Table 1.
Precarious Employment Dimensions and Indicators used in the Precarious Employment Score, Waves 4 (2008–2009) and 5 (2016–2018) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.
| Dimensions | Item | Scoring Rubric1,2 | Question(s) in Add Health3 | Wave 4 % (N)4,5 |
Wave 5 % (N)4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Material rewards | (1.1) relative wages | 0.5 pt.: Total income earned in the past year below the U.S. median; 0 otherwise | In the last calendar year, how much income did you receive from personal earnings before taxes? Include wages or salaries, tips, bonuses, overtime pay, and income from self-employment. | 76.6 (8749) | 49.6 (1696) |
| (1.2) paid time off | 0.5 pt.: No paid time off, 0 otherwise | Does your employer make available to you paid vacation or sick leave? | 23.5 (2525) | 17.5 (593) | |
| (2) Work time arrangements | (2.1) total hours | 1 pt.: Total hours/week worked <20 or > 40, 0 otherwise | How many hours a week do you usually work at this job? | 47.6 (5272) | 47.2 (1573) |
| (3) Stability | (3.1) weeks employed | 0.5 pt.: Number of weeks worked/employed in past calendar year is <48 weeks, 48 weeks | In what month and year did you begin your current primary job? | 29.5 (3386) | 18.5 (652) |
| (3.2) number of jobs | 0.5 pt.: Number of jobs held >1, 0 otherwise | Wave 4: On how many jobs are you currently working for pay at least 10 h a week? Wave 5: How many jobs are you currently working for pay? | 14.4 (1665) | 13.4 (466) | |
| (4) Workers’ rights | (4.1) health insurance | 0.5 pt.: Health insurance not offered by employer, 0 otherwise | Does your employer make available to you health insurance? | 24.0 (2588) | 20.5 (687) |
| (4.2) retirement plan | 0.5 pt.: No retirement plan (other than social security) offered by the employer, 0 otherwise | Does your employer make available to you retirement benefits (such as 401(k), 403b, or a company pension plan)? | 31.4 (3428) | 23.9 (803) | |
| (5) Interpersonal relations | (5.1) freedom to make decisions | 1 pt.: Minimal freedom to make decisions without supervision, 0 otherwise | Overall, how often do you have the freedom to make important decisions about what you do at work and how you do it? | 11.8 (1361) | 5.5 (185) |
The primary precarious employment score maps items to dimensions, so that each dimension represented =1. The total possible score is 5.
As sensitivity analyses, alternative scores include: 1) taking the sum of all items versus dimensions (score range = 0 to 8); 2) excluding the number of jobs (item 3.2) (score range = 0 to 5); 3) excluding freedom to make decisions (item 5.1) (score range = 0 to 4); and 4) moving paid time off from the material rewards to the workers’ rights domain (score range = 0 to 5).
Questions are based on the current primary job, except for number of jobs (3.2).
Represents the N (%) of individuals assigned a 0.5 or 1, indicating more precarious employment. Percents incorporated the Add Health survey weights and the IPCW.
For wave 4, n = 11,520; there are 11,510 individuals in the PSS model and an additional 10 individuals in the CRP models that do not have the PSS.