Data Explorer: Compensating Differentials and the Night Shift Some workers perform their jobs in the night shift. Do employers offer compensating differentials to attract workers to those jobs? Data file to download from IPUMS: Current Population Surveys, Basic Monthly Files. Time frame to download: May 2004. This is the last CPS file that reports information on the time of day at which workers perform their jobs. Variables to download (IPUMS variable name in italics): 1. Age: age . Paid by the hour: paidhour . Weekly earnings: earnweek . Hourly wage: hourwage. (Note that this variable is only available for workers in the ORG who are paid by the hour) . Hours usually worked per week at main job: uhrsworkl . Educational attainment: educ . Occupation, 1990 basis: occ1990 . Works regular daytime schedule: wsregshft o 0 N A B~ WD . Sampling weight for earnings analysis: earnwt _ o . Sampling weight for supplement sample: wssuppwt Sample to use in analysis: Workers aged 16-64 who are in the Outgoing Rotation Group (IPUMS variable paidhour equals 1 or 2), who report whether they work a regular daytime schedule (wsregshfi equals 1 or 2), and who have values for weekly earnings (earnweek), the hourly wage rate (hourwage), and hours worked weekly (uhrswork[) that allow the calculation of a valid hourly wage rate. Created variables: 1. The worker's hourly wage rate. The hourly wage equals weekly earnings (earnweek) divided by usual hours worked weekly (uhrsworkl) if the worker is not paid by the hour (paidhour equals 1). Valid values of the hourly wage for this subsample require that earnweek is greater than 0 and less than 9999.99, and uhrsworkl is greater than 0 and less than 997. The hourly wage equals hourwage if the worker is paid Created variables: 1. The worker's hourly wage rate. The hourly wage equals weekly earnings (earnweek) divided by usual hours worked weekly (uhrsworkl) if the worker is not paid by the hour (paidhour equals 1). Valid values of the hourly wage for this subsample require that earnweek is greater than 0 and less than 9999.99, and uhrswork is greater than 0 and less than 997. The hourly wage equals hourwage if the worker is paid by the hour (paidhour equals 2). Valid values of hourwage for this subsample are greater than 0 and less than 99. 2. A variable indicating if the person works in an irregular shift (= 1 if wsregshft equals 1; 0 otherwise). 3. A recoded education variable classifying persons into one of four groups: 1. less than high school (educ takes on a value less than or equal to 60); 2. high school (educ takes on a value between 70 and 73); 3. some college (educ takes on a value between 80 and 100); and 4. college (educ takes on a value of 110 or greater). 4. A recoded age variable classifying persons into one of five groups: 1. aged 16-20; 2. aged 21-30; 3. aged 31-40; 4. aged 41-50; 5. aged 51- 64. Page 212 Statistical analysis: 1. A table reporting the fraction of workers in each education group (and in the entire workforce) who have irregular work shifts. 2. A table reporting the fraction of workers in each age group who have irregular work shifts. 3. A table reporting the mean hourly wage rate of workers who have regular and irregular wage shifts, by education group. 4. A table reporting the fraction of workers who have irregular work shifts in each of the following four occupations: registered nurse (0cc1990 has a code of 95), cashiers (0cc/990 has a code of 276), cooks (0cc1990 has a code of 436), and truck drivers (occ/990 has a code of 804). These occupations have relatively large samples and a large fraction of the workers have irregular work schedules. 5. A table reporting the mean hourly wage rate of workers who have regular and irregular work shifts for each of the four occupations defined above. Questions for discussion: 1. Are irregular shifts a frequent feature in the U.S. labor market? How does the prevalence of irregular shifts differ across education groups? Across age groups? 2. Does the comparison of hourly wage rates between workers in a regular day shift and workers in irregular shifts provide any evidence supporting the compensating differentials hypothesis? What factors may account for the direction and magnitude of the wage differential between the two groups? A . Bl i 0% n . 1 * 1 s 11 1 i s fa 1, a [