CEO Library

A main goal of the U.S. Unemployment Insurance (UI) program is to provide temporary income support to workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Benefits supply only partial wage replacement and are time-limited, so as to balance providing income support during unemployment and preserving incentives for benefit recipients to return to work. Most UI claimants who begin receiving benefits during non-recessionary periods can collect them for up to 26 weeks.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) contracted with IMPAQ International, LLC and its partners, the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) and Universal Designers and Consultants (UD&C), to measure the accessibility of American Job Centers (AJC) for people with disabilities. The bulk of previous research on AJC accessibility involved case studies or limited surveys focused on specific issues. Prior to this study, there had been no comprehensive survey of AJCs.

The report describes the methods used by Abt Associates in conducting the Worker Classification Knowledge Survey for the Department of Labor. The Worker Classification Knowledge Survey is a dual-frame telephone survey that measures American workers’ knowledge about their current job classification and their knowledge about the rights and benefits associated with their job status. Abt conducted this study in support of the U.S.

In 2016, the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and funded contractor Abt Associates to conduct the Worker Classification Knowledge Survey. The survey aims to better document workers’ understanding of issues related to job classification, associated rights and benefits, and employer insights on worker classification.

There is ongoing policy debate about employee classification; that is, who the law says should be classified as an employee and who should be classified as self-employed. But do workers themselves understand their current status? To explore whether workers understand their current status, a recent Abt Associates survey asked 8,503 workers for their (1) work status (employee or self-employed) and (2) what earnings documentation for tax purposes they received from their main job (W-2 or 1099-MISC). Earnings documentation alone is not definitive as to classification.

Workers who meet the legal definition of employees receive statutory protections such as minimum wage, overtime pay, and Unemployment Insurance coverage. Workers defined as self-employed forgo these protections as well as other employer-provided benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans. In order for workers to make informed choices between employment and self-employment, they need to understand how those rights and benefits vary with classification (i.e., employee vs. self-employed).

The document provides information related to the public use files (PUFs) of the Worker Classification Knowledge Survey. (Beyond what is contained in the technical report (Daley et al. 2016); no information from the semi-structured interviews is being released.) The survey instruments are included as Appendix A of the Methodology Report, and are also included in this document as Appendix B. The balance of this document proceeds as follows. Section 2 discusses steps to prevent disclosure. Section 3 provides sample code for analyzing the data using SAS.

Under contract from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Abt Associates conducted a survey of 8,503 workers on issues related to employee classification; i.e., whether those who by law are employees are being treated as self-employed (and vice versa). In addition, the study conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with employers and employer representatives. The report describes the survey which suggests that workers have an imperfect understanding of the implications of employment status.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program was designed to reduce financial hardships for unemployed workers, assist with reemployment, and ameliorate the negative effects of unemployment on the economy as a whole. The loss of a job poses major hardships for many workers and their families. They often need to begin a potentially challenging search for new employment and also adjust their spending patterns and seek other sources of income. For qualified unemployed workers, UI benefits can help reduce the urgency for such adjustments.

The Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) partnered with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) and Division of Research & Evaluation (DRE) and funded the University of Texas Health Science Center at the Houston School of Public Health to conduct the Work-Related Violence Research Project: Overview and Survey Module and Focus Group Findings.

The report provides new evidence on Rhode Island’s (RI) Temporary Caregiver Insurance (TCI) law, which took effect in January 2014, based on a survey of small and medium-sized businesses in the food services and manufacturing sectors in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts that the researchers carried out in December 2013 (just before the law came into effect) and in January/February 2015 (one year after the law came into effect). The researchers collected information about firm characteristics and productivity, employee life events and workflow, and employer provided benefits.

The report examines expansions to the unemployment compensation system that followed the onset of the Great Recession. Before the recession, eligible workers losing a job could collect up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in most states. Near the end of 2009, up to 99 weeks were available in high-unemployment states through the UI program, the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008 (EUC08) program, and the Extended Benefits (EB) program. The researchers' main analysis used administrative and survey data on 2,122 recipients in 12 states.

Appendices to the Survey of Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report: Appendix A: Methodology, Appendix B: Survey Instrument, and Appendix C: Standard Error Estimates.

Non-Response Report of the Survey of Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report.

The U.S.

The brief presents high-level findings from the Survey of Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report.

National section of the Survey of Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) section of the Survey of the Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report.

Wage and Hour Division (WHD) section of the Survey of Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report.

Working Women section of the Survey of Public Opinion of the U.S. Population Working Rights Final Report.

Appendix E to the Workers' Rights - Access, Assertion, and Knowledge in Mining Final Report: Tabulated Survey Results Measuring Voice in the Workplace: Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA).

Brief describing high-level findings of the Workers’ Rights - Access, Assertion, and Knowledge in Mining Final Report.

Appendix D to the Workers' Rights - Access, Assertion, and Knowledge in Mining Final Report: Cognitive Interviewing Report, Script, and Copy of Instrument Used.

Appendix C to the Workers' Rights - Access, Assertion, and Knowledge in Mining Final Report: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Package.

Appendix B to the Workers' Rights - Access, Assertion, and Knowledge in Mining Final Report: Final Design Report.