Workdays, Workhours and Work Schedules

Evidence for the United States and Germany

(The first chapter of this book is available in PDF format.)

Daniel S. Hamermesh presents the first comprehensive evidence explaining how days of work, hours of work, and daily schedules are determined in the U.S. and Germany. Using an instantaneous approach to looking at unique data sets for each country, Hamermesh provides comparative analyses on factors influencing both employees' and employers' work schedules. This technique allows him to offer a new "snapshot" perspective on work scheduling that clarifies the role of fixed costs of getting to work and of adding workdays to plant schedules. He also increases our understanding of the relation between work time and the determination of employment, and presents findings with important implications for several current hot-button workplace issues including:

• Childcare - Hamermesh probes the importance in both countries of childcare availability. Women are generally less likely than men to work nights or evenings, overall when young children are present, they become more likely to work those hours. These negative effects are much greater on days of work than on daily hours of work suggesting it may be preferable to tilt childcare subsidies toward offering more aid on a per workday basis than on a per workhour basis.
• Demographic and socioeconomic status - Minorities in the U.S. and foreign-born workers in Germany are more likely than otherwise identical workers to work evenings, nights and weekends. However, the burden of such work is not long-lasting as jobs at those times pass quite rapidly among individuals within those populations.
• Government incentives to create jobs - A government may stimulate job growth with as little disruption to production as possible by encouraging a reduction in daily hours rather than by cutting the number of workdays.

Overall, says Professor Hamermesh, "(P)olicies on overtime work and the length of workdays and workweeks require the analysis in this monograph, as indeed does any policy related to the restructuring of time at work."

"You can often spot a great idea if, upon hearing it, you respond, 'I should have thought of that!' Such was my own response to this insightful and useful book." Robert Drago, Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal

"This is an excellent book that deserves a place on the shelves of any social scientist interested in work time."Industrial and Labor Relations Review

"This book is worth reading just for the tabulations of the data. I strongly recommend that anyone interested in labor supply, employment policy, or the firm's demand for inputs read this stimulating book." Jennifer Hunt, Southern Economic Journal

159 pp. 1996
$40 cloth ISBN 0-88099-170-4 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-170-4
$17 paper ISBN 0-88099-169-0 / ISBN-13 978-0-88099-169-8.

Shopping Cart Operations

For MasterCard/Visa holders, accumulate titles in the Shopping Cart and submit your order electronically.

Shopping Cart Operations

• Add this book to cart
• Review and change cart contents

• Secure checkout