Read the Full Article Conventional survey methodology wisdom holds that demographic questions should be asked at the end of surveys to minimize attrition. However, this reasoning may limit a growing body of research drawing from non-probability-sample web-based surveys that use social media for recruitment. These surveys often suffer from particularly high attrition rates but also rely on demographics to perform post-stratification and weighting. In this report, we investigate the potential ...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Report The IKEA-Shift Project research collaboration began in late 2019, just before the global coronavirus pandemic. The research collaboration was born of a mutual interest in improving scheduling conditions for hourly workers. IKEA has been working to advance a vision for a self-scheduling framework that would grant IKEA hourly co-workers more autonomy in setting the days and times of their work shifts. The Shift Project has been collecting survey data from hourly workers emp...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Report By early adulthood, millions of young people have had early life experiences interacting with the juvenile justice or child welfare systems. While prior research finds that formerly systems involved (FSI) young people’ face lower rates of employment and lower wages, little is known about the jobs that they do get—their environments and conditions—and how those jobs impact their lives. New research from the Shift Project shows that many FSI young workers face job hos...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Article Algorithmic management (AM)’s impact on worker well-being has led to calls for regulation. However, little is known about the effectiveness and challenges in real-world AM regulation across the regulatory process—rule operationalization, software use, and enforcement. Our multi-stakeholder study addresses this gap within workplace scheduling, one of the few AM domains with implemented regulations. We interviewed 38 stakeholders across the regulatory process: regulato...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Article Middle-aged and older adults who are employed in precarious, high-strain jobs may face challenges to continued work, risking economic insecurity and poor wellbeing in retirement. Technology in the workplace, an under-studied aspect of work environments, could accommodate aging workers or could add stress to their jobs. This study examines how technology in sales and surveillance at work are related to job satisfaction and planned job exits among approximately 6,000 worke...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Article In the absence of a federal paid sick leave (PSL) standard, numerous U.S. states have passed laws to provide workers access to such benefits. These laws may be especially beneficial for low-wage workers whose employers often do not voluntarily provide PSL. We draw on novel data from The Shift Project (N = 68,930), which surveyed U.S. service sector workers between 2017 and 2023, to examine the effects of state PSL laws on proximate worker outcomes (i.e., PSL coverage a...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Article A new report from the Shift Project highlights the growing problem of indoor heat exposure among service sector workers in the United States. Analyzing survey data from more than 3,500 service workers, the researchers found that many indoor employees in retail and food service environments regularly experience temperatures above 80°F and feel uncomfortably hot at work. According to the report, 65% of these workers have felt overheated on the job, and 36% experience this...| The Shift Project
Read the Full Article The dignity of workers has long been a central concern of social scientists, with existing research documenting the variety of job conditions that threaten worker dignity. However, the literature on dignity at work has important limitations, including an overwhelming focus on older models of work (e.g., manufacturing), to the exclusion of the job conditions that are pervasive in the contemporary low-wage labor market, such as unstable and unpredictable schedules. Drawing...| The Shift Project
COVID-19 precipitated sharp job losses, concentrated in the service sector. Prior research suggests that such shocks would negatively affect health and wellbeing. However, the nature of the pandemic crisis was distinct in ways that may have mitigated any such negative effects, and historic expansions in unemployment insurance (UI) may have buffered workers from negative health consequences. The post COVID-19 Employment Shocks and Safety Net Expansion: Health Effects on Displaced Workers appea...| The Shift Project