Work

Work

1. Why people work

   • Pay
   • Job satisfaction
     • Motivation - doing something because you want to do it e.g. voluntary work

2. Types of employment

   • Temporary - work that will last only for a specific period of time (usually a number of weeks or months) e.g. christmas retail staff
   • Seasonal - work that is only required during a particular period of a year (e.g. some agricultural work)
   • Full time - working the standard amount of working hours for a week
   • Part time - working a fraction of the standard amount of working hours a week
   • Shift work - work patterns that don't follow standard working hours (e.g. a nurse may work morning shifts)

3. Why people may not work

   • Education
   • Child care
   • Retirement

4. Economically inactive - those not working

5. Specialisation - where each worker concentrates on only one small aspect of the entire production process

   • Benefits
     • Output is produced more quickly - leads to increased productivity (output per person)
     • Workers become more skilled due to repetition
   • Limitations
     • Workers and production will become interdependant (rely on each other) to complete the finished product and this may cause problems if an area of production fails
     • Jobs may become repetitive and boring causing poor job satisfaction
     • Morale may fall as jobs are more repetitive
     • Workers are less flexible if they specialise in one task

6. How people are paid

   • Salary - pay as an annual total, no overtime paid
   • Wage - pay calculated on an hourly rate multiplied by hours worked, overtime is payable after hours of work have been met
   • Commission - payment for achieving a certain target e.g. a level of sales
   • Bankers Automated Clearing Service (BACS) - automatic transfer of funds between bank accounts e.g. employers to employees
   • Fringe benefits - workers are paid in ways other than money (company car, health insurance etc.)
   • Expenses - payment given to workers to compensate for any expenditure necessary to complete the work e.g. travelling costs

7. Wages and salaries

   • Gross pay - a workers pay before deductions for tax, national insurance and pensions
   • Net pay - pay after deductions (take home pay)
   • Income tax - tax calculated as a percentage of a workers income e.g. 20% of income
   • Tax code - workers have different tax codes which relate to the different amount of tax - free allowance a worker might get
   • National Insurance Contributions (NIC) - a tax paid by workers which entitles the worker to qualify for benefits when needed e.g. job seekers allowance
   • Pension contributions - deductions from pay that contributes to a pension
   • P45 - a document provided by an employer when an employee leaves their job
   • P60 - a document provided by an employer on an annual basis showing total pay and deductions for the year

8. What affects pay?

   • Supply of labour
     • Monetary facors
       • Level of wages
       • The higher the wages, the more willing workers will be to supply their labour
     • Non-monetary factors
       • Gender
       • Ethnic origin
       • Taxation
       • State benefits
       • Religion
   • Demand for labour
     • Derived demand - businesses demand workers because they are needed to produce goods and services to sell
     • Government influence - e.g. minimum wage, maternity/paternity pay
   • Differences in wages
     • Training and skills - the more training and skills, the higher the wages
     • Gender - women are likely to be paid less than men, due to women more likely to have a career break (children)
     • Age - older workers are likely to be paid more than younger workers
     • Trade unions - protect workers rights and often negotiate pay awards
     • Government influences
   • Why do wage rates change?
     • Surplus of labour - more workers will want to work that there are jobs available; this is likely to lead to lower wages in this occupation as business can afford to pay less
     • Shortages of labour - in an industry or business - higher wages will be needed to attract more workers to supply their labour

9. Unemployment - those who are not currently working but who are available for work

   • Costs of unemployment
     • Monetary costs
       • Loss of income (except benefit payments)
       • Receive benefits
       • Not paying tax
     • Non monetary costs
       • Loss of skills
       • Health (especially mental health)
       • Family breakdown (higher martial breakdown rates)
   • Duration of unemployment
     • The costs of unemployment are normally made worse by extended periods of time
     • Why does the duration of unemployment vary
       • Skills and training - more skills, the more likely they will find jobs
       • Qualifications - school leavers without qualifications are more likely to be unemployed as they are less attractive to businesses
       • Age - older people will find it harder to get jobs as they are expensive and thought to be too old to train
   • Government strategies to hep the unemployed
     • Tax allowances - allows a worker to earn up to a certain level before they start paying income tax, increasing these makes it more attractive for the unemployed to work as they pay no or less tax
     • Jobseekers allowance - benefits paid to the unemployed, based on evidence that the worker is seeking work
     • New deal - training for young unemployed workers (under age 25)
     • Education - vocational qualifications are encouraged and introduction of diplomas
     • Apprenticeships - increased funding for this area, so unemployed can gain specific job related skills