User:Amcook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
citation stuff to add in:
profile of the working poor--2000--http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2000.htm
income, poverty, and health insurance report--2009--http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf
labor stat ILO manufacturing sector employment--http://laborsta.ilo.org/STP/guest
the population bulletin: us labor force trends---http://www.prb.org/pdf08/63.2uslabor.pdf
 | This user is a student in a course working with the Wikipedia Ambassador Program.
Student assignments should always be carried out using a course page set up by the instructor. It is usually best to develop assignments in your sandbox. After evaluation, the additions may go on to become a Wikipedia article or be published in an existing article.
|
Greetings! This is Amanda's user page. To check out my class's page, click here.
Week 3 Assignment: Critically evaluate an article
I read the article on the working poor and left a few initial suggestions for how to improve it. Click here to see my comments, or just look at the copy-and-pasted version below:
Suggestions for reorganization
-This article could benefit from some updating and reorganization/expansion.
- Updating: Need to update the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.
- Proposed reorganization/expansion: Intro / History of the term "working poor" / Working Poor in the US (subsections: overview, history, jobs typically held by the working poor, explanations for why these jobs are poorly paid, consequences of low pay on government aid programs) / Working Poor from a Cross-national perspective (see Brady, Fullerton, and Cross (2010) for data) / Policy responses (subsections: US, Canada, Europe, etc.)
--Amcook (talk) 00:54, 16 September 2011 (UTC)
Week 4 Assignment: Add a few sentences to an article, supported by citations
I began to edit the article on the working poor by including two new US definitions for the term "working poor." I used information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US Census Bureau, and Katherine Newman's No Shame in My Game to come up with these definitions. To give readers a better idea of the "poverty line," I uploaded a table from the US Census that shows the poverty thresholds for different kinds of households. I also added a link to the wiki page on the poverty line and uploaded a table. Click here to see my edits, or just look at the copy-and-pasted version below:
Definition in the United States
There are several popular definitions of "working poor" in the United States. According to the US Department of Labor, the working poor "are persons who spent at least 27 weeks [in the past year] in the labor force (that is, working or looking for work), but whose incomes fell below the official poverty level."[1] The poverty threshold (the poverty line) is calculated based on the age and number of people living in a given household. In other words, the poverty line is different for individuals and families, and for people over and under the age of 65. Click here for a breakdown of the US Census Bureau's poverty thresholds for 2009:
We might also define the working poor as minimum wage workers. This is not a perfect categorization, as many minimum wage workers are young people from middle class families or spouses of higher earning individuals.[2] However, many minimum wage workers are the main breadwinners for their household [statistic needed]. In addition, many minimum wage jobs are part-time jobs. Thus, it is easy to see how a sizable portion of the working poor is made up of minimum wage workers. Thinking of the working poor as minimum wage workers can help us envision the kinds of jobs typically held by the working poor. For instance, food service workers, non-unionized retail workers, and janitors are often part of the working poor.
Week 5 Assignment: Add a bibliography to your article's talk page Click here to see the bibliography. I probably need to trim it down a bit, but I think this is a pretty exhaustive list of the important articles and books related to the working poor.
Week 6 Assignment: Start the article in your sandbox
I used the Luxembourg Income Survey to make a graph of working and non-working poverty in 12 countries. I defined "poverty" as less than 60% of the median household income for each country. A household is classified as "working" if the head of household was employed at the time of the survey. (This was the only available definition of "working" on the easily-accessible version of the Luxembourg Income Survey.)
Here is the graph:
I also came up with a better outline for the article:
1. defining working poverty:
- -basic (universally used?) definition of poverty== your household earns 50% (or 60%) of the median household income of your country
- -problems with this basic definition: doesn't take household size into account—logically speaking, larger households need more money
- -advantage of this basic definition: it's commonly used, so it helps us compare working poverty rates across countries.
2. summary statistics: I'll try to make the following 3 graphs. The first graph will be easy to make because the data is already in Lohmann (2009). (Actually, I might choose to use the simpler graph that I already made--shown above--but I haven't decided yet.) In order to make the second and third graphs, I'll have to submit a special request--written in some kind of code--to the Luxembourg Income Survey. I'm not sure if I'll have time, but I'd like to do it if I can.
- a current look:
- -duplicate table from Lohmann (2009), which shows pre- and post-transfer working poverty rates
- -duplicate table from Lohmann (2009), which shows pre- and post-transfer working poverty rates
- a longitudinal look:
- -working poverty rates in the united states, canada, the UK, and Australia
- -working poverty rates in the united states, canada, the UK, and Australia
- occupation breakdown:
- -what proportion of the working poor are in the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors? (US, Canada, the UK, and Australia)
- -what proportion of the working poor are in the agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors? (US, Canada, the UK, and Australia)
3. qualitative studies
- scope
- -US urban centers
- -US urban centers
- explanations
- -rise of the service sector
- -decline of the labor movement
- -weak welfare state
- -rise of the service sector
- proposed solutions
- -create more job opportunities that offer a living wage
- -grow the labor movement—lobby for higher wages and more employment protection
- -improve the welfare state??
- -create more job opportunities that offer a living wage
4. quantitative studies
- scope
- -cross-national studies of affluent democracies
- -cross-national studies of affluent democracies
- explanations
- -demographic characteristics
- -welfare state generosity
- -labor market institutions
- -(a non-explanation): economic performance
- -demographic characteristics
- proposed solutions
- -push for a more generous welfare state
- -grow the labor movement (may be necessary in order to push for a more generous welfare state. But may not be?? Look at countries with generous welfare states that have weak labor movements.)
- -push for a more generous welfare state
5. areas for future research:
- more longitudinal studies
- -look at the rise of the service sector and employment subcontractors
- -look at the rise of the service sector and employment subcontractors
- more qualitative studies about non-US working poor?????
- studies that take a closer look at what kind of specific welfare state policies reduce working poverty—in order to make policy recommendations, we probably need to choose a few specific welfare state policies that would make a big difference.
- studies that consider the role of health and disability in working poverty