• Title/Summary/Keyword: Low-wage workers

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Impacts of Immigrant Workers on Regional Economy in S. Korea (이주노동자의 유입이 지역경제에 미치는 영향)

  • Choi, Byung-Doo
    • Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.369-392
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    • 2009
  • Recently international movements of labour as well as those of goods and other production elements such as capitals and technology have been increased rapidly under the process of glocalization. The huge amount of immigrant workers' in-flows makes increasing influences on regional economy in South Korea. This paper examines such impacts of immigrant workers on local labor markets, productivity. and industrial composition and innovation on the basis of analysis of empirical data and review of existing literature on the subject. Despite a problem of simplification, some reasoning can be listed as follows: First of all, the inflow of immigrant workers has an effect of job displacement among domestic simple workers, with duel effects on the status of native workers; secondly, Immigrant workers give a positive effect on local productivity, but only with low level of wage and of purchasing power; thirdly, the in-flow of immigrant workers seems to prevent existing industries from transformation towards new ones and/or from automation and innovation of production facilities, while there seems no clear relationship with foreign direct investments of local firms.

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What Makes Sick Workers Go To Work? A Study of Occupational Environment and Presenteeism (무엇이 아픈 노동자들을 출근하도록 만드는가? 직업환경과 프리젠티즘(presenteeism)에 대한 연구)

  • Shin, Heeju
    • Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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    • v.24 no.3
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    • pp.35-71
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study is to examine which job-related factors are associated with presenteeism, which is defined as attending work while ill. Although presenteeism is a relatively new concept in academic research, it should be regarded as an important social issue in that presenteeism threatens employees' job prospects and quality of life as well as it causes loss of work productivity. I analyzed a cross-sectional survey of 24,571 wage workers over 15 from the fourth wave of the Korean Working Conditions Survey in 2014. Five logistic regression models were analyzed on experience of presenteeism, and work hours and private life, occupational environment, job insecurity, rewards and welfare were assessed as key predictors of presenteeism. I found that 1) work hours with bad fit with private life, 2) high level of work time-pressure, and low job satisfaction 3) job insecurity, and 4) low benefits are associated with experience of presenteeism. The findings are fairly consistent with the theory of job-person mismatch, which explains that workers tend to preserve their personal resources by going to work while ill (presenteeism) when job demands or work conditions do not match with their level of personal expectation and, thus, workers are afraid of loss of personal resources. Presenteeism influences worker's long-term health and quality of life negatively as well as causes serious social costs. Therefore, we need organizational efforts to prevent the negative effects of presenteeism on society as well as workers.

An Analysis on the Labor and Capital Productivity of the Construction Industry

  • Choi, Min Soo;Kim, Moo Han
    • Architectural research
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.91-96
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study is to clarify the reality of labor and capital productivity in the construction industry through an industry-level approach and to analyze the relationship between labor and capital productivity using a Cobb-Douglas production function. According to the research results, the construction industry has shown a very high capital productivity, while labor productivity has kept up a low level during the 1980s and 1990s. The reason was because of the lack of skillful construction workers and the decrease of capital. Meanwhile, the construction productivity has greatly increased since 2000 when there was no change in wages. This was because of a large inflow of low-wage foreign workers while the amount of value added has dramatically increased due to the liberalized sale price of apartment buildings. According to the analysis by the Cobb-Douglas production function, the elasticity coefficient of V/L to K/L in the construction industry had decreased from 1.1663 in the $1^{st}$ period(1971-1988) to 0.4465 in the $2^{nd}$ period(1989-1997), and to 0.1664 in the $3^{rd}$ period(1998-2003). Such a result means that the allocation of labor has gradually increased while the allocation of capital has decreased. Moreover there was a big increase in allocation of labor after 1998 due to the excessive deterioration of capital. In conclusion, in order to raise the construction productivity and to avoid labor-intensive production methods, investment for capital should be more increased. In particular, new machinery and equipment that can actually substitute human labor in construction sites should be more developed and applied to construction sites.

