National Worker Survey

Appendix F. Formative Research Interview Guide

Formative Research on Implementing RDS on the Worker Survey

Intro for interview:

Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in the interview today. Your participation is very important to the study. My name is __________ and I work for Westat, a research company in Rockville, MD. Before we begin, I need to provide the following burden notice:

OMB No.: 1290-0043

Expiration: 10/31/2025

Public reporting burden for this interview guide is estimated to average 60 minutes, or one hour per response. The burden estimate includes the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and submitting the screener questionnaire. This collection of information is voluntary. You are not required to respond to this collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. Please send comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information to the U.S. Department of Labor, Chief Evaluation Office, 200 Constitution Ave NW., Washington, DC 20210, or email [email protected] and reference OMB control number 1290-0043.

The Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor asked us to conduct this study to find out about where people work, what jobs they do, and how they are paid. We expect to conduct this study within the next year.

To make sure the study is successful, we need as many people as possible to participate, so right now we are talking to people to see what we can do with our communication materials to make sure they are easy to understand and that they encourage people to participate in the study.

Today, I’ll begin by asking you questions about your job. Then, I’ll ask you to review an invitation letter for a survey we are working on, and some example questions from the survey. After that, we’ll talk about people you might know who work in certain jobs and whether you’d consider sending a survey about work and pay to someone you know.

Participation in this discussion is voluntary, you can choose to not answer a question if you wish, and you can stop the interview at any time. We believe the risks for your participation are low. Your responses will be kept private. Our report will describe the experiences and viewpoints expressed, but you will not be identified in the report. You will not be quoted by name. Today’s discussion will last about 60 minutes. As a token of appreciation for participating, we will offer you a $50 gift card.

There are no direct benefits to you from participating, however the information you share will help us make the study a success.

We would like to record our session. We will only use the recording to help with note taking and it won’t be shared outside the study team. Any questions before we begin?

Great, I will start recording now. You may get a recording notice on your screen and you can just click “ok.”

Do you have any questions? (Answer questions). OK, let’s begin.

Background

1. To start, we’d like you to tell us about your job. [PROBE AS NEEDED]

   1. Are you hourly, salaried, or something else?

   2. What type of company do you work for?

   3. What is your job title?

   4. What kinds of tasks do you do?

Recruitment Materials

IF VIRTUAL: BEGIN SCREEN SHARING

Take a look at this envelope. Here is what the letter will look like that we would mail to you.

2. If you received this in the mail, what would you do with it? PROBE IF NEEDED: Would you open it right away, put it directly in the trash, put it aside for later, something else? Why is that? [IF ANYTHING OTHER THAN OPEN IT RIGHT AWAY] What would lead/cause you to open the envelope right away?

IF IN PERSON: Go ahead and open the envelope and read the invitation. IF VIRTUAL: Now I am showing you the letter inside the envelope. Take a minute to read through the letter and let me know when you’re done.

3. What do you think about the letter? Was there anything that you didn’t understand?

4. In your own words, what do you think this study is about?

5. What is this letter telling you to do?

   1. [IF UNCLEAR] Is anything missing from this letter that would help you better understand what to do?

6. Based on this letter, would you take the survey? Why or why not?

   1. Do you have any concerns about taking this survey?

   2. The letter says, “The survey asks about the jobs workers perform and the working conditions and pay practices workers experience.” - How willing would you be to answer those types of questions?

   3. What are your thoughts about the length of the survey?

7. [IF YES TO TAKING SURVEY] Do you have access to the internet in your home or on your phone? What kind of device would you take the survey on?

Willingness to Respond

8. Here are some example questions from the survey. [IF VIRTUAL, SHARE SCREEN] I will ask you about your view of these questions.

Do you ever work before the start of your scheduled shift or before you sign in or punch in? Do not include times that are less than 10 minutes.

• Yes 

• No

If you work more than 40 hours in a single workweek for [employer name], are you paid anything for these hours?

• Yes, I receive additional pay in my next paycheck

• No, I am not paid anything

• No, I am given comp time instead (applying the additional hours as time off in the future)

• I never work more than 40 hours in one week

When you work over 40 hours in a week, how much are you paid for those additional hours?

• Regular wage (straight-time)

• Time and a half

• Double time

• Flat amount regardless of hours worked

• Paid some other way

Does your employer deduct anything from your pay because you broke something or for cash register shortages or customers who did not pay their bills?

• Yes 

• No

During the last three years, did you make a complaint, either by yourself or with co-workers, about pay or hours of work, by going to your employer, supervisor or going to a government agency? 

