The Demographics and Economics of Direct Care Staff Highlight Their Vulnerabilities Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

An estimated 3.5 million direct care staff working in facilities and people's homes play a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic. They allow vulnerable care recipients to stay at home and they provide necessary help in facilities. Direct care staff, on average, have decades of experience, often have certifications and licenses, and many have at least some college education to help them perform the myriad of responsibilities to properly care for care recipients. Yet, they are at heightened health and financial risks. They often receive low wages, limited benefits, and have few financial resources to fall back on when they get sick themselves and can no longer work. Furthermore, most direct care staff are parents with children in the house and almost one-fourth are single parents. If they fall ill, both they and their families are put into physical and financial risk.

Investigating fairness in global supply chains: applying an extension of the living wage to the Western European clothing supply chain.

PURPOSE: This paper explores the issue of fairness in global supply chains. Taking the Western European clothing supply chain as a case study, we demonstrate how applying a normative indicator in Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) can contribute academic and practical insights into debates on fairness. To do so, we develop a new indicator that addresses some of the limitations of the living wage for SLCA. METHODS: We extend the standard form of living wage available for developing countries to include income tax and social security contributions. We call this extension 'living labour compensation'. Using publically available data, we estimate net living wages, gross living wages, and living labour compensation rates for Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) in 2005. We then integrate living labour compensation rates into an input-output framework, which we use to compare living labour compensation and actual labour compensation in the BRIC countries in the Western European clothing supply chain in 2005. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: We find that in 2005, actual labour compensation in the Western European clothing supply chain was around half of the living labour compensation level, with the greatest difference being in the Agricultural sector. Therefore, we argue that BRIC pay in the Western European clothing supply chain was unfair. Furthermore, our living labour compensation estimates for BRIC in 2005 are ~ 35% higher than standard living wage estimates. Indeed, adding income taxes and employee social security contributions alone increases the living wage by ~ 10%. Consequently, we argue there is a risk that investigations based on living wages are not using a representative measure of fairness from the employee's perspective and are substantially underestimating the cost of living wages from an employer's perspective. Finally, we discuss implications for retailers and living wage advocacy groups. CONCLUSIONS: Living labour compensation extends the living wage, maintaining its strengths and addressing key weaknesses. It can be estimated for multiple countries from publically available data and can be applied in an input-output framework. Therefore, it is able to provide a normative assessment of fairness in complex global supply chains. Applying it to the Western European clothing supply chain, we were able to show that pay for workers in Brazil, Russia, India, and China is unfair, and draw substantive conclusions for practice.

Short-changing the future: The systemic gap between psychology internship stipends and living wages.

Introduction: Providing doctoral internship stipends below living wages may harm interns, the clinical services they provide, and the field of health service psychology as a whole. This study evaluated the extent to which doctoral psychology internship stipends from the 2021-2022 training year for APA-accredited, APPIC-member programs in the US are consistent with living wages in the geographic region where sites are located. Methods: We obtained data reflecting internship sites' geographic location and stipends for the 2021-2022 academic year. Using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator, we computed a living wage for the county in which each internship site is located. Descriptive statistics, discrepancies, ratios, and correlations were calculated to reflect the associations between internship sites' stipends and their local living wages. Results: The average internship stipend was $31,783, which was lower than the average living wage by $2,091. Stipends ranged widely, from a low of $15,000 to a high of $94,595-reflecting a six-fold difference in wages. Although internship sites in higher cost of living areas paid higher stipends, over two-thirds (67.0%) of sites did not pay a stipend that equaled or exceeded a living wage. Ninety-eight sites (15.3%) had deficits of over $10,000 when comparing their stipends to local living wages, with $33,240 as the highest deficit. Discussion: Eliminating obstacles to educating health service psychologists by decreasing the financial burden of training will likely have subsequent critical benefits towards bridging the workforce gap between mental healthcare service needs and available providers, ultimately leading to improved population health.

Between the farm and the fork: job quality in sustainable food systems.

Advocates for structural change in the food system see opportunity in alternative food systems (AFS) to bolster sustainability and equity. Indeed, any alternative to industrial labor practices is assumed to be better. However, little is known about what types of jobs are building AFS or job quality. Failing to understand job quality in AFS risks building a sustainable but exploitative industry. Using a unique and large data set on job openings in AFS, this paper narrows this gap by providing an assessment of labor demand and job quality for AFS in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Job advertisements are matched to 2018 Standard Occupation Codes to characterize work. Wages are compared to living wage standards and median incomes by occupation and local labor market. Considering living wage tests and local labor market competitiveness together, the potential for high job quality in AFS is mixed. Optimistically, higher prices in occupation that are close to consumers and experiencing significant labor demand, like food service and sales, saw more competitive wages. However, these roles frequently failed to offer living wages. Farm work occupations underperformed compared to local labor markets. In addition, uncompetitive senior-level jobs may indicate low-quality career pathways for leadership roles charting paths forward in AFS. These results suggest more institutional action are necessary to enhance labor quality within these spaces and more broadly across the food system. These results also raise questions about who is able to participate in AFS development and whether barriers to participate may replicate equity blind spots.

