the standardization of specific areas. Further discussion centered on having UCLEA act as the fiscal agent. Questions were raised because many of the member institutions take different approaches to finances, but support of the idea was given. The continued success! of summer schools can be attributed to the hard work of the committee, cooperation and support from the AFL-CIO and other national labor leaders, and, of course, the support of UCLEA and program directors as a whole. This work has led the United Paper- workers International Union to allot funds for 10 scholarships per region for UPIU members. Moving into 1987, the committee is looking forward to the completion of several projects and the beginning of more new, innovative, and timely projects.

This article presents the author's response to a criticism on his article about the wage rate of railroad workers. According to the author the criticism on his article contains many internal inconsistencies and distortions. The author said that the comparisons made in money wage rates of railroad workers with nonrailroad workers, was based on average gross hourly earnings and not on any basis of money wage rates. The author claimed that he did not deny the importance of factors such as the wage stabilization program and de facto compulsory arbitration as indicated in the criticism. The author denied that he represent the dilatory procedures of the Railway Labor Act as generally beneficial but only incidentally so, as on occasion they permitted wage movements to crystallize outside industry before application to the railroads.

Industry trends such as product customization, radical innovation, and local production accelerate the adoption of mixed‐model assembly lines (MMALs) that can cope with a widening gap between model processing times and true build to order capabilitiy. The existing high work content deviations on such assembly lines stress production planning, especially the assembly line sequencing. Most manufacturers set the launching rate for all assembly line products to a fixed launching rate resulting in rising utility work and idle time when system load increases. We present an "ideal" variable rate launching (VRL) case resulting in minimal computation and achieving 100% productivity (full elimination of idle time and utility work) for balanced assembly times and homogeneous station lengths. Managers should foster the ideal circumstances where operators need not wait for a preceding task to be completed and product sequence restrictions are eliminated, thus enabling unmatched production flexibility. Furthermore, we present a mixed‐integer model to analyze both closed and open workstations on an MMAL for fixed rate launching and VRL. This model incorporates costs not only for labor inefficiencies but also for extending the line length. We present a heuristic solution method when process times and station lengths are heterogeneous and demonstrate that the variable takt dominates the fixed takt. In a numerical, industrial benchmark study, we illustrate that a VRL strategy with open stations has significantly lower labor costs as well as a substantially reduced total line length and thus lower throughput time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although migrants dominate employment in many major cities, the reasons for this, and the mechanisms by which they are recruited, are surprisingly under-researched. Focusing on the numerically dominant small hotel sub-sector in a global city, London, the paper first questions whether labour costs or competences are the main drivers of migrant employment, emphasising the difficulties of disentangling the relationships between these. Secondly, it analyses how migrant workers are recruited, and finds less evidence to support the concepts of ethnic queuing and co-ethnic recruitment as opposed to diversified migrant recruitment in the context of the super-diversity of migrant populations in a global city. Finally, it demonstrates that although there are compelling reasons for migrant employment in London’s small hotels, and that this is supported by a number of recruitment practices, they are unevenly distributed across establishments, reflecting the complex nature of migrant employment in a highly diverse sub-sector. The research utilises mixed methods, drawing on a survey of 155 hotel managers and 51 in-depth interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents ongoing studies about politics, government and industrial relations as of April 1984. The development of incomes policy and strategy by the Canadian Labour Congress is being examined by Heather McAllister. Frank Reid is assessing the impact of the 1982-83 wage-control programs in Canada on public sector wage settlements. David Levine and Guido Tabellini are working on a thesis, "The Formation of Expectations and Central Bank Behavior," which deals with the role of the unionized sector in the inflation process.

This article presents the author's reaction to Professor Ernest H. Weinwurm's criticism of his paper about wage incentives. The author's purpose is to direct attention to the overlooked disadvantages of conventional wage incentives. He expressed belief that some other means will emerge to render present formalized plans obsolete. The author said that Professor Weinwurm is incorrect in assuming that his conclusions have been drawn from the vantage point of an arbitrator. It was found that the author assessed the deficiencies of wage incentives before entering either arbitration or academic life.

