Price of Poverty: Involuntary Flextime

If a job offers flextime, that’s a good thing right? You can take off to make that doctor’s appointment or catch your kid’s soccer game. But in many low-wage jobs – particularly retail or hourly jobs – workers there face what could be called involuntary flextime. Schedules are posted only a few days in advance. Shifts may change. Work is unpredictable. That makes arranging childcare, taking classes or working a second job very difficult.

University of Chicago Professor Julia Henly has examined these types of work situations. As we continue our series the Price of Poverty, Henly tells WBHM’s Andrew Yeager about the conclusions she and a research colleague have drawn from their ongoing studies.