Seminar: Danny Schneider - UC Berkeley

About the Presentation

The American labor market is increasingly unequal, characterized by extraordinary returns to work at the top of the market but rising precarity and instability at the bottom of the market. In addition to low wages, short tenure, few benefits, and non-standard hours, many jobs in the retail and food service industries are characterized by a great deal of instability and unpredictability in work schedules. Such workplace practices may have detrimental effects on workers. However, the lack of existing suitable data has precluded empirical investigation of how such scheduling practices affect the health and wellbeing of workers and their families. We describe an innovative approach to survey data collection from targeted samples of service- sector workers that allows us to collect previously unavailable data on scheduling practices and on health and wellbeing. We use these data to show that exposure to unstable and unpredictable schedules is negatively associated with worker wellbeing.  We then draw on these data and use a difference-in-differences design to provide the first evidence on the effectiveness of two approaches to schedule reform - company-driven changes in corporate HR practices and local laws that regulate scheduling practices.

About the Speaker

Daniel Schneider is Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley where is an affiliate of the Berkeley Population Center, the Department of Demography, and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.  Danny received his PhD from Princeton University in Sociology and Social Policy in 2012 and then completed a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Health Policy Research at Berkeley.  His research focuses on family demography, inequality, and precarious employment.