 

• Yes  

• No

Are these the kinds of questions you’d expect to see based on the letter you read?

Are these questions ones that you’d be comfortable answering on a web survey? Do you see a reason others would be hesitant to answer them?

9. Based on the letter you said that you [would/would not] participate in the study. Has your answer changed now that you’ve seen examples of questions?

Target Population

We will be asking people who participate in this study to help us recruit other people to also be part of the study. We are interested in people who work in certain types of places or jobs.

10. We are going to go through a list of 12 places where people work/types of work people do. For each, please just tell me what you think of when you read/hear these places/types of work and give me examples of some businesses and jobs. Even if it seems obvious, we just want to know what comes to mind for each of these. You can tell me as many as you can think of.

If you’re not sure, that’s also important for us to know. Remember that there are no right or wrong answers.

KEEP THIS LIST ON THE SCREEN/IN FRONT OF PARTICIPANT

• Restaurant, bar, or fast food

• Grocery store or supermarket

• Department or discount store

• Amusement such as an amusement park, arcade, or casino

• Building services such as a janitor or cleaner

• Nursing home

• Hotel or motel

• Home health care

• Landscaping

• Security guard

• Center or home child day care

• Residential construction

Willingness to Recruit Others

11. Now, let’s say we wanted you to ask up to three people you know to complete the survey, and that you’d be paid $20 for each person who completed the survey. Would you invite anyone? Why or why not?

12. Would you rather be paid $40 as long as at least one person you recommend completes the survey, or would you rather get $20 per person, up to three people, so up to $60. What makes one more appealing to you than the other?

13. How would you prefer to get someone access to the survey? For example:

    1. Would you give us their contact information?

    2. Would you give them our contact information?

    3. What if we sent you an invitation you could forward to someone else? How would you want to receive it, and how would you send it on? Probes: Email, text message

14. What kind of information would you want to be able to tell someone about the survey if you were inviting them to participate?

    1. What is most important? Time it takes, $$, content, other?

15. Now let’s think about it the other way around - If you received an invitation from a friend or co-worker with a link to this survey, would you do it?

    1. What would motivate you to take it?

       1. Probes: Does it depend on who asks you? Time, money, content? Format – email or text, if they called you first? Friend vs. co-worker?

    2. [IF ANSWER CHANGED FROM EARLIER AND NOT DISCUSSED ABOVE] Earlier you said that you [would/would not] take the survey if you received a letter about it in the mail. What about getting the invitation from a friend or coworker via text or email instead of in the mail from a company made you change your answer?

    3. Do you think other people would complete the survey if they received a text or email from a friend or coworker inviting them to participate? Why or why not?

Respondent Social Network

16. Earlier we showed you a list of places people work and jobs people do. We would like to know how many people you know in each of these places or jobs. Please do not include anyone who is a manager or self-employed or business owners. For each of these, please just give me your best guess as to how many people you know who have these jobs.

• Restaurant, bar, or fast food

• Grocery store or supermarket

• Department or discount store

• Amusement such as an amusement park, arcade, or casino

• Building services such as a janitor or cleaner

• Nursing home

• Hotel or motel

• Home health care

• Landscaping

• Security guard

• Center or home child day care

• Residential construction

17. When you were telling me how many people you know who have these jobs, what kinds of relationships do you have with these people? Are they mostly co-workers, family, friends? Other relationships?

18. How often do you see or talk to these people? What type of contact information do you have for these people?

19. Earlier we talked about what you would do if you were asked to invite a few people to do this survey. Now, thinking only about the people who you know and who know you in these types of jobs we have displayed, Is there anyone that you know in these jobs who you would not send the survey to? Why not.

20. Now I’d like to talk to you about who you’d send the survey to, and how.

1. First, think of someone you know in one of these jobs who you might be willing to send the survey to. For purposes of today’s interview, we won’t actually contact anyone you know, but we want to know about the kinds of people you might know who would take a survey like the one we’ve been talking about.

Can you give me a name or nickname of this person?

1. What type of place or industry does that person work in?

2. What job do they do?

3. How would you prefer to tell them about the web survey?

4. Do you normally interact with them that way? Would they be surprised to receive a message from you that way?

5. How likely do you think they’d be to do the web survey?

6. [IF NOT APPARENT FROM ABOVE QUESTIONS] Do they use the internet regularly? Do you think they’d be comfortable completing a web survey?

1. Can you think of anyone else who you’d send this to?

Closing

21. What do you see as challenges to people participating in this survey?

22. What do you see as challenges to people recruiting participants for the survey?

23. Is there anything else you would like to tell us, or questions you would like to ask?

Thank you very much for your time!