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Research Making the News

The Disparate Racial Impact of Requiring a College Degree

│Peter Q. Blair and Shad Ahmed│June 28, 2020

In response to the senseless and brutal killing of George Floyd, major brands are flooding social media with statements in support of the black community. Bank of America followed up with a $1 billion philanthropic commitment. As of June 18, Fortune 100 companies had pledged more than $2 billion to demonstrate that they are listening and responding. But if corporate executives want to address systemic racism, they can do more. In addition to philanthropy, they should change their hiring and management practices to focus on job skills, rather than continuing to privilege college degrees. This change would increase diversity in the workforce and expand economic opportunity without sacrificing quality. Research from Harvard Business School shows that “degree inflation” in job postings is pervasive. Example: 67% of postings for new production supervisors in 2015 included college-degree requirements, though only 16% of existing production supervisors had bachelor’s degrees.

Citing: Searching for STARs: Work Experience as a Job Market Signal for Workers without Bachelor's Degrees by Peter Q. Blair, Tomas G. Castagnino, Erica L. Groshen, Papia Debroy, Byron Auguste, Shad Ahmed, Fernando Garcia Diaz, and Cristian Bonavida at National Bureau of Economic Research

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New Study Shows That Asking For Salary History Perpetuates Systemic Racism

│Andrew Whalen│June 24, 2020

Banning employers from using salary history against prospective employees substantially closes wage gaps, increasing pay for women by eight percent and Black people by 13 percent, a new study by economists at Boston University School of Law found. Beginning with legislation passed in Massachusetts in 2016, 19 states and the District of Columbia now ban employers from asking for salary histories from potential employees. Citing a substantial pay gap between full time employees which saw women earning earn 84.3 percent of the wages earned by men, Massachusetts legislators amended the state's existing Equal Pay Act with 2016's An Act to Establish Pay Equity. Part of that new legislation made it unlawful for employers to "seek the wage or salary history of a prospective employee."

Citing: Perpetuating Inequality: What Salary History Bans Reveal About Wages by James Bessen, Erich Denk, and Chen Meng at Technology and Policy Research Initiative at Boston University School of Law

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Millions of health workers are exempt from coronavirus paid sick leave law, study finds

│Elizabeth Schulze│June 17, 2020

Millions of health-care workers across the U.S. are going to work without paid sick leave during the coronavirus pandemic, a study published Wednesday found. The analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that 17.7 million health workers are exempt from the emergency paid sick leave requirement in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed in March. The research found a majority of these employees work in hospitals or nursing care facilities, hot spots for the virus. “Health care workers who continue to work while sick because they cannot afford to stay home without pay may face difficult tradeoffs between the need for an income and concerns about exposing patients or their colleagues,” the report said. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which went into effect April 1, provided federally mandated paid sick leave for up to two weeks for workers coping with coronavirus-related issues. But exemptions in the law have left out large groups of American workers, including millions who are considered essential employees during the pandemic.

Citing: Gaps in the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Law for Health Care Workers by Michelle Long and Matthew Rae at Kaiser Family Foundation

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How giving cash to poor families may also save trees in Indonesia

│Megan Sever│June 12, 2020

Last year marked the third year in a row of when Indonesia’s bleak rate of deforestation has slowed in pace. One reason for the turnaround may be the country’s antipoverty program. That initiative is associated with a 30 percent reduction in tree cover loss in villages, researchers report June 12 in Science Advances. In 2007, Indonesia started phasing in a program that gives money to its poorest residents under certain conditions, such as requiring people to keep kids in school or get regular medical care. Called conditional cash transfers or CCTs, these social assistance programs are designed to reduce inequality and break the cycle of poverty. They’re already used in dozens of countries worldwide. In Indonesia, the program has provided enough food and medicine to substantially reduce severe growth problems among children.

Citing: Conditional cash transfers to alleviate poverty also reduced deforestation in Indonesia by Paul J. Ferraro and Rhita Simorangkir at Science Advances

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New Research Reports

The gender revolution is stalling—what would reinvigorate it?

The Brookings Institute│Paula England, Andrew Levine, and Emma Mishel│June 24, 2020

Progress toward gender equality over the last 50 years has been so dramatic that the changes are sometimes referred to as the “gender revolution.” However, since about the turn of the century, progress has slowed and, on some indicators, completely stalled. Here we describe trends in women’s employment, whether men or women are more likely to get college and doctoral degrees, how segregated fields of study and occupations are, and the gender pay gap. We then consider what needs to change if we want to reinvigorate progress toward gender equality.

