Chapter 2 Exercises Solutions
Answer to end of chapter questions:
2. The labour force is calculated as the sum of the employed and the unemployed, which in this case is 22,000,000 + 1,000,000 = 23,000,000. The labour force participation rate is calculated as the ratio of the labour force to the working age population: 23,000,000 / 30,000,000 = 77 %. The unemployment rate is calculated as the ratio of the number of unemployed workers to the size of the labour force: 1,000,000 / 23,000,000 = 4.3 %.
4. a) The poor who are at minimum subsistence and who aspire to middle class consumption patterns: This group values income highly relative to leisure, so the indifference curve is relatively flat. As the wage increases, the income
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At the same time, they become richer, and can maintain the living standard while purchasing more leisure. That effect pushes her to work less. The net effect of +18 induces them to work more. d) According to this equation, it would lead to a net increase of 25 percentage points. The pay cut for the husband would increase the labour force participation of wives, as they have to work more to maintain living standards.
e) We are given no information on the hourly wage, so technically we cannot answer this question. The variables which appear in this equation for expected earnings include both wages and hours worked. For the less precisely defined quantities of uncompensated and the pure elasticities for expected income, the former is 18*(6/35), and the latter is 25*(6/35). We use only the coefficient pertaining to the wife for these 'own' elasticities.
f) Yes it does. The total effect of the expected earnings of women on their labour force participation far outweighs the negative income effect of non-labour income earned by their husbands. As the returns from working for women increased a lot in recent decades, the labour force participation rate increased. The main reason is a substitution effect that dominated the income effects from both earners on women's labour force participation.
6. a) For this case, we assume that the husband continues to work 40 hours per week, or 8 hours per
The unemployment rate is calculated by measuring the number of unemployed over the total labour force (anyone 15 years or older who currently has a job or is actively seeking) [x100]. While the government does not aim for 0% unemployment as this has negative consequences, it is
Workers can respond by voluntarily working harder. – Legislated increases in the minimum wage improves workers morale thereby increasing their productivity. The increase in productivity helps balance off the increase in labor cost. An increased wage rate causes an income and substitute effect. Income effect causes the worker to work fewer hours now that their income increased. Substitution effect causes the worker to work more hours.
Simultaneously, the gender pay gap has financial effects not just on the women, yet their families too. Studies have shown that American families with children count on a women’s earnings as a massive part of their family’s income, and many are the head of the household. Data demonstrates that “seventy percent of mothers with children under 18 participate in the labor force, with over 75 percent employed full-time. Mothers are the primary or sole earners for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960. Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has climbed since WWII: from 32.7 percent in 1948 to 56.8 percent in 2016” (Dewolf). Now women make up more than half of the U.S. workforce, the gap in earning deciphers to $7968 per year in median earnings for a high school graduate, $11,616 for a college graduate, and $19,360 for a professional school graduate. By and large, this gap effects hundreds of millions of women and their families, and lag them back hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout their life.
Women's participation during World War II has had significant results throughout history. It has lead to economic advancement for them specifically after the post war Baby Boom period. The research is filling practical information about the advanced affects woman had on their family income during this time. To get my results I analyzed ten sources and read through each one and found important quotes and details in each. As a result of this I learned that after World War II this was the beginning where woman had a large impact on the economics in their households. One major causes of the U.S. postwar baby boom was the increased demand for female labor during World War II. The effect of the war on female employment was not only large, but also
In every occupation in the graph showed that female earned so little that buying one pound of sugar will lose their daily wage. (Doc C) A Cotton mill and Agricultural worker would
Additionally, Section 8 proscribes federation fraudulent labor procedures, which include, in accordance to legal interpretation, failure to provide a reasonable representation to all participants of the bargaining constituent. (Office of the General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, 1997)
Also, since women were not the breadwinners they would have to ask their husbands for funds in order to spend money. We see this in the film Iron-Jawed Angels where the senator takes away his wife’s money when she starts investing to help women’s rights. She had become unhappy when she was dependent on her husband who had taken her kids away, so she left and joined the women’s rights movement. When the senator’s wife was in jail he grew unhappy and realized his mistake of controlling her. Therefore, by not being independent and relying on their husbands, women became helpless and unhappy. By working, women would not be dependent on their husbands for money; they would be able to stand on their own two feet.
