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In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) awarded a $1.5 million grant to Colombia’s Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS) to implement the project Strengthening Protections of Internationally Recognized Labor Rights in Colombia (Workers’ Rights Centers) over three years. In 2015, ENS received a one-year extension with an additional $600,000 in funding for a total of $2.1 million.

In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) awarded a $1.5 million grant to Colombia’s Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS) to implement the project Strengthening Protections of Internationally Recognized Labor Rights in Colombia (Workers’ Rights Centers) over three years. In 2015, ENS received a one-year extension with an additional $600,000 in funding for a total of $2.1 million.

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 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.

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.

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).

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.

The report compares MSHA Part 50 program data to mining-related claims filed with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission (IWCC). Illinois was chosen because it is an important mining state which collects substantial data on workers’ compensation claims. The research group at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health has full access to this data set and obtained access to Illinois MSHA Part 50 data in order to perform this analysis.

To provide context for the discussions with individuals likely to use paid family leave benefits, researchers summarize some of the paid family leave literature. First, they provide an overview of the existing federal and state policies that support leave-taking. Second, they discuss utilization trends associated with state-based paid leave laws. And finally, they delve into barriers to use of these paid leave benefits.

The report details a study that uses the introductions of California’s Paid Family Care Leave Act (CA-FLI) and New Jersey’s Family Leave Insurance (NJ-FLI) to examine the effects of paid-leave laws on labor market outcomes for individuals who are likely to provide care to an elderly parent. A 2012 survey of employees in the United States showed that work leaves related to the health of a family member (parent, spouse, or child) were almost as common as leaves related to caring for a newborn child (Klerman, Daley, and Pozniak, 2014).