Hispanics not lazy about working overtime

I don’t want to criticize another blogger who uses the General Social Survey, and in fact it was the Inductivist who first got me into using the GSS, but it seems like a lot of his posts go out of the way to find fault with minorities, even when the data doesn’t actually support it.

(Some people may ask, don’t I do the same thing? No, I look for the truth, and yes it’s more fun when the truth is politically incorrect, but I don’t think I make a habit of distorting the truth to make minorities look bad.)

The Inductivist blogger has a a blog post that unfairly accuses Hispanics of being lazy workers:

Lazy Americans? The open borders crowd gleefully tell us how much immigrants inject energy into an otherwise lazy America. Well, I looked at data from the California Workforce Survey to see who does the most overtime. Respondents (N=868) were asked how often they worked more than 40 hours a week. Here are the percentages who said "usually" by racial/ethnic group:

Percent who usually work overtime

White 31.2
Black 22.4
American-born Hispanic 24.2
Immigrant Hispanic 26.2

Those fat, lazy white people might be fat, but they ain't lazy.

It seemed obvious to me that more often than not it’s employers and not employees who make the decisions about working overtime. When employees get paid by the hour, overtime is discouraged. When employees are “salaried,” then overtime is often required.

So here are the statistics broken down by race and with respect to whether an employee is paid by the hour or salaried:

Statistics for rac1 = 3(Hispanic or Latino)
Cells contain: -Column percent -N of cases		howpaid
		1 Salaried	2 Paid by the hour	ROW TOTAL
otfrq	1: Usually	33.3 11	22.9 38	24.7 49
	2: Often	24.9 8	14.1 24	15.9 32
	3: Sometimes	24.7 8	31.0 52	29.9 60
	4: Never (SKIP TO "howpaid")	17.0 6	31.9 53	29.4 59
	COL TOTAL	100.0 34	100.0 167	100.0 201

Statistics for rac1 = 7(White or Caucasian)
Cells contain: -Column percent -N of cases		howpaid
		1 Salaried	2 Paid by the hour	ROW TOTAL
otfrq	1: Usually	43.5 78	22.4 42	32.7 119
	2: Often	15.1 27	8.5 16	11.7 43
	3: Sometimes	28.0 50	34.9 65	31.5 115
	4: Never (SKIP TO "howpaid")	13.4 24	34.2 64	24.0 88
	COL TOTAL	100.0 178	100.0 186	100.0 364

It turns out that when we look at paid-by-the-hour employees only, whites are actually more likely to say that they never work any overtime.

Not enough Hispanics are in the “salaried” category to say anything with statistically significant certainty, but it should be noted that 56% of salaried Hispanics say they “usually” or “often” work overtime, compared to 59% of whites. Only 34 Hispanic respondents are salaried, so there’s no statistical significance to the difference.

In conclusion, there’s no evidence in the California Workforce Survey that Hispanics are lazier when it comes to putting in extra hours at work.

Comments

[JewishAtheist]

...but it seems like a lot of his posts go out of the way to find fault with minorities, even when the data doesn’t actually support it.

Good work. Now maybe you'll stop going out of your way to find fault with liberals even when the data don't support it. :-)

[PhoenicianTalgar]

No HalfSigma, don't let JewAtheist fool you! "Hispanic" is a term that denominates in general caucasian spanish people. If you are thinking about Mexicans when you say "hispanics" then stop!

Mexicans are Latinos and they have nothing to do with Spaniards, except for the fact that mexicans speak a broken version of the spanish language.

-PhoenicianTalgar

[Vim]

Being devoted to a particular ideology is a good way to be wrong on a lot of things, liberal or conservative.

The unfortunate thing about this blog is the way everything on here has to be a game, hispanics vs whites vs asians vs blacks. Who will win now!

So many people in the world continue to reify the race concept which has biological proxies but no biological significance.

[Vim]

Well, okay, I was being facetious ... obviously we all know who always wins ...

[PhoenicianTalgar]

-Vim obviously we all know who always wins ...

Right... And who might win according to your distorted logic? Let me guess, it is blacks because they have melanin, am I right?

-PhoenicianTalgar

[Vim]

Everybody has melanin. (Sigh. Please learn more about the world!)

[PhoenicianTalgar]

-Vim "(Sigh. Please learn more about the world!)"

An afrocentrist tells me to learn more about the world? Haha...

