‘Atypical Work’ and Compensation

John Addison and Christopher Surfield

No 1477, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Atypical work, or alternative work arrangements in U.S. parlance, has long been criticized for providing poorly-compensated employment. Although one group of atypical workers (contractors) seems to enjoy a wage premium, our cross-section results from the CPS and NLSY for the better-known category of temporary workers point to a negative wage differential of some 7-12 percent. It emerges that much of the latter disparity stems from unobserved worker heterogeneity (accounting for which supports a wage advantage for contracting work). Turning to fringes, the appearance in cross section of a potentially large deficit in atypical worker health benefits is again reduced after accounting for permanent unobserved individual heterogeneity. But on this occasion the reduction is very modest. Further, there is now some indication that the wage advantage of contract workers partly compensates for their reduced access to such benefits.

Keywords: alternative work arrangements; atypical/contingent work; employer-related health insurance; wage differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J33 J4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2005-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Southern Economic Journal, 2007, 73(4), 1038–1065

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