This article considers the challenge of extending conventional models of flexibility to hourly jobs that are often structured quite differently than the salaried, professional positions for which flexibility options were originally designed. We argue that the assumptions of job rigidity and overwork motivating existing flexibility options may not be broadly applicable across jobs in the US labor market. We focus specifically on two types of flexibility: (1) working reduced hours and (2) varying work timing. We first review central aspects of the US business and policy contexts that inspire our concerns, and then draw on original analyses from US census data and several examples from our comparative casestudy research to explain how conventional flexibility options do not always map well onto hourly jobs, and in certain instances may disadvantage workers by undermining their ability to earn an adequate living. We conclude with a discussion of alternative approaches to implementing flexibility in hourly jobs when hours are scarce and fluctuating rather than long and rigid.Este artículo analiza el reto de extender los modelos convencionales de flexibilidad a trabajos por hora que a veces son estructurados de manera muy diferente de los empleos asalariados y profesionales para los que las opciones de flexibilidad fueron diseñ adas originalmente. Argumentamos que los supuestos de la rigidez laboral y el exceso de trabajo que motivan las opciones de flexibilidad que existen no podrían aplicarse de manera general en el mercado laboral de los EE.UU. Nos centramos específicamente en dos tipos de flexibilidad: (1) la reducció n de horas de trabajo y (2) la modificació n del tiempo de trabajo. Primero, estudiamos los aspectos centrales del sector empresarial estadounidense y los contextos políticos que causan nuestras preocupaciones, y posteriormente, nos basamos en los análisis originales de los datos del censo estadounidense y varios ejemplos de nuestras investigaciones comparativas de estudios-de-casos para explicar có mo las opciones de flexibilidad convencionales no siempre se adaptan bien a los trabajos por hora, y en algunos casos, pueden perjudicar a los trabajadores al disminuir su capacidad para ganarse la vida adecuadamente. Para conduir, una discusió n de enfoques alternativos para implementar la flexibilidad en los trabajos por hora cuando las horas son escasas y fluctuantes en lugar de ser largas y rígidas.

We examined how parents and educators in a low-income school conceptualize parental engagement, and how school, work, and family domains together shape these parties’ practices as well as understandings of how and why parents engage. From interviews with the principal, five teachers, and 17 mothers of children at a Title I elementary school, we observed mothers’ varied approaches to juggling employment and caregiving responsibilities with desires to be involved in their children’s education, strategies often unknown and mismatched to the focuses of school staff. The study suggests the value of engagement opportunities tailored to families’ unique circumstances and assets.

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When it was passed in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sought to address the “evils” of underpay and overwork by establishing an hourly minimum wage and requiring premium overtime pay. However, today's low‐wage, hourly workers more often face underwork than overwork, as well as fluctuating, unstable schedules, neither of which is addressed by the FLSA. This paper presents and assesses the effectiveness of an alternative approach to wage and hour regulation, the “reporting pay” guarantee. We begin by examining the problem of work‐hour insecurity, particularly employers’ practice of sending workers home early from scheduled shifts. We then move to a detailed assessment of state laws that require reporting pay, as well as reporting pay guarantees in union contracts and private‐employer practices that attempt to address the problem of work‐hour insecurity. We conclude by considering paths for strengthening such protections in law.

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