AN ANALYSIS ON THE LABOR/CAPITAL PRODUCTIVITY OF THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

  • Minsoo Choi;Jinu Kim;Moohan Kim
    • International conference on construction engineering and project management
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    • 2005.10a
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    • pp.968-973
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study is to clarify the reality of labor and capital productivity in the construction industry through an industry-level approach and to analyze the relationship between labor and capital productivity using a Cobb-Douglas production function. According to the research results, the construction industry has shown a very high capital productivity, while labor productivity has kept up a low level during the 1980s and 1990s. The reason was because of the lack of skillful construction workers and the decrease of capital. Meanwhile, the construction productivity has greatly increased since 2000 when there was no change in wages. This was because of a large inflow of low-wage foreign workers while the amount of value added has dramatically increased due to the liberalized sale price of apartment buildings. According to the analysis by the Cobb-Douglas production function, the elasticity coefficient of V/L to K/L in the construction industry had decreased from 1.1663 in the 1st period(1971-1988) to 0.4465 in the 2nd period(1989-1997), and to 0.1664 in the 3rd period(1998-2003). Such a result means that the allocation of labor has gradually increased while the allocation of capital has decreased. Moreover there was a big increase in allocation of labor after 1998 due to the excessive deterioration of capital. In conclusion, in order to raise the construction productivity and to avoid labor-intensive production methods, investment for capital should be more increased. In particular, new machinery and equipment that can actually substitute human labor in construction sites should be more developed and applied to construction sites.

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An Empirical Study on the Quality of Working Life in Merchant Ships (선박의 QWL(근염생활의 질)에 관한 실증연구)

  • 임종길;이태우
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.23-75
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    • 1995
  • A major change occuring in the workplace is the willingness of union leaders, managers, and workers to experiment with various work schedules and to work toward the improvement in the QWL(quality of work life). In this study, the writer measures the level of QWL, embodies components of QWL, testifies the difference of QWL according to the demographical traits, and develops some scales to measure QWL in merchant ships. To achieve objectives of the paper, 11 hypotheses were established and a questionnaire was used, 894 proper data was obtained from 2, 910 Korean seamen working in merchant ships. Results of analyses are as follows : 1) The components of QWL in merchant ships are job, employee satisfaction, wage, welfare, working condition, supervise, colleague relations, initiative, and organization management. 2) Seamen of merchant ships are satisfied with job, supervise, colleague relations, and organization management. They are dissatisfied employee satisfaction, wage, welfare, and working condition. 3) According to demographical traits, the number of the factors significant difference(P<0.05) among components of QWL are 9 for type of ships, 8 ages of seamen, 7 for married or single, nationality of ships, and education level respectively, 5 for seamen career, for 4 rank on board and trading route of ships respectively, 2 for whether union or not and whether union involvement or not respectively, and 1 for department on board. 4) Results which tested hypotheses are as follows : For the components of QWL, married men are more satisfactory than an unmarried men, officers are more dissatisfactory than ratings, old men are more satisfactory than young men, men in high education level are more dissatisfactory than men in low education level, those who are much careers as a seaman are more satisfactory than those who are little careers as a seaman. There are significant differences in the components of QWL according to nationality and type of ships. There are insignificant differences in the components of QWL according to the shipboard department, whether union is or not, whether union involvement is or not, and trading route of ships.

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Labor Human Rights for Care Workers (요양보호사의 노동인권에 관한 고찰)

  • Jeon, Chan-Hui
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.13 no.5
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    • pp.234-242
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    • 2013
  • In 2007, Long-Term Care Insurance Law was enacted to share the family burden of caring for the elderly who are unable to perform every day living activities due to their old age and chronic diseases such as senile dementia, diabetes mellitus, stroke and more. Backed by this law, since 2008, care workers have been sent to the elderly care centers or each elder's home to help them not only with their recovery from illnesses, but also with general activities from dressing, eating, bathing, walking even to toileting. However, according to the recently released survey by National Human Rights Commission, it has been found that the caring workers are in a very poor working condition including low income, abused blanket wage system, shortage of welfare services, extra works and even sexual harrassment. It is becoming an important issue due to fast-ageing population, the fact that the care workers have had experiences of violation in their right of labor while they are at work needs to be carefully treated. In that sense, this article presents some difficulties the caring workers face and proposes effective ways to solve these problems through the perspective of human rights and human labor rights based on the report written by National Human Rights Commission. In short, for this law to function properly and to boost the worker's capability of providing better services to beneficiaries, followings can be good answers - enhanced management and supervision on caring plans and care centers, providing immediate counselling and protection for victimized care givers, training courses offered to promote service receiver's sincere respect and strengthened awareness upon care givers.

The Meaning of Economic Activity of Middle-aged Men using Big Data

  • Sim, Yu Jeong;Lim, Ahn-Na
    • International journal of advanced smart convergence
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    • v.9 no.3
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    • pp.176-182
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    • 2020
  • In this paper, to analyze the meaning of middle-aged men's economic activities, TEXTOM was used to analyze them. The data collection period is set from 2017 to 2019. Among the collected data, 100 refined words were converted into a matrix in which the degree of social connection was calculated, and the keyword network analysis was performed again with the NetDraw program. According to the study, middle-aged men put more meaning on their current work and family than their future retirement. Also, the related word commonly included in the top five for all three years was 'work'. Related words commonly included in the top 10 were 'old age', 'family', and 'work', and in 2018 and 2019, 'health' was included in the top 10. As a result of this, the middle-aged men living in the modern age are the generation who keep their families through economic activities and are increasingly interested in health and prepare for retirement. Therefore, policy support for stable economic activities is needed to improve the quality of life for middle-aged men. It is necessary to extend the retirement age, expand jobs and provide effective vocational training so that it can handle its role as the head of a family. In addition, measures should be taken to reduce the wage gap between highly skilled and low-skilled workers.

