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1. Balancing Power Dynamics in Smart Homes: Nannies' Perspectives on How Cameras Reflect and Affect Relationships

   Bernd, Julia; Abu-Salma, Ruba; Choy, Junghyun; Frik, Alisa (January 2022, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2022))

   Smart home cameras raise privacy concerns in part because they frequently collect data not only about the primary users who deployed them but also other parties -- who may be targets of intentional surveillance or incidental bystanders. Domestic employees working in smart homes must navigate a complex situation that blends privacy and social norms for homes, workplaces, and caregiving. This paper presents findings from 25 semi-structured interviews with domestic childcare workers in the U.S. about smart home cameras, focusing on how privacy considerations interact with the dynamics of their employer-employee relationships. We show how participants’ views on camera data collection, and their desire and ability to set conditions on data use and sharing, were affected by power differentials and norms about who should control information flows in a given context. Participants’ attitudes about employers’ cameras often hinged on how employers used the data; whether participants viewed camera use as likely to reinforce negative tendencies in the employer-employee relationship; and how camera use and disclosure might reflect existing relationship tendencies. We also suggest technical and social interventions to mitigate the adverse effects of power imbalances on domestic employees’ privacy and individual agency. 

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2. Within-job gender pay inequality in 15 countries

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01470-z  

   Penner, Andrew M.; Petersen, Trond; Hermansen, Are Skeie; Rainey, Anthony; Boza, István; Elvira, Marta M.; Godechot, Olivier; Hällsten, Martin; Henriksen, Lasse Folke; Hou, Feng; et al (November 2022, Nature Human Behaviour)

   Abstract Extant research on the gender pay gap suggests that men and women who do the same work for the same employer receive similar pay, so that processes sorting people into jobs are thought to account for the vast majority of the pay gap. Data that can identify women and men who do the same work for the same employer are rare, and research informing this crucial aspect of gender differences in pay is several decades old and from a limited number of countries. Here, using recent linked employer–employee data from 15 countries, we show that the processes sorting people into different jobs account for substantially less of the gender pay differences than was previously believed and that within-job pay differences remain consequential. 

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3. An Employee Sharing Model for the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

   https://doi.org/10.3390/tourhosp2020011  

   De la Mora Velasco, Efrén; Huang, Arthur; Haney, Adam (June 2021, Tourism and Hospitality)

   Fast technological developments have transformed the tourism and hospitality services and the labor market. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of the tourism and hospitality workforce. There is insufficient prior work about creating better work conditions and greater career opportunities for hospitality and tourism professionals in the swiftly changing labor market. To this end, this article analyzes the historical employee–employer relationships in the tourism and hospitality industry. It presents a new employee-sharing model framework for enhancing resilience and flexibility for hospitality and tourism enterprises and workers. 

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4. What do Workplace Wellness Programs do? Evidence from the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study*

   https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz023  

   Jones, Damon; Molitor, David; Reif, Julian (August 2019, The Quarterly Journal of Economics)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Workplace wellness programs cover over 50 million U.S. workers and are intended to reduce medical spending, increase productivity, and improve well-being. Yet limited evidence exists to support these claims. We designed and implemented a comprehensive workplace wellness program for a large employer and randomly assigned program eligibility and financial incentives at the individual level for nearly 5,000 employees. We find strong patterns of selection: during the year prior to the intervention, program participants had lower medical expenditures and healthier behaviors than nonparticipants. The program persistently increased health screening rates, but we do not find significant causal effects of treatment on total medical expenditures, other health behaviors, employee productivity, or self-reported health status after more than two years. Our 95% confidence intervals rule out 84% of previous estimates on medical spending and absenteeism. 

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5. Imperfect Competition, Compensating Differentials, and Rent Sharing in the US Labor Market

   https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20190790  

   Lamadon, Thibaut; Mogstad, Magne; Setzler, Bradley (January 2022, American Economic Review)

   We quantify the importance of imperfect competition in the US labor market by estimating the size of labor market rents earned by American firms and workers. We construct a matched employer-employee panel dataset by combining the universe of US business and worker tax records for the period 2001–2015. Using this panel data, we identify and estimate an equilibrium model of the labor market with two-sided heterogeneity where workers view firms as imperfect substitutes because of heterogeneous preferences over nonwage job characteristics. The model allows us to draw inference about imperfect competition, worker sorting, compensating differentials, and rent sharing. (JEL D24, H24, H25, J22, J24, J31, J42) 

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