Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory, by Caitrin Lynch. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2012, 240 pp., ISBN: 978 0 8014 5026 6, $67.95, hardback.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12097 |
| Date | 01 March 2015 |
| Published date | 01 March 2015 |
| Author | Donald Flynn,Matt Flynn |
The book has two shortcomings. First, presentations of the data can be difficult to
understand and convey less information than the reader would like. For example, a
chart for trends in the ratio of the minimum to the median wage has bars in shades of
grey for each of the four years for 20 countries. It is difficult to extract useful
information from this presentation. Presentations of data are also at times inconsis-
tent. In several of the industry essays, kernel density estimates of Hungarian distri-
butions of gross hourly earnings for four years are compared with a mixture of bar
and line displays for the UK for gross straight time earnings; the difference in the form
of the charts makes comparisons challenging. Second, the book is not at its best when
it addresses issues such as the employment effects of the minimum wage. This type of
analysis is beyond the scope of this research, and the discussion of the literature is too
limited to convince. In such cases, the authors would be better off to cite existing
literature reviews, whose conclusions are generally favourable to the authors’
outlook.
Minimum Wages, Pay Equity, and Comparative Industrial Relations is an important
addition to the literature on minimum wage. More than any other study, it provides
the detail about the different national wage and industrial relations systems needed to
understand causal channels through which minimum wage legislation works, and
insight into the differences in the effect of different national systems. It is both a rich
source of knowledge and potential hypotheses about minimum wage systems that, if
taken up by empirically oriented research, will result in better and more nuanced
knowledge.
DALE BELMAN
Michigan State University
Retirement on the Line: Age, Work, and Value in an American Factory, by Caitrin
Lynch. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2012, 240 pp., ISBN:
978 0 8014 5026 6, $67.95, hardback.
Because of demographic changes and rising pension ages, there is a growing consensus
that future generations of workers will need to delay retirement, and an increasing
debate on how to design jobs that older workers will value. As many contributors to this
debate have noted, there is a risk that, without intervention from employers, unions and
the state, many older people — in competition with their younger equivalents — will
drift into low-skilled and low-paid work. This book offers a useful contribution by
offering insight into how older low-paid workers gain value from work that might
otherwise be considered menial.
In Caitrin Lynch’s book, the work seems to be constant play for the workers at
Vida Needle, a precision factory in Needham, Massachusetts. Lynch is an anthro-
pologist who chose the factory, with its preponderance of older workers, as a vehicle
to explore the social, economic and practical issues of a population that is sought after
and even revered by the factory management.
The reading is interesting but repetitive as Lynch investigates the phenomenon of
workers whose average age is 75. But the work they do also appears to be repetitive
and not mentally taxing. In repeated interviews with staff and management, Lynch
draws conclusions that are valid, namely that there is a sense of dignity in labour
and of satisfaction in completing tasks. Most employees state as a major motivator
the financial rewards of labour, however meagre, and most are paid minimum wage.
bs_bs_banner
Book Reviews 173
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics.
To continue reading
Request your trial