According to Ioakimidis (2012) reports that gender wage gap to due women's life and work cycles. In addition, one major barrier that leads the number of high-level position jobs in becoming extreme jobs is that it requires an individual to work more than 40 hours per week. However, according to Eagly (2011), she outlines that common notion that those who put longer hours into their jobs will generally rise faster, this makes it difficult for women who have family responsibilities. Consequently, another reason for explaining the current gender wage gaps is that women ultimately choose to study less rewarding subjects, by entering lower-paying professions and stay towards the bottom rungs of the career ladder. Although their choices might give them flexible working hours, it also negatively affects their earnings. (Bussin,
For example the size of the family and number of children dictate the economic way of living of that family. Often, women in society have a role in childbearing and raising a certain number of children and carrying out farm works as opposed to men who work in outside jobs in different offices. Economic analysis of this kind of decision shows that the labor force is low compared to the size of the family. This is because, the income from the couple would be more compared to when only the male individual is working. If the latter is used it would mean poor living standards as the family is
Employment or labor laws have been developed to facilitate smooth relationship between employers and employees. Employment laws provide rules and regulations that should govern both the employer and the employees in their places of work. Employment laws discuss issues related to child labor, wages and salaries, retirement, working conditions, compensations, incentives and employment benefits among others. The major objective is to ensure the employer does not exploit the employee and on the other hand, the employee honors the terms and conditions of the job as presented by the employer.
“In June 2012, approximately 155,163,00 people were in the labor force (those actively employed or seeking employment). With a total U.S. working-age population of approximately 243 million individuals, the labor force participation rate currently stands at 63.8 percent. Out of those 155 million individuals in the labor force, 142,415,00 are currently employed, with unemployment hovering around 8.2 percent”.
labor and while some have helped a little none of them have been able to make the
After analyzing the history of the gender wage gap, the paper will now look at the current state of the issue. The percentage of female earnings compared to male earnings increased from around 60 percent in 1980 to 77 percent in 2010, according to National Compensation Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Blau and Kahn 2000). The gap was larger for African-American and Hispanic women, who earned only 70% and 61% respectively of what white men earned. As a result, April 20, 2011 was known as Equal Pay Day, which is the approximate day the average female employee would
The changes occurring in the workplace present several sub-trends. One of the most significant is that women are returning to it in large numbers. I use the term returning rather than entering because women comprised a major factor in the workforce during World War II, but was forced out by men returning from the war. Jamieson and O'Mara (1991) project that approximately 50% of the workforce will be comprised of women by the year 2000. Wives came to the rescue of the family in the 1970s and 1980s. Even though male earnings dropped substantially for all but the top 20% of male workers, real household incomes fell only marginally for the bottom 60%, and increased for the top 40%. One third of this increase was a result of a rise in female real annual earnings; however, two-thirds was due to women working more hours per year. Unfortunately, most income earners in the family are now working as many hours as they can. The reentrance of women into the workforce occurred during the transition from the industrial to the information age.
This economic contribution, argues Baxter (2002:406) essentially translates to an increase in bargaining power within the household, which is actualised by decreased involvement in domestic duties. Curtis (1986:180, as cited in Brines, 1994:657) suggests that the power differential occurs because women are expecting an ‘unspecified benefaction’ to be decided, and provided by their partners at a future date. This use of housework as a ‘social exchange’ (Brines, 1994:657) is problematic, in that the amount of accumulated housework performed by a wife outweighs the monetary benefit provided to the household by the husband (Sullivan, 2000:442).