Mark L. Bryan

Is There a Glass Ceiling over Europe? Exploring the Gender Pay Gap across the Wages Distribution

Using harmonized data for the years 1995–2001 from the European Community Household Panel, the authors analyze gender pay gaps by sector across the wage distribution in eleven countries. In estimations that control for the effects of individual characteristics at different points of the distribution, they calculate the part of the gap attributable to differing returns between men and women. The magnitude of the gender pay gap, thus measured, varied substantially across countries and across the public and private sector wage distributions. The gap typically widened toward the top of the wage distribution (the “glass ceiling” effect), and in a few cases it also widened at the bottom (the “sticky floor” effect). The authors suggest that differences in childcare provision and wage setting institutions across EU countries may partly account for the variation in patterns by country and sector.

TESTING SOME PREDICTIONS OF HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY: NEW TRAINING EVIDENCE FROM BRITAIN

We confront the predictions of various theories with new training data from the British Household Panel Survey. We find that employer-financed training is associated with significantly higher wages at current and future firms, with a larger impact in future firms. This is consistent with human capital theory with credit constraints and with the new training literature assuming imperfectly competitive labor markets.

The Union Membership Wage Premium Puzzle: Is There A Free-Rider Problem?

Economists have long suggested that labor unions suffer a free rider problem. The argument is that, since union-set wages are available to all workers covered by unions irrespective of their union status, and union membership entails costs, workers will only join if they are coerced or are offered non-wage goods that they value above membership costs. Yet U.S. and British empirical research has found a substantial union membership wage premium among private-sector union-covered workers, implying that there is no free rider problem. The authors of this study hypothesize that these findings arise due to selectivity problems associated with identifying the union membership effect. Their analysis, which uses rich data from a new linked employer-employee survey for Britain and exploits the within-establishment variation in wages as a function of individual union membership status, demonstrates that the apparent wage premium for members is illusory. Hence, a potential free rider problem remains.

Who Pays for General Training in Private Sector Britain

We use new training data from the British Household Panel Survey to explore the degree to which the data are consistent with the predictions of human capital theory. According to the raw data, most work-related training is general and is paid for by employers. Our fixed effects estimates reveal that employer-financed training is associated with higher wages both in the current and future firms, with some evidence that the impact in future firms is larger. These results are consistent with human capital theory with credit constraints, and with the relatively recent literature on training in imperfectly competitive labour markets.

Access to Flexible Working and Informal Care

We use matched employer–employee data to explore the relationship between employees’ access to flexible working arrangements and the amount of informal care they provide to sick or elderly friends and relatives. Flexitime and the ability to reduce working hours are each associated with about 13% more hours of informal care. Workplaces do not respond to the presence of carers by providing flexible work, instead there is some underlying selection of carers into flexible workplaces. The wider workplace environment beyond formal flexible work may also facilitate care.

Democratisation of wellbeing: stakeholder perspectives on policy priorities for improving national wellbeing through paid employment and adult learning

ABSTRACT Recent policy initiatives in the UK have heightened the degree to which wellbeing can be considered a political construct: The acceptance of different policy options for wellbeing depends on the extent to which those options are responsive to popular wellbeing concerns. Drawing on the views of over 400 people gathered through a variety of methods and across the UK, we outline different stakeholder views of what wellbeing is and the priorities that stakeholders believe should be addressed to improve wellbeing. We draw out the implications for reframing policy debates around wellbeing, the practice of career guidance, academic debates around identified wellbeing priorities, and the best means of developing a policy and a practice-oriented and stakeholder-responsive approach to researching wellbeing.

Flexible working in the UK and its impact on couples’ time coordination

The ability to combine work with quality time together as a family is at the heart of the concept of work-life balance. Using previously unexploited data on couples’ work schedules we investigate the effect of flexible working on couples’ coordination of their daily work schedules in the UK. We consider three distinct dimensions of flexible working: flexibility of daily start and finish times (flexitime), flexibility of work times over the year (annualized hours), and generalized control of working hours. We show that having flexitime at work increases a couple’s amount of coordination of their daily work schedules by a half to 1 h, which is double the margin of adjustment enjoyed by couples with no flexitime. The impact is driven by couples with children. In contrast to flexitime, the other two forms of flexible working do not seem to increase synchronous time. Our results suggest that having flexitime plays an important role in relaxing the work scheduling constraints faced by families with young children, and that effective flexible working time arrangements are those that increase the worker’s and not the employer’s flexibility.

Work, Learning and Wellbeing – ESRC

Is it possible to change working practices so that workers are happier, more productive and absent less often? What are the effects of unemployment on wellbeing, and are happier people more likely to succeed in the labour market? What learning opportunities do young adults require in order to thrive in globalised and technologically advanced economy? What are the societal costs of ignoring worker wellbeing? This research is concerned with addressing questions such as these and identifying practical interventions, tools and processes that can protect and enhance the wellbeing of workers, adult learners and those seeking work. Wellbeing comprises many components. In relation to work- and adult learning, wellbeing is formed from multiple factors including: the experience of positive emotions in work and in learning and infrequent experience of negative emotions; job satisfaction; work-life balance; work and learning performance; skills development. Understanding such a diverse concept requires expertise from a range of research areas, including economics, education, law, public health, employment relations and psychology.