Documents Mastekaasa, Arne 4 results

"OBJECTIVES:
The aim of this study was to examine whether differences in male and female occupations and workplaces explain gender differences in self-certified (1-3 days) and medically confirmed sickness absence episodes of various lengths (> or = 4 days, >2 weeks, >60 days). Analyses in the main ICD-10 diagnostic groups were conducted for absence episodes of >2 weeks. Furthermore, we examined whether the contribution of occupation is related to different distributions of female and male jobs across the social class hierarchy.
METHODS:
All municipal employees of the City of Helsinki at the beginning of 2004 (N=36 395) were followed-up until the end of 2007. Conditional fixed-effects Poisson regression was used to control for differences between occupations and workplaces.
RESULTS:
Controlling for occupation accounted for half of the female excess in self-certified and medically confirmed episodes lasting >60 days. In the intermediate categories, this explained about one third of the female excess. The effect of workplace was similar but weaker. Occupational and workplace differences explained the female excess in sickness absence due to mental and behavioral disorders, musculoskeletal diseases, and respiratory diseases. The effect of occupation was clearly stronger than that of social class in self-certified absence episodes, whereas in medically confirmed sickness absence episodes gender differences were to a large extent related to social class differences between occupations.
CONCLUSIONS:
Differences between occupations held by women and men explain a substantial part of the female excess in sickness absence. Mental and behavioral disorders and musculoskeletal diseases substantially contribute to this explanation."

"The author analyzes the relationship between unionization and absences due to sickness in Norway using register data covering the entire population employed in the private sector during 2003 to 2007. A few previous studies have shown much higher sickness absence among unionized than nonunionized employees in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The author shows this is also true for Norway, although primarily for employees in lower-grade jobs. The differential persists even when employees in the same detailed job category within the same establishment are compared using fixed effects models. Thus, differences between more or less unionized establishments, or differences in working conditions between members and nonmembers, fail to explain the differential. Analyses using individual fixed effects indicate that up to half of the union–nonunion differential in absence is due to selection on stable individual characteristics."

"This article analyses earnings and employment differences between native Norwegians and immigrants over the period 1993—2003. Register data for the entire population of graduates from Norwegian universities 1992—2002 are used. Immigrants' earnings and employment rates are considerably lower than those of native Norwegians. The differences decline with time of residency. Keeping time of residency constant, however, earnings differences between native men and male immigrants tend to grow over the career."