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Cornell University

Survey Research Institute

at Cornell University

SRI Surveys In The News

Foundations For A Just And Inclusive Recovery

The Cornell Survey Research Institute worked with the survey research firm SSRS to administer the Just Recovery Survey. 3,100 respondents, who were not retired or permanently out of the labor market, participated. According to the survey's authors, the survey "[M]easures how U.S. workers—particularly low paid and frontline workers, Black and Latinx workers, and women workers—are experiencing and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic..."

Among the survey's key findings:

  • "Workers...especially Black and Latinx workers, are experiencing devastating death tolls in their personal networks. Forty-two percent of Black workers and 40% of Latinx workers, compared to 23% of white workers, said they knew someone who died from COVID-19 at the time of the survey."
  • "Employers are committing wage theft during the pandemic and stealing wages from Black workers at higher rates than from white workers."
  • "Banks and landlords are targeting Black workers for eviction and foreclosure at higher rates than white workers."

The survey was conducted online in September and October of 2020. It was funded by Color Of Change, National Employment Law Project, Time's Up Foundation, and the Worker Institute at Cornell ILR.

Employee Non-Compete Agreements

Millions of private-sector workers across the country have signed non-compete agreements, limiting their right to work after leaving their current jobs.

Sexual Harassment In The Workplace

Results from Cornell Survey Research Institute's annual Empire State Poll find one out of ten adult New Yorkers report experiencing "someone in a position of authority at their workplace trying to trade job benefits for sexual favors." The report also finds that quid pro quo sexual harassment disproportionately affects people of color and those of Hispanic origin.

Regionalized Surgical Care

Over the past 15 years, there has been a growing body of evidence demonstrating better surgical outcomes when patients are treated at high-volume centers.... However, a number of significant challenges to regionalization have not yet been addressed... Americans are divided on whether the potential for improved survival with regionalization is worth the additional travel effort.

Weight Loss Surgery

Obesity is a major epidemic in the United States, and available data show that weight loss surgery may be the best way to maintain weight loss and improve health... The results of our national survey are, to our knowledge, the first to suggest that a large percentage of the population has negative attitudes toward weight loss surgery. The high prevalence of these attitudes potentially creates a difficult social environment for patients who opt for weight loss surgery.

Quitting Facebook

Gender, marital status, social ideology, household income, employment, race, and (perhaps surprisingly) weight are all factors that contribute to determining who uses and who doesn't use Facebook. Facebook use is more common among respondents who are middle-aged, female, not seeking employment, of Asian descent, or currently married.

Federal And State Programs

A 2008 poll from the Cornell Survey Research Institute famously found 57 percent of Americans saying they'd never benefited from "a government social program"—even as 94 percent of that group subsequently acknowledged benefiting from at least one program, when they were asked about 21 federal policies individually.

The Empire State Poll, conducted by the Cornell Survey Research Institute... found that statewide two-thirds (66.7%) of employed New Yorkers in households with incomes below $50,000 had heard little or nothing about New York's paid family leave program.

College-to-Work Transition & Alcohol Misuse: An Etiologic Study

Recent research suggests that the maturing out phase from alcohol abuse may last beyond the age of 22. Over 1/3 of the 40% of students abusing alcohol in college continue to do so well after graduation. Given that most grads enter the workforce between the ages of 21-24, many graduates may carry college drinking patterns with them as they enter the fulltime workforce. Consequently, the college-to-work (C2W) transition—a key phase in the transition to adulthood—may be a critical point to intervene.