Pandemic or Not, Worker Subjective Wellbeing Pivots About the Living Wage Point: A Replication, Extension, and Policy Challenge in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Recent pre-pandemic research suggests that living wages can be pivotal for enhancing employee attitudes and subjective wellbeing. This article explores whether or not the present COVID-19 pandemic is impacting pivotal links between living wages and employee attitudes and subjective wellbeing, with replication indicating robustness. Twin cohorts each of 1,000 low-waged workers across New Zealand (NZ), one pre- (2018), and one present-pandemic (2020) were sample surveyed on hourly wage, job attitudes, and subjective wellbeing as linked to changes in the world of work associated with the pandemic (e.g., job security, stress, anxiety, depression, and holistic wellbeing). Using locally estimated scatter-point smoothing, job attitudes and subjective wellbeing scores tended to pivot upward at the living wage level in NZ. These findings replicate earlier findings and extend these into considering subjective wellbeing in the context of a crisis for employee livelihoods and lives more generally. Convergence across multiple measures, constructs, and contexts, suggests the positive impacts of living wages are durable. We draw inspiration from systems dynamics to argue that the present government policy of raising legal minimum wages (as NZ has done) may not protect subjective wellbeing until wages cross the living wage Rubicon. Future research should address this challenge.

Deliberating Upon the Living Wage to Alleviate In-Work Poverty: A Rhetorical Inquiry Into Key Stakeholder Accounts.

Most developed nations have a statutory minimum wage set at levels insufficient to alleviate poverty. Increased calls for a living wage have generated considerable public controversy. This article draws on 25 interviews and four focus groups with employers, low-pay industry representatives, representatives of chambers of commerce, pay consultants, and unions. The core focus is on how participants use prominent narrative tropes for the living wage and against the living wage to argue their respective perspectives. We also document how both affirmative and negative tropes are often combined by participants to craft their own rhetorical positions on the issue.

Análisis del costo diferencial entre la alimentación apta celíaca y no celíaca / Analysis of the differential cost between celiac and non-celiac apt food

Introducción: la población argentina exhibe una elevada prevalencia de enfermedad celíaca (1/100) y la alimentación es su único tratamiento, por ende, el costo de la dieta es un factor clave para la adherencia. Objetivos: calcular el costo diferencial de la dieta de una mujer adulta celíaca vs. no celíaca basado en la Canasta Básica de Alimentos (CBA) y en el patrón alimentario propuesto por las Guías Alimentarias para la Población Argentina (GAPA). Estimar la proporción que representa en base al Salario Mínimo Vital y Móvil (SMVM) en ambos casos. Materiales y método: se tomaron alimentos trazadores extraídos de la plataforma digital de un hipermercado durante el mes de septiembre y diciembre del 2018 para realizar los cálculos de costo de la dieta, considerando los alimentos de más bajo precio. Resultados: el costo de la alimentación propuesta por las GAPA arrojó una diferencia de un 55,27% superior para la población celíaca (+ $1410,08) para septiembre y de un 48,60% (+ $1537,63) para el mes de diciembre. El costo mensual representó un incremento de 13,18% del SMVM para septiembre y de 13,61% para diciembre para la población celíaca. Tomando la CBA, el costo diferencial de la dieta mensual fue mayor (89,27% más cara, equivalente a 1182,76 pesos más) para el mes de septiembre, y 46,81% que equivalen a $886,10 para diciembre. Representó un incremento de 11,06% del SMVM para septiembre y de 7,84% para diciembre. Conclusiones: la alimentación para una mujer adulta celíaca representa un costo mayor que para una mujer adulta no celíaca en la CABA. Este es uno de los factores que contribuye a la no adherencia al tratamiento de la enfermedad, siendo la alimentación la única estrategia para tratarla(AU).

Introduction: Argentinian population exhibits a high prevalence of celiac disease (1/100) and feeding is the only treatment; therefore, the cost of diet is a key factor for adherence. Objectives: to calculate the differential cost of the diet of an adult celiac woman vs. non-celiac one, based on the Basic Food Basket (BFB) and on the dietary pattern proposed by the Dietary Guidelines for the Argentine Population (GAPA). Estimate the proportion that represents based on the Minimum Living Wage (MLW) in both cases. Materials and method: tracers extracted from the digital platform of an hypermarket were taken during September and December 2018 to calculate the cost of the diet, considering the lowest-priced foods. Results: the cost of food proposed by GAPA showed a difference of 55.27% higher for the celiac population ($ 1410.08 more) in September and of 48.60% ($ 1537.63 more) in December. The monthly cost represented an increase of 13.18% for the MLW in September and 13.61% in December for the celiac population. Taking the BFB, the differential cost of the monthly diet was higher (89.27% more expensive, equivalent to 1182.76 pesos more) in September, and 46.81%, equivalent to $ 886.10, in December. It represented an increase of 11.06% for the MLW in September and of 7.84% in December. Conclusions: the food for a celiac adult woman is higher than for a nonceliac adult woman in CABA. This is one of the factors that contributes to non-adherence to the treatment of the disease; food being the only strategy to treat it(AU).