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AUSTIN, Texas
With fluctuating gas prices and the increasing call for work-life balance, telecommuting has become an attractive option for busy professionals. Yet according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin, for most employees who work remotely, telecommuting equates to working more hours. The study, co-authored by Jennifer Glass, professor in the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Center, shows that most of the 30 percent of respondents who work from home add five to seven hours to their workweek compared with those who work exclusively at the office. They are also significantly less likely to work a standard 40 hour schedule and more likely to work overtime. In fact, most telecommuting hours occur after an employee has already put in 40 hours of work at the office. Using two nationally representative data sources — the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 panel and special supplements from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey — Glass and her colleague, Mary Noonan, associate professor of sociology at the University of Iowa, analyzed trends in the use of telecommuting among employees and employers in the U.S. civilian workforce. The results, published in Monthly Labor Review, indicate that telecommuting causes work to seep into home life, a problem previously identified in the 2008 Pew Networked Workers survey. According to the survey, a majority of tech-savvy workers claim that telecommuting technology has increased their overall work hours and that employees use technology, especially email, to perform work tasks even when sick or on vacation. “Careful monitoring of this blurred boundary between work and home time and the erosion of ‘normal working hours’ in many professions can help us understand the expansion of work hours overall among salaried workers,” says Glass, who is the Barbara Pierce Bush Regents Professor in Liberal Arts. The researchers also found the labor demand for work-family accommodation does not seem to propel the distribution of telecommuting hours. In fact, parents with dependent children are no more likely to work from home than the population as a whole. According to the findings, employees with authority and status are more likely than others to have the option to work remotely because they have more control of their work schedules. The authors conclude that telecommuting has not permeated the American workplace, and where it has become commonly used, it is not very helpful in reducing work-family conflicts. Instead, it appears to have allowed employers to impose longer workdays, facilitating workers’ needs to add hours to the standard workweek.
(AUSTIN)
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs released the final report in the Texas, It’s your Money series titled, Your Money and Pension Obligations. Combs also announced recommendations aimed at improving government transparency for legislative leadership to consider in the upcoming session. This latest report provides a detailed look at state and local pension programs, while the overall report series offers Texans a clear picture of who is taxing them, how their money is being spent and how public debt is growing. Each one of the reports focuses on financial obligations of taxpayers and provides suggestions on how government should provide more transparency regarding those obligations. Combs is now recommending the Legislature consider these suggestions in the upcoming session. “What comes through in each of these reports is a set of recommendations which shows where we fall short of talking straight to the taxpayer and providing a more transparent government,” Combs said. “I am working with leadership on legislative ideas to embody these recommendations and principles.” The first of these reports, Your Money and The Taxing Facts, examines all the local entities that contribute to a taxpayer’s bill, such as cities, counties, special-purpose districts and transit authorities, and identifies trends in spending. Combs is calling for these taxing entities to post more information on the Web and for local taxing districts to send that information to the Comptroller’s office so the agency can put all local sales and property tax information on one public website. The second report, Your Money and Local Debt, zeroes in on the debt issued by local governments. Combs suggests ballots for new debt contain information both on current and proposed debt obligations, including the following: the debt’s stated purpose, total outstanding debt, total debt per capita and annual debt service requirements. The third report, Your Money and Education Debt, examines the indebtedness of Texas’ public schools and higher education institutions. Because most of this debt is used for school construction, Combs wants information on the cost of each facility, cost per square foot and space per student be posted on the Web. The fourth report, Your Money and Pension Obligations, looks at public pension debt, which has made national headlines recently. Combs urges public pension funds in Texas to report on a public website such line items as their actual investment returns for the past 10 years and the plans’ assumed rates of return. “We want to give taxpayers the same kind of information on government debt and spending that they would need to prepare and balance their own budgets, to handle a mortgage or buy a car — a clear knowledge of what we’re spending and what we owe,” Combs said. “It’s your money. If you don’t know how it’s being used, you need to know. And it’s our job to let you know.” Each of the four reports along with interactive Web tools can be seen at www.texasitsyourmoney.org
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers at the Brownsville B&M International Bridge arrested an ex-Rio Hondo police officer who was wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service. On December 4, 2012 a 30-year-old male United States citizen arrived at the Brownsville-Matamoros International Bridge as a pedestrian and presented his Texas issued driver’s license and U.S. birth certificate to a CBP officer. Preliminary checks revealed that the individual, later identified as Armando Duenez, was a possible match to an arrest warrant and was referred to secondary for further inspection. In secondary further biometric checks through CBP and law-enforcement databases confirmed that he was an exact match to a warrant from the U.S. Marshals. Duenez had been allegedly involved in unlawful firearms sales and had failed to appear for his judicial proceedings. CBP arrested the male traveler and released him to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service who transported him to the Willacy County Regional detention center. “Our officers have assisted in the apprehension of another fugitive of the law and our ability to check everyone seeking entry into our country has allowed us to capture this individual and turn him over to the proper authorities,” said Michael Freeman, Brownsville Port Director.