This report examines the status of women in North Carolina in terms of their employment, earnings, and occupations. The report includes an Employment & Earnings Composite Index comprised of four indicators--women's median annual earnings, the gender wage ratio, women's labor force participation rate, and the share of employed women in…

A landmark new study reported that upward mobility in the Keystone State since the late 1990s exceeded that in most parts of the United States. This report, focused on more recent trends, contains some bad economic news. It shows that Pennsylvania's economy has performed poorly from the perspective of typical working families since the end of…

Policy makers confronted with the need to introduce health and safety regulations often wonder how to value the benefits of these regulations. One way that a monetary value could be placed on reductions in health risks, including risk of death, is through understanding how people are compensated for the different risks they take. While there is an…

Discussions of early childhood care and education usually focus on its social and educational value, and how it helps children and families. More recently, the focus in many states, including Wisconsin, has been on potential investments in child care quality improvements as strategies for improving long-term educational outcomes for disadvantaged…

Most female workers in developing countries do not have wage jobs. However, the preponderance of female workers in non-wage jobs is not consistent across all developing countries. It is highly likely that the proportion of non-wage female workers in developing countries is greater than is suggested by the statistics. Consequently, mothers in the…

A survey of 205 people, 4 group interviews with approximately 30 people, and 6 design and analysis meetings involving approximately 40 people were conducted in a 1999 participatory study of contingent workers in Toronto. (Contingent work was defined to be lower-waged forms of non-permanent work arrangements that include contracting, employment…

To inform policymakers as they deliberate over the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) reauthorization, this guide reviews what states have done with the flexibility afforded them by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The first section examines how states have shaped their welfare reform strategies…

Stagnant or declining wages for less-educated workers make policies to upgrade the job market options for low wage workers an urgent priority. One in three low wage workers lives in a low income family. The link between low basic skills and low wages is strong. No single standard of minimum skill requirements applies to all middle income jobs, and…

This report is the fifth in a series issued reviewing policies and compensation levels for public higher education and community college executives. The report presents summary information about community colleges for: chancellors and presidents of multi-college districts and superintendent/presidents of single-college districts. In its comments,…

Education in the arts and humanities has always been important to the United States' arts and culture and to its competitiveness in a global economy. Providing all students with a complete education in the arts and humanities can help them cope with, and master, the fast-paced technological advances, forces of globalization, and major demographic…

Analysis of the costs of employing older workers indicates that some types of employment costs do vary by age and that overall compensation costs increase with age, largely because of increasing employee benefit costs. There is, however, no statistical evidence that direct salary costs increase by age on an economy-wide basis. The belief that…

The federal policy shift from skills training and toward work first strategies has come about, in part, from a misconception that "training does not work." A more comprehensive look at existing research reveals the documented effectiveness of skills training. A growing number of studies have shown skills training can increase earnings;…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program, the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project, and Milwaukee's New Hope Project are three antipoverty programs that were undertaken in the 1990s to end dependency on welfare by "making work pay." The impacts of all three programs were reviewed and compared to those of the Seattle/Denver Income Maintenance…

The literature on sex segregation in the workplace was reviewed to determine how it could be used in formulating policy in the area of sex fairness in the American labor market. The committee found that although women's occupational options have increased dramatically in the past decade, sex segregation is still widespread. Among those factors…

The National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies was conducted to explore whether programs examined in the evaluation have helped welfare recipients move into the labor force and remain employed over the long term. As part of the evaluation, a study was conducted to identify the 4-year impacts that 10 programs in 6 sites have had on former…