On the other point, you have not answered the question however.

-PhoenicianTalgar

[Vim]

PT: There was a point?!

[SFG]

Afrocentrist? I've never seen Vim as an Afrocentrist. A liberal, yeah, but I've never seen him being partial to Africa in particular.

[Vim]

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."

-- John Stuart Mill

[tommy]

Could you exam the overtime issue by race/ethnicity and WORDSUM?

[tommy]

So many people in the world continue to reify the race concept which has biological proxies but no biological significance.

The latter half of this statement is false and the whole of the statement appears to have no meaning.

[Rob]

My guess is Vim is subcontinental, not African. Of course, one could just ask.

I have no idea why PT wants to argue how terrible Joos are 'round these parts. Or why we should bother to distinguish hispanic/latino.

[tommy]

I would like to know if Hispanics lack of salaried jobs is strictly an issue of their low intelligence or an issue of avoiding the overtime that salaried work usually entails.

[John Smith]

If the relevance of your post is to address immigration issues, measures of laziness are irrelevant. We have to ask how much tax money do they pay to the gov and how much do they get back in social spending?

Will their children have the same work ethic?

Will integration be a problem?

[PhoenicianTalgar]

-Rob Or why we should bother to distinguish hispanic/latino.

Hispanics are caucasians, just like Slavs (eastern europeans) Meds, Nords (northern europeans) are all sub groups of caucasoids.

Latinos are mexicans, they are not caucasians. Hispanics immigrants do jump not the borders, Latinos do.

Duh.

[K]

This is too detailed for something as broad as the GSS, but I don't think it's fair to compare economic migrants (whether Mexicans or Indians / Chinese on H1-B technology visas), whose reason for being in this country is solely to make money to send back to relatives, to natives who want to spend time with their relatives and participating in civic and cultural society.

A better comparison would be whether Mexican citizens in the United States work more or less than United States citizens in Iraq.

[Noah Webster]

Hispanics are caucasians, just like Slavs (eastern europeans) Meds, Nords (northern europeans) are all sub groups of caucasoids.

Latinos are mexicans, they are not caucasians. Hispanics immigrants do jump not the borders, Latinos do.

Spaniards are largely caucasians. Chicanos largely are not (caucasians such as Vincente Fox and Jorge Castaneda are exceptions that prove the rule). Chicanos are always Mexican. Mexicans are mostly mestizo.

Brazilians are Latino. Latinos largely -- but do not always -- speak Spanish. Brazilians are an exception that proves the rule. Brazilians are often neither caucasian nor mestizo nor Amerindian. Latinos always speak a Romance language. Falkland Islanders are not Latino. French-speakers from France speak French but they are not Latino. Filipinos from the Philippines often speak Spanish but they are not Latino. Spanish-speakers from Latin America are the sort of Latino that is most commonly associated with the word "Latino" in an American English-speaking context.

[Noah Webster]

An Hispanic is simply someone who speaks Spanish as a primary language. Spaniards (mostly caucasian) Chicanos (mostly mestizo) Bolivians (mostly Amerindian) and Dominicans (largely mulattoes) are all examples of Hispanics.

For the purposes of the GSS, "Hispanic" is largely determined by self identification which, in turn, is largely determined by primary language and/or the predominant language in a region of ancestral origin.

[Rob]

Thanks Noah.

[European White]

Gee, here goes one of your theories down in flames - read the last foot-in-the-mouth award. So much for the geniuses who offer "proof" for your theories.
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/news/2007/12/YE_foot_mouth

As for stupidity and conservatives, I find it cute that you have the balls, yet not the brain, to bring that issue up while Dumbya the Bush and his Dick are so visible in all their embarrassing idiocy. Says something about your conservative intelligence, too.

[Half Sigma]

What this post probably is leading to is the conclusion that when an "Hispanic" person (in other words Mestizo) has the same intelligence as a white person, they're not any worse of a person than the intelligence-matched whit person.

The problem with integrating large numbers of "Hispanic" immigrants is that their average intelligence is someone lower than the average white's (though higher than the average black's). As the average intelligence level of the U.S. population decreases, the country will get worse.

[APH]

As the average intelligence level of the U.S. population decreases, the country will get worse.

Yes. wish someone in a position of power would make this statement. I will not hold my breath.

[James B. Shearer]

How come the columns don't add up to the column totals? For example in the first table 11+8+8+6=33 not 34.