Judith K. Hellerstein

Last updated

Judith Hellerstein
Education Brown University
Harvard University
Spouse Phillip Swagel
Children3
Scientific career
FieldsEconomics
Institutions Northwestern University
University of Maryland
Doctoral advisor Lawrence F. Katz
Website Official website

Judith K. Hellerstein was the Chair of the Economics department between 2019 and 2022 [1] and is currently a Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, US. [2] She is a former co-editor of The Journal of Human Resources, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, [3] and she chairs the Technical Review Committee for the National Longitudinal Surveys. [4] She served as Chief Economist of the Council of Economic Advisers during 2011–2012. [5]

Contents

Hellerstein testified in 2013 before the Montgomery County Council on the employment impacts of potential changes to the minimum wage. [6] [7]

Research

Her publications have focused on wage determination, labor market outcomes by race, gender and ethnicity, and workplace segregation. With David Neumark and Melissa McInerney she showed that the spatial composition of jobs plays a relatively minor role in explaining low employment rates for Black men. [8] In work with Melinda Morrill, she found that divorce rates fall when unemployment is high. [9]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Because minimum wages increase the cost of labor, companies often try to avoid minimum wage laws by using gig workers, by moving labor to locations with lower or nonexistent minimum wages, or by automating job functions. Minimum wage policies can vary significantly between countries or even within a country, with different regions, sectors, or age groups having their own minimum wage rates. These variations are often influenced by factors such as the cost of living, regional economic conditions, and industry-specific factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Living wage</span> Minimum income to meet a workers basic needs

A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor productivity. Needs are defined to include food, housing, and other essential needs such as clothing. The goal of a living wage is to allow a worker to afford a basic but decent standard of living through employment without government subsidies. Due to the flexible nature of the term "needs", there is not one universally accepted measure of what a living wage is and as such it varies by location and household type. A related concept is that of a family wage – one sufficient to not only support oneself, but also to raise a family.

Personnel economics has been defined as "the application of economic and mathematical approaches and econometric and statistical methods to traditional questions in human resources management". It is an area of applied micro labor economics, but there are a few key distinctions. One distinction, not always clearcut, is that studies in personnel economics deal with the personnel management within firms, and thus internal labor markets, while those in labor economics deal with labor markets as such, whether external or internal. In addition, personnel economics deals with issues related to both managerial-supervisory and non-supervisory workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-discrimination law</span> Legislation designed to prevent discrimination against particular groups of people

Anti-discrimination law or non-discrimination law refers to legislation designed to prevent discrimination against particular groups of people; these groups are often referred to as protected groups or protected classes. Anti-discrimination laws vary by jurisdiction with regard to the types of discrimination that are prohibited, and also the groups that are protected by that legislation. Commonly, these types of legislation are designed to prevent discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other areas of social life, such as public accommodations. Anti-discrimination law may include protections for groups based on sex, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, mental illness or ability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity/expression, sex characteristics, religion, creed, or individual political opinions.

Employment discrimination is a form of illegal discrimination in the workplace based on legally protected characteristics. In the U.S., federal anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination by employers against employees based on age, race, gender, sex, religion, national origin, and physical or mental disability. State and local laws often protect additional characteristics such as marital status, veteran status and caregiver/familial status. Earnings differentials or occupational differentiation—where differences in pay come from differences in qualifications or responsibilities—should not be confused with employment discrimination. Discrimination can be intended and involve disparate treatment of a group or be unintended, yet create disparate impact for a group.

The gender pay gap in the United States is a measure between the earnings of male and females in the workforce. When calculating the pay gap, non-adjusted versus adjusted pay gap is utilized. The adjusted pay gap takes into consideration the differences in hours worked, occupations chosen, education and job experience, whereas the non-adjusted pay gap is the overall difference of gross hourly earnings of males and females in the United States. The non-adjusted average female annual salary is around 80% of the average male salary, compared to 95% for the adjusted average salary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Krueger</span> American economist (1960–2019)

Alan Bennett Krueger was an American economist who was the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, nominated by President Barack Obama, from May 2009 to October 2010, when he returned to Princeton. He was nominated in 2011 by Obama as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and served in that office from November 2011 to August 2013.

Mark David Brenner is an American author, journalist, academic, and consultant who writes on labor and workplace issues. Brenner was formerly the co-director of Labor Notes and was previously a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He currently works at the Labor Research and Education Center at the University of Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minimum wage in the United States</span>

In the United States, the minimum wage is set by U.S. labor law and a range of state and local laws. The first federal minimum wage was instituted in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but later found to be unconstitutional. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established it at 25¢ an hour. Its purchasing power peaked in 1968, at $1.60 In 2009, it was increased to $7.25 per hour, and has not been increased since.

