WorklifeWizard.orgFuture Research

Isabelle Ferreras iferreras@law.harvard.edu Jason Anastasopoulosanastas@fas.harvard.edu

All About the WorklifeWizard Who We Are

A project of the Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School: http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp Harvard Trade Union Program Pension Research and Reform Labor Economics and

Employment and Labor Law Research

A Team of Social Scientists

All About the WorklifeWizard Our Team

Dr. Richard Freeman - WorklifeWizard Research Director PhD Economics, Harvard Professor of Economics at Harvard University & Faculty

Co-Chair, Labor and Worklife Program Harvard Trade Union Program

Dr. Isabelle Ferreras- WorklifeWizard Research Coordinator PhD Sociology, University of Louvain, MA Political

Science, MIT. Research Associate, Labor and Worklife Program

Jason Anastasopoulos AM Statistics, Harvard Web and Publications Coordinator, Labor and Worklife

Program

Context The Need for Worklife Data in the US

ContextKnowledge About Worklife In the US

Data on work and employment in the US is “incomplete” Employment v. Work

Focus on “quantitative” aspects of the American workforce: wages, employment rates, etc.

Lack of “qualitiative” information What is the experience of

American workers?

ContextKnowledge About Worklife In the US

American Data Collection Institutions US Census Bureau: www.census.gov Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

The source for data on the American workforce.

Over 30,000 articles using BLS data (using Google Scholar).

Major surveys are the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Occupational and Employment Survey.

ContextKnowledge About Worklife In the US

Current Population Survey (CPS) Deals with employment and unemployment

across many dimensions – race, sex, marital status, occupation, industry, etc…)

Occupational and Employment Survey Data forms the basis of our salary checker. Offers detailed information about wages by

state.

ContextKnowledge About Worklife in the US

Where the Worklife Wizard Comes In Ask more questions about work life

rather than just employment. Employee involvement in the

workplace Gender and power issues Employee-management relations

Work life issues not systematically covered

ContextA Permanent Research Tool

The Google of work life A resource for researchers,

academics and labor Answers to social, political and

economic questions relating to work

Making it happen

Survey Structure and Methods

Structure and MethodsThe Survey

Dual Level Structure

Core Survey

Special Research Modules

Structure and MethodsThe Survey

Core Survey About 40-50 questions Similar to all other

WageIndicator Survey Questions

Contains several Current Population Survey questions for statistical purposes.

Structure and MethodsThe Survey

Special Research Modules (SRM’s) Def. – A set of roughly 10-30

questions unified by a common theme Gender Customer-worker relations Shared capitalism

Unlike any questions asked by major American data collection institutions.

Structure and MethodsThe Survey

Special Research Modules (SRM’s) Mechanics

Rotation Question Submission & Data

Collection

Structure and MethodsMethodology

Internet Surveys Problems with non-random

sampling Solutions

Advertising and promotion Data Comparisons –Current

Population Survey questions in the core

An Information Resource

An Information Resource

WorklifeWizard Observatory An observatory of work life A source for information about

virtually all work related issues Workers rights Labor and employment law Job tips and advice A permanent blog index Work life news, labor news, top news

stories, worklife books and more!

Future Collaborations

Currently working with Monster.com, Business Week & several US labor unions

Partnership program New collaborations with

American researchers

CONTACT US!

Isabelle Ferreras

Research Coordinator

iferreras@law.harvard.edu

Jason Anastasopoulos

Web manager

janastasopoulo@law.harvard.edu