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Pandemic-Related Job Disruptions by Gender, Race, and Hispanic Ethnicity in May 2020

Upjohn Institute│Erica L. Groshen│June 23, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has put many U.S. workers out of their jobs, whether partially or fully, temporarily or permanently. These effects are unequally distributed. This post looks at how job disruptions caused by COVID-19 have affected key groups, using data from the May 2020 jobs report (that is, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Situation news release). I find that male and white workers have fared better than female, African American, Asian and Hispanic workers. By “faring better,” I mean both that fewer of their jobs have been disrupted and that more of their disrupted jobs retain a tie to an employer. Compared to a permanent layoff, a disruption that doesn’t cut the tie between worker and employer has the potential to be reversed much more easily.

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Reducing Poverty Among Children: Evidence from State Policy Simulations

Mathematica│Jessica Pac, Irwin Garfinkel, Neeraj Kaushal, Jaehyun Nam, Laura Nolan, Jane Waldfogel, and Christopher Wimer│June 18, 2020

State approaches to reducing child poverty vary considerably. We surface this information on the state-level variation to estimate what could be achieved in terms of child poverty if all states adopted the most generous or inclusive states’ policies. Specifically, we simulate the child poverty reductions that would occur if every state applied the same approach in four key policy areas: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and state Child Tax Credits (CTC). We find that adopting the most generous or inclusive state EITC policy would have the largest impact on child poverty, reducing it by 1.2 percentage points, followed by SNAP, TANF, and lastly state CTC. Overall, if every state applied the same generous or inclusive methodology in all four policies, the child poverty rate would decrease by 2.5 percentage points, and five and a half million children would be lifted out of poverty.

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Engaged Dads and the Opportunities for and Barriers to Equal Parenting in the United States

New America│June 17, 2020

The Better Life Lab at New America engaged in a multi-method study of men and caregiving in the United States, which included questions directed at fathers and mothers. The study suggests that the past model of fatherhood as mainly about providing financially has been replaced by a new vision of fatherhood, one focused first and foremost on showing love and affection and teaching children about life. It also finds that fathers, like mothers, yearn for more quality time with their children and for more opportunities to be present and involved in their daily care. While 44 percent of people in the United States still believe fathers should primarily focus on breadwinning while mothers focus on running the household, the vast majority of respondents also believe mothers and fathers should share care responsibilities equally. These contradictory findings may suggest that while some traditional notions of men’s and women’s role in child rearing persist, they do not preclude fathers from taking an active role in their children’s daily care or from expressing a desire for even more time and support in caregiving. The report concludes with actions that can be taken by policymakers, employers, and families to achieve the opportunity for equal parenting outcomes most people in the United States say they want.

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The Impact of Covid-19 on Small Business Owners: Evidence of Early-Stage Losses from the April 2020 Current Population Survey

National Bureau of Economic Research│Robert W. Fairlie│June 2020

Social distancing restrictions and demand shifts from COVID-19 are expected to shutter many small businesses, but there is very little early evidence on impacts. This paper provides the first analysis of impacts of the pandemic on the number of active small businesses in the United States using nationally representative data from the April 2020 CPS – the first month fully capturing early effects from the pandemic. The number of active business owners in the United States plummeted by 3.3 million or 22 percent over the crucial two-month window from February to April 2020. The drop in business owners was the largest on record, and losses were felt across nearly all industries and even for incorporated businesses. African American businesses were hit especially hard experiencing a 41 percent drop. Latinx business owners fell by 32 percent, and Asian business owners dropped by 26 percent. Simulations indicate that industry compositions partly placed these groups at a higher risk of losses. Immigrant business owners experienced substantial losses of 36 percent. Female-owned businesses were also disproportionately hit by 25 percent. These findings of early-stage losses to small businesses have important policy implications and may portend longer-term ramifications for job losses and economic inequality.

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Essential Changes Needed for Essential Workers: Job Quality for California’s Service Sector

SHIFT│Daniel Schneider and Kristen Harknett│June 2020

The coronavirus outbreak has caused a massive global economic and health shock, which has exacerbated existing social inequalities. Workers in the service sector, many of whom were already in an economically precarious position before the pandemic when the economy was booming, were among the hardest hit. Many of these workers experienced layoffs or furloughs, while others, particularly in grocery, pharmacy, and delivery sectors, were deemed essential workers. These essential workers are not able to work from home and shelter in place, but rather continue to report for work and risk exposure to coronavirus throughout the pandemic. Workers of color were disproportionately affected by layoffs and are also at heightened risk of serious complications or death from coronavirus. This report provides a detailed accounting of job conditions for workers in the service sector, drawing on data from The Shift Project. Over the past four years, The Shift Project has collected rich survey information from workers to learn about their job conditions, household economic conditions, and health and wellbeing. This report draws on responses from 7,850 workers employed at large retail and food service employers in the state of California. We also draw on a set of in-depth interviews with service sector workers in the Bay Area.

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The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that conducts and communicates research to inspire public dialogue, shape policy, and improve the lives and opportunities of women of diverse backgrounds, circumstances, and experiences. Find out more about IWPR at iwpr.org.

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