Speaker: Elizabeth Ananat

Title: Schedule Volatility in Hourly Service Work: Evidence and Implications for Federal Family Income-Support Policies

Abstract:  In the US, work opportunities for those with lower levels of formal education have moved in recent years toward service employment, and this concentration is especially strong among households with children. Even compared to other jobs for those without college degrees, service work is characterized by shorter tenure and less access to full-time hours, patterns that are visible in national data and are more pronounced for those with children. In novel data collected through daily text-message reports from hourly service workers with young children, we document additional patterns of volatility that have not previously been visible: in particular, both volatility in total hours worked per day and week and volatility in which hours of the day and week are worked. We show that this volatility requires workers aiming to maximize their earnings to set aside many more hours for work than they are actually paid for, interfering with other life responsibilities and the ability to supplement earnings with a second job.  We develop novel metrics to capture these forms of volatility and to describe their sources. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for both means-tested programs and earnings-linked tax credits, the two major forms of income support provided by the federal government to families with children.