Dora Gicheva

Working Long Hours and Early Career Outcomes in the High-End Labor Market

This study establishes empirically a positive but nonlinear relationship between weekly hours and hourly wage growth. For workers who put in over 47 hours per week, 5 extra hours are associated with a 1% increase in annual wage growth. This correlation is not present when hours are lower. The relationship is especially strong for young professionals. Data on promotions provide evidence in support of a job-ladder model that combines higher skill sensitivity of output in higher-level jobs with heterogeneous preferences for leisure. The results can be used to account for part of the gender wage gap.

Working Long Hours and Career Wage Growth

This study establishes empirically a nonlinear relationship between hours worked per week and hourly wage growth: for workers who put in 48 hours per week or more, working 5 extra hours per week increases annual wage growth by about 1 percent. The average effect is zero when hours are below 48. This relationship is especially strong for young professional workers. I provide evidence in support of a model of promotions that combines higher skill-sensitivity of output in upper levels of the job ladder with worker heterogeneity. The results can be used to account for part of the gender wage gap.

Career Implications of Having a Female-Friendly Supervisor

The authors study how variations in supervisors’ attitudes toward working with females generate gender differences in workers’ observed career outcomes. The employment records of athletic directors and head coaches in a set of NCAA Division I programs provide longitudinal matched employer–worker data. Supervisors are observed at multiple establishments, which allows the authors to construct a measure of revealed type and to examine its role for the performance and turnover of lower-level employees. The authors observe that the careers of male and female workers progress differently depending on supervisor type in a way that is consistent with a type-based mentoring model. The results suggest that more focus should be placed on managerial attitudes revealed through actions in addition to observable attributes such as gender.

Workplace Support and Diversity in the Market for Public School Teachers

Mentoring, and to a greater extent support from high-level administrators, has been shown to decrease worker turnover in general, but little is known about its differential impact on minority workers. Utilizing four waves of the Schools and Staffing Survey, we find that administrative support is most strongly associated with retention for minority teachers working in schools where minorities are underrepresented. This effect is pronounced for teachers new to the profession and those in schools with more students from low-income families or located in rural areas. The results indicate that workplace support is essential in maintaining or growing minority representation in relatively less-diverse organizations.

Worker Mobility, Employer-Provided Tuition Assistance, and the Choice of Graduate Management Program

This paper links a workers propensity to change jobs to her schooling choices. A model of the choice of graduate management program type based on job search theory predicts that more mobile workers are more likely to enroll in a full-time Master of Business Administration program. The study also adds to the literature on employer-sponsored general training; the model predicts that employers are more likely to provide tuition assistance to workers who find quits costly. I use a four-wave panel survey of GMAT registrants to show that these predictions hold true empirically. Observable characteristics that are correlated with stronger job attachment are also positively correlated with the probability of attending a part-time program and, conditional on part-time attendance, with the likelihood of receiving employer-provided tuition reimbursement.