Documents Wang, Jing 5 results

"Based on qualitative interviews of workers, managers and labour inspectors in China, we examine how employers adjust, often in subtle fashions, to minimum wage increases. Our findings highlight the “law of unintended consequences” in that their effects are often “undone” or offset by subtle adjustments such as reductions in fringe benefits and in overtime work and overtime pay premiums that are otherwise valued by employees. Employees often feel that they are no better off in spite of minimum wage increases because of these offsetting adjustments.This study also suggests possible reasons for the small or zero effect of minimum wage on employment in China. Lack of enforcement may be one of the reasons, but the employees we interviewed seem well aware of the legal minimum wage and employers do not want to get involved in disputes over this matter. For employers who would otherwise be affected by the minimum wage increase, the cost increase is mitigated by the offsetting adjustments. As a result, minimum wages do not seem to weaken the competitive position of employers in China."

"This study examines the effect of work hour congruence on employee job satisfaction and absenteeism using a large, longitudinal sample from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey (WES). An employee is said to have work hour congruence when they actually work the number of hours that they desire. Results indicate a difference between employees who desire more hours and those who desire fewer hours: employee desire for and receipt of more hours was related to positive changes in job satisfaction, while employee desire for and receipt of fewer hours was related to reduced absenteeism. In addition, the results suggest that employees respond to employers who at least try to meet their needs, those who desired more hours and received some, but not all of these additional hours showed a positive increase in job satisfaction. This study contributes to the literature by using of a precise measure of work hour preference and change, differentiating employees who desire fewer hours from those who desire more and examining both full and partial work hour congruence."

"Little is known about the behavior of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) at the interface from the technosphere to the ecosphere. Previous modeling of ENM flows to the environment revealed that significant amounts of ENM enter the waste stream and therefore waste incineration plants and landfills. It is the aim of this study to model the flows of ENM during waste incineration and landfilling in greater depth by including a more detailed description of the different processes and considering ENM-specific transformation reactions. Four substances were modeled: nano-TiO2, nano-ZnO, nano-Ag and carbon nanotube (CNT). These ENM are representative for commonly used materials and products, illustrating a variety of ENM with different behavior. The modeling was performed for Switzerland where almost 100% of the municipal waste and sewage sludge are burned. The mass-based modeling showed that – despite several differences among the models for nano-TiO2, nano-ZnO and nano-Ag (e.g. partial dissolution of nano-ZnO in acid washing of exhaust air or fly ash) – the major ENM flows go from the waste incineration plant to the landfill as bottom ash. All other flows within the system boundary (e.g. with the fly ash) were predicted to be about one magnitude smaller than the bottom ash flow. A different ENM distribution was found for CNTs that are expected to burn to a large extent (94%) so that only insignificant amounts remain in the system. The results of the modeling show that waste incineration can have a strong influence on some ENM but that still the majority of the ENM-mass is expected to end up in landfills."

" Using the British Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS) with its preferred self‐identified measure of sexual orientation as well as its organizational‐level variables, we find that gay men earn about the same as heterosexual men and lesbians earn significantly more than heterosexual women. Working in an organization with a diversity and equity management (DEM) policy generally has a positive effect on the earnings of gay men and lesbians, especially if they are single. Implications for theories of diversity management, discrimination and market versus household production are discussed."

"Using Canadian nationally representative, multisource longitudinal data, this paper examines relationships between hours underemployment, employee turnover and human resource practices. The results of hierarchical linear models indicate that underemployed employees are more likely to leave an organisation that relies heavily on part-time workers, whereas they are more likely to stay when their employers hire regularly from within the company. These findings extend the literature on hours underemployment from individual-level direct effects to organisational-level moderating factors, and accordingly, they provide empirical evidence that human resource professionals can use to address the detrimental effects of underemployment."