Working time is a crucial issue for both research and public policy. This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of both paid and unpaid work time, integrating a unique discussion of overwork, underwork, shortening of the working week, and flexible work practices.
Time at work is affected by a complex web of evolving culture and social relations, as well as market, technological, and macroeconomic forces, and institutions such as collective bargaining and government policy. Using a variety of new data sources, the authors review the latest trends on working time in numerous countries.
Author(s): Deborah M. Figart, Lonnie Golden
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 288
City: London
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Contributors
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction and overview: Understanding working time around the world
PART I Current trends and patterns in work hours: What is the evidence?
2 The enigma of working time trends
3 Working time reduction in the European Union: A diversity of trends and approaches
4 The longest day: Working time for teachers
5 Working hours and time pressure: The controversy about trends in time use
PART II Empirical and theoretical foundations: Explaining overwork and underemployment
6 Who are the overworked Americans?
7 The incentive to work hard: Differences in black and white workers' hours and preferences
8 Driven to spend: Longer work hours as a byproduct of market forces
9 Natural, social, and political limits to work time: The contemporary relevance of Marx's analysis
10 Revising the labor supply curve: Implications for work time and minimum wage legislation
PART III Innovations in working time and public policy
11 Working time reductions, employment consequences and lessons from Europe: Defusing a quasi-religious controversy
12 The "lump-of-labor" case against work-sharing: Populist fallacy or marginalist throwback?
13 Better timing?: Work schedule flexibility among US workers and policy directions
14 The social implications of European work time policies: Promoting gender equity?
15 History and housework: Implications for work hours and family policy in market economies
Index
