This article examines the relationship between income inequality and collective labor rights, conceptualized as workers' legal and practical ability to engage in collective activity. Although worker organization is central to explaining income inequality in industrialized democracies, worldwide comparative studies have neglected the role of class-based actors. I argue that the repression of labor rights reduces the capacity of worker organizations to effectively challenge income inequality through market and political processes in capitalist societies. Labor rights, however, are unlikely to have uniform effects across regions. This study uses unbalanced panel data for 100 developed and less developed countries from 1985 through 2002. Randomand fixed-effects models find that strong labor rights are tightly linked to lower inequality across a large range of countries, including in the Global South. Interactions between regions and labor rights suggest that the broader context in which class-based actors are embedded shapes worker organizations' ability to reduce inequality. During the period of this study, labor rights were particularly important for mitigating inequality in the West but less so in Eastern Europe.
This research demonstrates that the union wage premium is higher for Black and women workers in the US public sector, what we refer to as “an intersectional union premium.” Union mechanisms reinforce and expand the more equitable practices of the public sector, resulting in this additional boost. Using Current Population Survey data, 1983–2018, this research models intersectional effects on earnings by examining interactions between union membership and race–gender. Relative to White men, union membership boosts average earnings an additional 3% for Black men and Black women, and 2% for White women on top of the direct union premium. Corollary analyses reaffirm these effects in multiple state contexts, including by union density and union coverage. Intersectional union premiums are weaker in states that prohibit collective bargaining. These premiums are present across most types of public work, with the exception of police and fire employees. To conclude, the authors discuss how changing labor policies may impact race and gender equity in the public sector.
Race and labor scholars have argued that precarious, dangerous work, along with the work of social reproduction, has long been disproportionately placed on Black workers. This research examines how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted essential in-person workers differently by race. Using data collected from approximately 8,000 respondents in five survey waves, we find that Black essential and in-person workers were far more likely to experience safety concerns on the job than white workers, from inadequate sick leave and protective gear in the early pandemic to customers who refused to mask in later months. This pattern extended to stress off the job, where Black workers were more likely to have experienced food, childcare, and housing insecurities. Black workers were also more likely to be interested in unionization. These findings point to distinct ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has collided with Black workers’ struggle for economic inequality and amplified existing patterns of labor market inequality.
Women are underrepresented in U.S. tenure-track faculty positions, and institutional interventions are key to creating greater gender equality and accessing women's potential. This study examines the effectiveness of one "transformational" intervention, the ADVANCE Institutional Transformation initiative, implemented at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), in 2001. We compare data on women's representation in faculty positions before and during the UCI ADVANCE Program (1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009) to that of seven other campuses in the University of California system, where no initiatives of this scale were implemented. Using descriptive figures, T tests, and regression analyses, we find that UCI had a higher percentage of women faculty and hired a greater percentage of women during ADVANCE years, but did not retain women at a greater rate. We describe the UCI ADVANCE program and its structure, including its "Equity Advisors," who we suggest have been important in improving women's representation among faculty at UCI.In 2001, UCI received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Institutional Transformation grant, aimed at increasing women's representation among tenure-track faculty in the STEM disciplines (sciences, technology, engineering, and math). Upon receipt of the grant, the UCI administration extended its coverage beyond the STEM disciplines to the entire campus.Our goal is to assess the effectiveness of this particular program in improving women's representation in faculty positions. Because UCI is embedded in the 10-campus University of California (UC) system, and was the only UC campus to receive the intervention during this period, the case of UCI gives us unique leverage in understanding how a major institutional intervention impacts women's faculty representation. Comparing women faculty representation over time (prior and during ADVANCE periods) and across the UC campuses, we seek to identify how the presence of the UCI ADVANCE Program relates to changes in women's faculty representation, hiring, and retention.Other studies have found that ADVANCE awards correlate with an increase in women faculty (Bilimoria and Liang 2012). However, these studies are limited because most universities have increased women's representation in recent years. This study is unique in that it compares a university with the ADVANCE award to similarly situated universities without the award. Although our study is limited to an assessment of this one program, it is relevant to the broader effort to improve women's representation in higher education in that it identifies how and why the program enacted change.Institutional interventions are designed to reduce inequalities (Kalev, Dobbin, and Kelly 2006). The ADVANCE project aims to introduce "alterations in the core elements of the institution: authority, goals, practices, and policies" (Fox 2008:83), thereby fortifying women's presence and advancement in the higher-paying STEM disciplines, and becau...
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