Minimum wage opponents often argue that businesses owned by marginalized communities, which include woman-owned, Black-owned, and immigrant-owned businesses, are exceptionally vulnerable to minimum wage increases. Little research has investigated this claim. Using a unique survey of Seattle businesses that includes owners’ nativity status and was administered while the city began to phase in its $15 minimum wage ordinance, the authors find that immigrant-owned businesses respond to the higher minimum wage in ways that largely conform to the responses of other businesses. Nevertheless, immigrant-owned franchises are less likely than other franchises to fire employees, reduce employees’ hours, or lower the wages of employees earning more than $15 per hour. Evidence suggests that immigrant franchisees have a lower likelihood of passing the increased labor costs onto employees because they use fewer employees and rely more heavily on family labor compared to other franchisees. The authors’ findings suggest that firms owned by marginalized and nonmarginalized groups respond to municipal-level minimum wage increases in comparable ways. Nevertheless, marginalized status may matter more in certain sectors of the economy than in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2000s, French military telecommunications have been partially outsourced to private companies. This was justified by an intent for budgetary savings and efficiency. However, an interview survey conducted among military technicians shows that this transfer weighs upon their work and expectations. Outsourcing damages the profession's appeal, deprives staff of strategic resources, and places their time under the control of private providers. This represents a symbolic cost for the personnel committed to the institution but also grants symbolic benefits to officers who are hostile to the process. Although they were not designed for this purpose, market procedures closely regulate the activity of frontline military technicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows how introducing new technology can be like welcoming a digital colleague. Designed to mimic the actions of employees, robotic process automation is a technology that involves developing software robots to perform standardized tasks. Although beneficial for the firm, robotization may come at a cost for the employees, since the technology puts positions at risk by automating manual procedures. In this study, I used a case study approach to examine how employees responded to robotization in three organizations. The findings revealed that the employee responses were overwhelmingly constructive and positive. In addition to responding with a big-picture perspective and finding opportunities, the employees humanized software robots as new digital colleagues, with whom they developed relationships. The results discussed in this study contribute to understanding technology-driven change by empirically illustrating employees' multidimensional—affective, behavioral, and cognitive—responses to robotization, and the supportive context securing implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing potential benefits from emerging market penetration requires firms to address inherent supply chain challenges. A major challenge is for firms to manage costly inventories to address demand and supply risks in emerging markets. However, emerging market penetration may offer opportunities for firms to lower inventory levels, reduce costs, and improve operating performance. Using data for 482 manufacturing firms over the 5-year period, 2003-2007, obtained from the COMPUSTAT Industrial and Segment Databases, this article examines the relationships between emerging market penetration, inventory supply, and financial performance. Our results show that a multinational firm's sales penetration into emerging markets is associated with fewer days of inventory supply and improved financial performance. As emerging market penetration may allow firms to operate with lower inventory supply, the positive effect from emerging market penetration, such as labor cost reductions, may be enhanced due to inventory cost savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper proposes a new model of wage determination and wage inequality. In this model, wage-setters set workers' wages; they do so either directly, as when individuals vote in a salary committee, or indirectly, as when political parties, via the myriad of social, economic, fiscal, and other policies, generate wages. The recommendations made by wage-setters (or arising from their policies) form a distribution, and all the wage-setter-specific distributions are combined into a single final wage distribution. There may be any number of wage-setters; some wage-setters count more than others; and the wage-setters may differ among themselves on both the wage distribution and the amounts recommended for particular workers. We use probability theory to derive initial results, including both distribution-independent and distribution-specific results. Fortuitously, elements of the model correspond to basic democratic principles. Thus, the model yields implications for the effects of democracy on wage inequality. These include: (1) the effects of the number of wage-setters and their power depend on the configuration of agreements and disagreements; (2) independence of mind reduces wage inequality, and dissent does so even more; (3) when leaders of democratic nations seek to forge an economic consensus, they are unwittingly inducing greater economic inequality; (4) arguments for independent thinking will be more vigorous in small societies than in large societies; (5) given a fixed distributional form for wages and two political parties which either ignore or oppose each other's distributional ideas, the closer the party split to 50-50, the lower the wage inequality; and (6) under certain conditions the wage distribution within wage-setting context will be normal, but the normality will be obscured, as cross-context mixtures will display a wide variety of shapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The current shortage of nurses is a major problem for health care systems around the world and has revitalized interest in the dynamics of nurses' careers. This paper investigates the factors associated with qualified nurses in Britain moving to different employment statuses, including jobs outside nursing, unemployment, maternity leave and family care over time. Methods: British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data collected between 1991 and 2001 were used to estimate the effects of covariates on transition rates between different employment statuses. Results: Individual characteristics associated with shorter tenure in the profession include being male, being younger, having a degree, and having been born in the UK. Many nurses leave to care for their families, which suggests the possibility of returning to the profession at a later date. A number of job characteristics are also related to leaving, including low pay, managerial responsibility, full-time work and lack of opportunities to use initiative. Nurses seem to be particularly vulnerable to leaving early in their careers, but those who survive the first few years are likely to remain in the profession for the rest of their working lives. Conclusions: It is particularly important in policy terms that ability to use initiative is related to leaving nursing for another form of full-time employment and, in particular, to leaving for a better job. This finding is consistent with results from studies of the Magnet hospitals in the US. Taken together, these results suggest that strategies to improve nurse retention must attend to nurses' status, authority and position in the hierarchy if they are to be successful. The results also provide strong support for those who argue that better rates of pay are necessary in order to improve nurse retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that in many living wage debates, a Chamber of Commerce person speaks on behalf of the business community, but the employers covered by living wages don't even show up in the debate. Researchers need more information from sitting down with businesses, after the living wage has been implemented, and finding out what happened at a detailed level and whether the living wage law has changed the businesses' strategy. Researchers got some insight from our research talking to nonprofits, but we need to broaden such research to more employers.

