Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Understanding "Wage Theft"... Evasion and Avoidance Responses to Minimum Wage Increases: Minimum wage noncompliance is an important reality in the low-wage labor market

Understanding "Wage Theft": Evasion and Avoidance Responses to Minimum Wage Increases. Jeffrey Clemens, Michael R. Strain. NBER Working Paper No. 26969, April 2020. https://www.nber.org/papers/w26969

Abstract: A holistic assessment of the labor market effects of minimum wage regulation requires understanding employer compliance. We investigate how minimum wage increases and the strength of enforcement regimes affect the prevalence of subminimum wage payment. Using the Current Population Survey (CPS), we find strong evidence that higher minimum wages lead to a greater prevalence of subminimum wage payment. We estimate that increases in measured underpayment following minimum wage increases average between 14 and 22 percent of realized wage gains. Furthermore, we provide evidence that these estimates are unlikely to be driven by measurement error in the CPS’s wage data, which are self-reported. Taken together, we interpret these findings as evidence that minimum wage noncompliance is an important reality in the low-wage labor market. We find some evidence that enforcement regimes mediate both baseline rates of subminimum wage payment and the response of subminimum wage payment to increases in minimum wages.


The “return trip effect” (trip back from a destination is experienced as shorter than the trip to the destination) is due not to different familiarity of places, but to greater anticipation going out

Are We There Yet? An Anticipation Account of the Return Trip Effect. Zoey Chen, Ryan Hamilton, Derek D. Rucker. Social Psychological and Personality Science, April 13, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620916054

Abstract: Research has documented the psychological phenomenon in which the trip back from a destination is experienced as shorter than the trip to the destination. Deemed the “return trip effect” (RTE), prior work explained this phenomenon in terms of differential familiarity between home and outbound destination or an underestimation of initial travel time. The present article posits an anticipation account for the RTE: Outbound trips to a destination tend to foster higher levels of anticipation than return trips. Due to greater anticipation, people’s perception of time elongates. Importantly, the anticipation account makes novel predictions with regard to the occurrence of the RTE that cannot be accounted for by prior explanations. Multiple studies, with diverse methodologies, test and offer evidence in support of an anticipation account of the RTE.

Keywords: return trip effect, time perception, anticipation

American adolescents and young adults spent less time on non‐digital social interaction in the 2010s, with a less pronounced decline among those ages 26 and over

Declines in non‐digital social interaction among Americans, 2003–2017. Jean M. Twenge  Brian H. Spitzberg. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, April 10 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12665

Abstract: It is unclear whether Americans spent less time on non‐digital social interaction in the 2010s than in the 2000s. In the nationally representative American Time Use Survey administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (n = 191,558), U.S. residents 15 years of age and older spent 10 to 11 fewer minutes a day in non‐digital social interaction during leisure time in 2017 compared to 2003, which translates to 67 fewer hours a year. The decline was primarily driven by adolescents and young adults ages from15 to 25, who spent between 21 and 23 fewer minutes per day on non‐digital social interaction in 2017 compared to 2003, or 140 fewer hours a year. Thus, American adolescents and young adults spent less time on non‐digital social interaction in the 2010s, with a less pronounced decline among those ages 26 and over.