source-library
OTHER ECONOMY
Workplace Engagement and Compensation
Workplace Engagement and Compensation
Despite record productivity, workers are unengaged and underpaid
- Gallup Poll: Crabtree 13
- Only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work
- The bulk of employees worldwide (63%) lack motivation and are less likely to invest discretionary effort in organizational goals or outcomes.
- Just one in eight are fully involved in and enthusiastic about their jobs
- Inequality.org
- Despite low engagement, workers are still producing a lot, but are not compensated adequately
- Despite low engagement, workers are still producing a lot, but are not compensated adequately
- https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ discusses reasons why productivity and compensation have diverged
- Keep in mind this productivity-compensation gap has been challenged by multiple economists and might not be accurate
Generational Gap
Generational Gap
Younger people face unique systemic disadvantages, such as unemployment, lack of housing, and student debt, indicative of an inadequate economy
- Financial Times: Leatherby 17
- Compared to previous generations at the same age, millennials and younger people:
- Are more unemployed
- Own fewer homes themselves
- Are failing to out-earn their parents
- Are burdened with record student debt
- Compared to previous generations at the same age, millennials and younger people:
Innovation
Innovation
Innovation and potential innovators are restricted by issues like wealth and exposure to innovators. Leaders of innovation tend to be places where most people have more stable access to money via safety nets.
- Bell et al. 19
- Uses data from 1.2 million inventors from patent records linked to tax records
- Finds that certain characteristic at birth (gender, race, parents’ socioeconomic class) in addition to certain environmental characteristics (exposure to innovation-rich areas, living around innovators) have a significant correlation with the likelihood of that person becoming an inventor later on in life
- Women and minorities are exposed less to relevant environmental factors, explaining why they don’t innovate as much as white men
- European Innovation Scoreboard 19
- In the EU, countries with more functional safety nets (mainly in Scandinavia and Western Europe) perform better when it comes to innovation
- In the EU, countries with more functional safety nets (mainly in Scandinavia and Western Europe) perform better when it comes to innovation
- https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)00705-4.pdf
- Almost no R&D funding is put towards diseases that predominantly affect developing countries. Perhaps that’s because there is little profit in doing so.
- “As little as 1% of all global funding for health R&D is allocated to diseases mostly noted in low-income and middle-income countries, such as malaria and tuberculosis, even though these diseases account for more than 12.5% of the global burden of disease.”
- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/20/budget-2012-osborne-failed-model-1979