Lambert in NYT on Part-Time Workers

LERA member and Employment Policy Research Network researcher Susan Lambert (University of Chicago) was quoted in a Steven Greenhouse New Yorks Times story on Sunday (Oct. 28).

The story, "A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift," details retailers using fewer full-time workers and more part-timers. And while some part-time workers prefer not to be full time, many would prefer full-time employment.

Wages for retail workers are notoriously low in the first place, and most part-timers don't have much ahead-of-time access their schedules, which makes planning for child care or finding a second job difficult or impossible.

Lambert talked about the declining influence of unions: “They set a standard for what a real job was — Monday through Friday with full-time hours," she said. “We’ve moved away from that."

Another factor is retail employers' use of scheduling software to match employee hours to specific conditions — even the weather — and hours disappear and shifts get shorter.

Click here to read the article.