Vanishing social classes? Facts and figures of the Italian labour market.

This paper analyses medium-term labour market trends from 1983 to 2018 in Italy relying on the "Rilevazione dei contratti di lavoro" from INPS archive which provides information on average salaries by professional category, age, gender, and geographical origin. Within an overall pattern of exacerbated wage inequalities, documented by means of different indicators, the empirical analysis highlights how the -component of the wage variation prevails in the gender, age and geographical dimensions. By contrast, the component in terms of professional categories (trainees, blue-collar jobs, white-collar jobs, middle managers, executives) is the only between-variation attribute to prevail, corroborating the role played by a reduced class schema, excluding capitalists and the self-employed, in explaining wage inequality.

Working from home and the explosion of enduring divides: income, employment and safety risks.

Why are there so many non-teleworkable occupations? Is teleworking only a matter of ICT usage or does it also reflect the division of labour and the underlying hierarchical layers inside organizations? What does it happen to those workers not able to telework in terms of socio-economic risks, and how does the gender dimension interact with risk stratification? Hereby, we intend to shed light on these questions using a detailed integrated dataset at individual and occupational level (Indagine Campionaria delle Professioni, Indagine delle Forze di Lavoro and Inail archive) which provides information on different nature of risks (income, employment and safety). Our results entail that, first, class attributes, intended as execution of tasks, degrees of autonomy in doing the job, layers of the occupational categories, strongly influence the chance of working from home; second, those individuals who are not able to perform their work remotely are more exposed to transition to unemployment, to earn low wages, and to safety and health risks; third, being woman and employed with a temporary contract significantly amplify risk stratification.

The Privilege of Working From Home at the Time of Social Distancing.

Although the common perception is that the pandemic is 'the great equaliser', workers' tasks, contractual framework and position in the internal organisational hierarchy strongly affect their ability to work remotely.