Health Inequalities Among Korean Employees

  • Choi, Eunsuk
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.8 no.4
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    • pp.371-377
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    • 2017
  • Background: Social status might be a determinant of occupational health inequalities. This study analyzed the effects of social status on both work environments and health outcomes. Methods: The study sample consisted of 27,598 wage employees aged 15 years and older from among the Korean Working Condition Survey participants in 2011. Work environments included atypical work, physical risks, ergonomic risks, work demands, work autonomy, social supports, and job rewards. Health outcomes comprised general health, health and safety at risk because of work, the World Health Organization-5 Well-being Index, work-related musculoskeletal disease, and work-related injury. Multivariable logistic-regression models were used to identify the associations between social status and work environments and health outcomes. Results: Employees in the demographically vulnerable group had lower occupational status compared with their counterparts. Low social status was largely related to adverse work environments. Especially, precarious employment and manual labor occupation were associated with both adverse work environments and poor health outcomes. Conclusion: Precarious and manual workers should take precedence in occupational health equity policies and interventions. Their cumulative vulnerability, which is connected to demographics, occupational status, adverse work environments, or poor health outcomes, can be improved through a multilevel approach such as labor market, organizations, and individual goals.

Development of production planning model for women′s wear manufacturer - focused on the changing style numbers and lot size - (생산 품목과 생산량의 변화에 적용가능한 여성복 생산라인 설계 모델에 관한 연구)

  • 박상희
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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    • v.26 no.11
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    • pp.1582-1592
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    • 2002
  • The purpose of this study is to suggest production planning model for women's apparel manufacturer, which are relevant to the situation of Korean clothing industry. The research was based on simulation method. The basic model for the simulation was developed based on the empirical data from six production fm. After verifying the basic model, low alternative production plans went through trial run. In order to suggest the application of these alternative production plans for various style numbers and lot sizes, the simulation results were compared in terms of product efficiency and product cost. The four alternative plans were as follows: 1. The first alternative was to spread out work loads among workers in order to resolve bottlenecks in work flow. So this was suited to manufacturers that had constant production without regard to changing seasons. 2. The second alternative was to merge the skirt and trouser production, which require less work load, in one line. In this line, a few machine was justified by production improvement. It was suited to cases which producted various style suits. The third and fourth alternative were using another subcontractor for assembling inner shell garments. These was compatible in manufacturers which had to product more styles and sizes of trousers and skirts than those of upper garments. 3. The third alternative was to reassign the same workers in production line. Thus, production was increased. 4. The fourth alternative was to except two worker in production line, so expenses of worker's wage was decreased. The four alternatives could be one of the cost effective manufacturing plans according to manufacturer situations.

A Study on the Improvement of Korea Network for Occupations and Workers(KNOW): Focused on the Engineering Students in College Career Courses (한국직업정보시스템(KNOW)의 개선방안에 관한 연구: 공과대학 진로교과목 수강생을 중심으로)

  • Kang, Hye-Young;Park, Ka-Yeul
    • 대한공업교육학회지
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    • v.40 no.2
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    • pp.216-238
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    • 2015
  • The purpose of this study was to identify the improvement plan of Korea Network for Occupations and Workers(KNOW) in terms of the information quality and usefulness for undergraduate students.'Homework of occupational information exploration'as research instrument was assigned to the engineering students taking career courses at KoreaTech in Chungnam province, Korea. Data was collected from two-hundred sixty six college students. The main results were as follows: The percentage of awareness of KNOW was very low(7.5%), but the mean of preference(73.5) and usefulness of career readiness(70.6) of KNOW were likely to be high. The information quality of KNOW was analysed in terms of both menu bar and evaluative components. In menu bar, the highest mean of information quality was'wage, job satisfaction, and job outlook'menu bar(71.7). On the other hand'task information on the job'had the lowest mean. In evaluative component, the highest mean of information quality was understandability(73.4), whereas the completeness was at the bottom(63.7). These results implied that the KNOW has the usefulness for engineering students to explore the occupational information and to make ready for career. Nevertheless, it is needed to publicize KNOW and to redeem menu bar and contents for the improvement of this online system.