The proposed solution is based on the assumption of the invariance of the general profit rate and a money wage level determined simultaneously with prices. The labour cost is determined in the value space by a given exploitation rate (based on a historical cost as the other input coefficients) while it is determined endogenously in the monetary space. This solution diverges from the neo-Ricardian solution based on the invariance of a subsistence basket. It also diverges from the Dumenil-Foley-Lipietz solution based on the invariance of the labour cost while the general profit rate is endogenously determined with prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on case studies in 12 nursing homes in the United Kingdom, the authors illustrate how financial cutbacks affect job quality and the quality of care. The dimensions of job quality that suffered most were those directly related to the ability of workers to provide care: reductions in staffing, longer working hours, and work intensification. Cuts to labor costs eroded the quality of workers’ jobs in all 12 homes but with two differential outcomes: in seven homes, care quality was maintained, and in five homes, it deteriorated. Care quality was maintained in homes where a patient-centered care approach and remaining job quality allowed workers to develop work-arounds to protect residents from spillover effects. Care quality declined in homes where custodial approaches to care and low job quality did not provide workers the time or resources to protect residents or to maintain prior levels of care. A tipping point was reached, leading to a spillover into impoverished care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms very rarely cut nominal wages, even in the face of considerable negative economic shocks. The authors of this article use a unique survey of 14 European countries to ask firms directly about the incidence of wage cuts and to assess the relevance of a range of potential reasons for why the firms avoid cutting wages. They examine how firm characteristics and collective bargaining institutions affect the relevance of each of the common explanations for the infrequency of wage cuts. Concerns about the retention of productive staff and a lowering of morale and effort were reported as key reasons for downward wage rigidity across all countries and firm types. Restrictions created by collective bargaining were found to be an important consideration for firms in Western European (EU-15) countries but were one of the lowest-ranked obstacles in the new EU member-states in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]