2012 WorkHoursinRetailRoomforImprove
- (Carré & Tilly, 2012) ⇒ Françoise J. Carré, and Chris Tilly. (2012). “Work Hours in Retail: Room for Improvement.” Policy Paper, Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
Subject Headings: Job Quality, Retail Job, Part-Time Worker.
Notes
Cited By
Quotes
United States, Canada, job quality, Mexico, part-time, retail, schedule, working hours
Abstract
With full-time jobs, hourly wages are appropriate primary indicators of job quality. However, in sectors where full-time schedules do not dominate, total hours matter for job quality and worker outcomes. We explored hour levels and trends in retail trade and its largest subsector, grocery stores. Retail is known for part-time and short shifts. With a comparison of retail hours in three countries — the United States, Canada, and Mexico — we contribute insights into aspects of the U.S. policy and regulatory systems that could be altered in order to improve retail jobs.
Today, in retail, even the full-time-hours guarantee falls below 40 hours, and often below 35, with significant implications. Low base hours mean limited weekly earnings and generate variability and unpredictability in individuals’ total hours and scheduling. In Canada and Mexico as in the United States, long and expanding hours of operation create two managerial goals: first, to control labor costs with lean staffing; and, second, to closely match staffing levels to customer flow. Where in the United States and Canada, these twin goals lead retailers to shorten work hours and expand part-time jobs, in Mexico they lead them to lengthen hours.
Several directions for US policy change would alter decision terms for retail management and implications for retail workers. They are: instituting parity, or reducing differentials, in compensation between full-time and part-time workers; limiting store hours, or halting the ubiquitous pressure to move toward 24/7 operations; and compelling businesses to make changes in their selling formats that would modify their decision-making on labor deployment.
Introduction
In settings where most workers have full-time schedules, hourly wages are appropriate primary indicators of job quality and worker outcomes. However, in sectors where full-time schedules do not dominate — primarily service-producing activities — total hours matter, in addition to hourly wages, for job quality and worker outcomes.
We have explored hour levels and trends in a service sector, retail trade, and its largest subsector, grocery stores. Retail is known for the prevalence of part-time and short shifts to cover peak shopping hours. We examined retail hours in three countries — the United States, Canada, and Mexico — because work hours regulation and customs vary cross-nationally. This comparison contributes insights into aspects of the U.S. policy and regulatory systems for employment, and for retail in particular, that might be altered to improve retail jobs and their implications for workers.
RETAIL HOURS — CAUSE FOR POLICY CONCERN
Insufficient work hours have been a long-standing concern for U.S. workers; in 1985 one out of four workers would have preferred more hours, even at the same hourly rate of pay (Shank 1986). In retail, the issue of insufficient hours is ubiquitous. Retail schedules are driven by the goal of providing large windows of shopping time, notably seven-day operation including nonstandard hours. (Grocery stores are under great pressure to move to 24/7 operation.) Retailers also experience wide swings in labor needs throughout the day and week, just as other directservice sectors do. They also have seasonal as well as less predictable swings in demand over the year. The prevailing human resource strategy in retail has, since the 1980s, entailed the heavy use of part-time workers, who receive few or no benefits, particularly in grocery retail. In recent years, part-time work has spread to new parts of retail and can entail very low guaranteed weekly hours but an expectation that workers “flex up” to 40 hours on demand.
Today, even the full-time-hours guarantee falls below 40 hours, and even below 35, as we observed in recent fieldwork entailing 195 interviews in 16 food and consumer-electronics chains during 2005–2007. The implications of these patterns for the workforce are significant. Lower standard hours reduce the base level of weekly earnings that workers — full-time and parttime — can rely upon. Additionally, we and others have observed that keeping work hours low generates variability and unpredictability in individuals’ total hours and in the distribution of these hours. Variability and unpredictability in earnings and schedules affect workers’ ability to make financial plans and as such also can affect workers’ ability to schedule other incomeearning activities, or can affect their personal and family life. For these reasons, retail work hours and the firm strategies and institutional factors that drive them warrant attention.
In Canada and Mexico as well as the United States, long and expanding hours of operation create two managerial goals. The first is to control labor costs with lean staffing; the second is to closely match staffing levels to customer flow. However, in the United States and Canada, these twin goals lead retailers to shorten employee work hours and expand part-time jobs, whereas in Mexico they lead them to lengthen hours.
References
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| Author | volume | Date Value | title | type | journal | titleUrl | doi | note | year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 WorkHoursinRetailRoomforImprove | Françoise J. Carré Chris Tilly | Work Hours in Retail: Room for Improvement | 2012 |