Working the Night Shift: The Impact of Compensating Wages and Local Economic Conditions on Shift Choice

Table 1

Summary statistics by variable.

Variable	Description	All	Day	Night
Wage	Hourly wage in dollars and cents	17.754	17.908	13.795
		(11.165)	(11.303)	(5.391)
Log wage	Logarithm of hourly wage	2.724	2.731	2.547
		(0.539)	(0.543)	(0.401)
Night shift	=1 if night shift worker	0.037
		(0.190)
Years of school	Years of completed schooling	13.598	13.628	12.834
		(2.463)	(2.481)	(0.178)
Experience	Age-hgc-6	21.422	21.468	20.245
		(10.150)	(10.115)	(10.970)
Union	=1 if wages are set by collective bargaining	0.154	0.151	0.218
		(0.361)	(0.358)	(0.415)
Nonwhite	=1 if nonwhite	0.134	0.132	0.185
		(0.340)	(0.338)	(0.390)
Female	=1 if female	0.492	0.494	0.43
		(0.500)	(0.500)	(0.497)
Married	=1 if married	0.851	0.854	0.788
		(0.356)	(0.353)	(0.410)
Northeast	=1 if resident of northeast	0.183	0.184	0.146
		(0.387)	(0.388)	(0.354)
North Central	=1 if resident of north central	0.259	0.26	0.258
		(0.439)	(0.439)	(0.439)
South	=1 if resident of south	0.292	0.291	0.305
		(0.455)	(0.454)	(0.462)
MSA	=1 if resident of a metropolitan statistical area	0.718	0.72	0.662
		(0.450)	(0.449)	(0.474)
Children present	=1 if respondent has children	0.598	0.596	0.649
		(0.490)	(0.491)	(0.479)
Industry shift rate	Shift rate within the industry, calculated as the proportion	2.896	2.725	7.292
	of night shift workers in 234 detailed industry categories	(3.507)	(3.362)	(4.226)
Multiple jobs	=1 if respondent works multiple jobs	0.059	0.058	0.093
		(0.236)	(0.234)	(0.291)
Wholesale trade industry	=1 if wholesale trade industry	0.045	0.046	0.02
		(0.208)	(0.210)	(0.140)
Retail trade industry	=1 if retail trade industry	0.097	0.093	0.179
		(0.296)	(0.291)	(0.384)
Transportation industry	=1 if transportation, communications, and/or public utilities	0.084	0.083	0.119
		(0.277)	(0.275)	(0.325)
Financial industry	=1 if finance, insurance, or real estate industry	0.075	0.077	0.007
		(0.263)	(0.267)	(0.081)
Entertainment and recreation industry	=1 if entertainment and recreation industry	0.01	0.009	0.026
		(0.098)	(0.095)	(0.161)
Professional and related industry	=1 if professional services including medical, social, and educational services	0.281	0.284	0.192
		(0.449)	(0.451)	(0.395)
Public administration industry	=1 if public administration industry	0.064	0.065	0.06
		(0.246)	(0.246)	(0.238)
Executive and managerial occupation	=1 if executive, administrative, or managerial occupation	0.182	0.187	0.046
		(0.386)	(0.390)	(0.211)
Professional/specialty occupation	=1 if professional or specialty occupation	0.185	0.187	0.113
		(0.388)	(0.390)	(0.317)
Technical occupation	=1 if technician or related support occupation	0.036	0.037	0.026
		(0.187)	(0.188)	(0.161)
Sales occupation	=1 if sales occupation	0.09	0.092	0.046
		(0.287)	(0.289)	(0.211)
Clerical occupation	=1 if administrative support or clerical occupation	0.172	0.175	0.099
		(0.377)	(0.380)	(0.300)
Protective services occupation	=1 if protective services occupation	0.017	0.013	0.099
		(0.128)	(0.115)	(0.300)
Craft occupation	=1 if precision production, craft, and/or repair	0.12	0.12	0.139
		(0.326)	(0.325)	(0.347)
Operator occupation	=1 if machine operator, assembler, or inspector occupation	0.056	0.052	0.152
		(0.229)	(0.222)	(0.361)
Transport occupation	=1 if transportation or material moving occupation	0.041	0.039	0.073
		(0.197)	(0.195)	(0.261)
Laborer occupation	=1 if handler, equipment cleaner, helper, or laborer occupation	0.025	0.023	0.066
		(0.155)	(0.150)	(0.250)
Unemployment rate	Unemployment rate at labor market of current residence	4.03	4.029	4.081
		(1.630)	(1.625)	(1.760)
Coincident index	Percentage change in state coincident index from April 2001 to May 2001	0.639	0.64	0.614
		(1.994)	(1.983)	(2.279)
Observations		4035	3884	151

Source: author’s calculations, CPS May 2001 [13], sample used in regressions. Standard deviations are in parentheses.