David Neumark is an American economist and a Chancellor's Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine, where he also directs the Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute.

Occupational segregation is the distribution of workers across and within occupations, based upon demographic characteristics, most often gender. Other types of occupational segregation include racial and ethnicity segregation, and sexual orientation segregation. These demographic characteristics often intersect. While a job refers to an actual position in a firm or industry, an occupation represents a group of similar jobs that require similar skill requirements and duties. Many occupations are segregated within themselves because of the differing jobs, but this is difficult to detect in terms of occupational data. Occupational segregation compares different groups and their occupations within the context of the entire labor force. The value or prestige of the jobs are typically not factored into the measurements.

The Employment Policies Institute is a fiscally conservative, non-profit American think tank that conducts and publishes research on employment issues, particularly aimed towards reducing the minimum wage. It was established in 1991 by Richard Berman, and it has been described as "a nonprofit research group that studies issues of entry-level employment."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminisation of the workplace</span> The trend towards broader inclusive modes of working

The feminization of the workplace is the feminization, or the shift in gender roles and sex roles and the incorporation of women into a group or a profession once dominated by men, as it relates to the workplace. It is a set of social theories seeking to explain occupational gender-related discrepancies.

The social and economic changes in Thailand in the past decades have important implications for the quality and quantity of labor. The economic and non-economic roles of women in Thailand can be traced back several hundred years in Thai history, when there were traditional discriminatory attitudes towards women in the culture of Thailand. The transformation of Thailand's social and economic structure since the 1960s led to the gender disparities in Thai society. Recently, the position of Thai women in the labor market has improved a lot in comparison to the past as a result of modernization. In 2011, Thailand ranked 69th out of 143 countries in the Gender Inequality Index. In labor economics, gender inequality is widely discussed in terms of concepts of sex segregation and employment discrimination. Thai government and non-governmental organizations have put forth many policies and programs to address gender inequalities in the last few decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender pay gap</span> Average difference in remuneration amounts between men and women

The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay gap: non-adjusted versus adjusted pay gap. The latter typically takes into account differences in hours worked, occupations chosen, education and job experience. In the United States, for example, the non-adjusted average woman's annual salary is 79–83% of the average man's salary, compared to 95–99% for the adjusted average salary.

Paula S. England, is an American sociologist and Dean of Social Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research has focused on gender inequality in the labor market, the family, and sexuality. She has also studied class differences in contraception and nonmarital births.

Thomas Lemieux is a Canadian economist and professor at the University of British Columbia.

McKinley L. Blackburn is a U.S.-American economist and currently the James A. Morris Professor of Economics at the University of South Carolina. His research interests include labour economics, econometrics, and economic demography.

Lisa Blau Kahn is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester. Her research focuses on labor economics with interests in organization, education, and contract theory. From 2014 to 2018, she served as an associate professor of economics at Yale School of Management and as an assistant professor of economics at Yale School of Management from 2008 to 2014. From 2010 to 2011, Kahn served as the senior economist for labor and education policy on President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers.

Ellora Derenoncourt is an American economist. She is an assistant professor of Economics in the Industrial Relations Section of the Department of Economics at Princeton University, and previously at the Department of Economics and assistant professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Her work focuses on labor economics, economic history and the study of inequality. Her research on racial inequality in the United States has been featured on NPR, New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

References

  1. "Professor Andrew Sweeting becomes Chair of the Economics Department" . Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  2. Schwartz, Nelson D. (January 27, 2013). "Employers Increasingly Rely on Internal Referrals in Hiring". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  3. "Judith K. Hellerstein". www.nber.org. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  4. "C.V. of Judith K. Hellerstein, March 2016" (PDF).
  5. "The NBER Reporter 2011 Number 4: News". www.nber.org. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  6. Turque, Bill (November 21, 2013). "Montgomery moves ahead on joint effort with District, Pr. George's to raise minimum wage". The Washington Post.
  7. "MEMORANDUM to County Council; from Robert H. Drummer, Senior Legislative Attorney, Josh Hamlin, Legislative Attorney, Jacob Sesker, Senior Legislative Analyst; SUBJECT: Action: Bill 27-13, Human Rights and Civil Liberties - County Minimum Wage Dollar Amount" (PDF). November 22, 2013.
  8. Mathur, Aparna. "The Segregation We Don't Talk About Enough". Forbes. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  9. McElwee, Sean; Steinbaum, Marshall I. (January 16, 2015). "No, The Decline in Marriage Did Not Increase Inequality". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583 . Retrieved April 23, 2019.