EFFECTS OF COMPENSATION PRACTICES ON ACADEMIC STAFF’S JOB PERFORMANCE IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, ABEOKUTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the effect of compensation practices on academic staff’s job performance in Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Multi stage sampling technique was used to purposively select 3 Agricultural base colleges followed by proportionate stratified sampling technique where respondents were randomly selected. One hundred and three (103) respondents from the three colleges of agriculture of the university were selected of which 92 questionnaires were retrieved. Data obtained was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, chi-square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Finding revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 42.71 years, 71.7% of the respondents were male, 81.5% of them were married and 79.3% of the respondents were PhD holders. The mean years of experience was 10 years while their mean income was ₦217447.29. Most (79.4%) academic staff perceived that there is a pressing need to review and rationalize the pay structure to improve employee efficiency, some of the compensation packages available were; retirement benefit (100%), study leave (91.3%), career development opportunity (82.6%). The major constraints to compensation strategies identified were poor insurance scheme (21.7%), inadequate welfare package (20.7%) and poor communication network (19.6%). Furthermore, a significant relationship existed between respondents’ age (r= -0.204, P<0.05), compensation packages (r= 0.26, P<0.05) and their job performance. The results concluded that academic staff perceived a pressing need to review the compensation packages by involving them in the compensation decision making process. Effective management and implementation of compensation packages is highly recommended. , , Job Performance

Early ovarian ageing: is a low number of oocytes harvested in young women associated with an earlier and increased risk of age-related diseases?

STUDY QUESTION Do young women with early ovarian ageing (EOA), defined as unexplained, and repeatedly few oocytes harvested in ART have an increased risk of age-related events? SUMMARY ANSWER At follow-up, women with idiopathic EOA had an increased risk of age-related events compared to women with normal ovarian ageing (NOA). WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Early and premature menopause is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), osteoporosis and death. In young women, repeated harvest of few oocytes in well-stimulated ART cycles is a likely predictor of advanced menopausal age and may thus serve as an early marker of accelerated general ageing. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION A register-based national, historical cohort study. Young women (≤37 years) having their first ART treatment in a public or private fertility clinic during the period 1995–2014 were divided into two groups depending on ovarian reserve status: EOA (n = 1222) and NOA (n = 16 385). Several national registers were applied to assess morbidity and mortality. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS EOA was defined as ≤5 oocytes harvested in a minimum of two FSH-stimulated cycles and NOA as ≥8 oocytes in at least one cycle. Cases with known causes influencing the ovarian reserve (endometriosis, ovarian surgery, polycystic ovary syndrome, chemotherapy etc.) were excluded. To investigate for early signs of ageing, primary outcome was an overall risk of ageing-related events, defined as a diagnosis of either CVD, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, cancer, cataract, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, by death of any-cause as well as a Charlson comorbidity index score of ≥1 or by registration of early retirement benefit. Cox regression models were used to assess the risk of these events. Exposure status was defined 1 year after the first ART cycle to assure reliable classification, and time-to-event was measured from that time point. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Median follow-up time from baseline to first event was 4.9 years (10/90 percentile 0.7/11.8) and 6.4 years (1.1/13.3) in the EOA and NOA group, respectively. Women with EOA had an increased risk of ageing-related events when compared to women with a normal oocyte yield (adjusted hazard ratio 1.24, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.43). Stratifying on categories, the EOA group had a significantly increased risk for CVD (1.44, 1.19 to 1.75) and osteoporosis (2.45, 1.59 to 3.90). Charlson comorbidity index (1.15, 0.93 to 1.41) and early retirement benefit (1.21, 0.80 to 1.83) was also increased, although not reaching statistical significance. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Cycles never reaching oocyte aspiration were left out of account in the inclusion process and we may therefore have missed women with the most severe forms of EOA. We had no information on the total doses of gonadotrophin administered in each cycle. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS These findings indicate that oocyte yield may serve as marker of later accelerated ageing when, unexpectedly, repeatedly few oocytes are harvested in young women. Counselling on life-style factors as a prophylactic effort against cardiovascular and other age-related diseases may be essential for this group of women. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) No external funding was received for this study. All authors declare no conflict of interest. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A

Mortality dynamics and the statutory retirement age proposal: an actuarial view

ABSTRACT This paper aimed to apply (dynamic and static) actuarial models to calculate the balanced contribution rates for the planned (at the minimum age) retirement benefit of the General Social Security System, based on the original and substitutive texts of the reform proposed by Michel Temer’s government. Even with the regular increases in life expectancy and the long-term nature of the analyses, national studies on social security are typically based on the static mortality hypothesis. The relevance of this study is evident due to the demographic changes, particularly the increase in life expectancy, experienced by the Brazilian population in recent decades and which put in question the sustainability of the national pension system. The use of dynamic actuarial models allows for more accurate discussions about the future of social security, besides contributing to the still scarce national literature. Static and dynamic actuarial models were applied to a representative individual, adjusting mortality tables from the United Nations covering 1950 to 2100. It was verified that the actuarially fair rates calculated by the dynamic actuarial model are typically higher than those obtained by the static model, especially for women. This difference is expected to increase as gains in life expectancy become more influenced by the reduction in mortality at more advanced ages. Moreover, if the social security reform is approved (in accordance with either the original or the substitutive text), there are indications from the dynamic model that the contributions rates currently charged would be excessive for men. In turn, these rates would be excessive for women considering the original text, and closer to the actuarially fair value considering the substitutive text. The development, disclosure, and regular updating of official dynamic tables (whether for mortality or other biometric assumptions) are also recommended.

A FEW REMARKS ON LEGAL ASPECTS REGARDING THE SO-CALLED “MATERNITY PENSION”

Contrary to the popular belief, the supplementary parental benefit called the “maternity pension” introduced by the Law of 31 January 2019 is not a retirement benefit in the literal sense, financed from the Social Insurance Fund. What is more, it is not a guaranteed benefit for those who raised four or more children, but a discretionary provision benefit financed from the state budget. Unfortunately, at first, a significant part of the society was impressed by the very idea of granting a “benefit” to people who instead of work brought up a large group of children, and did not go into the details of this program, which, as it turned out later, are crucial. This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the provisions of the Law on supplementary parental benefit, so as to show in detail its true structure. In addition, it will also present the effects of the maternal law and indicate other solutions that could be introduced so that the assumption of honouring the effort put into the education of numerous offspring is fully implemented for all on equal terms.

WHAT ARE THE PATHWAYS TO RETIREMENT: DO HEALTH AND COHORT MATTER?

Studies about retirement often neglect ethnic identity. Yet, racial and ethnic inequality plays an important role in retirement decisions. For instance, minorities are less likely to continue working in old age beyond the normal retirement age because of some individual factors such as poor or fair health, cognitive impairment, functional limitation (Green, 2005; Ghilarducci & Moore, 2015; Mudrazija, 2010), physical limitations (Radl, 2014; Solem et al., 2016; Pienta & Hayward, 2002), retirement benefit and eligibility of pension (Radl, 2014; Honig, 1996). This research examined the influence of ethnicity on whether working for people aged above 60 in Taiwan. In addition to testing the pathways to retirement, we scrutinized how occupational sector mediates the likelihood of ethnic effect on retirement. After comparing two cohorts from the dataset “Taiwan Longitudinal Study in Aging”, we found that working in public sector, white-collar workers, being a Mainlander, being non-married, higher education, self-reported bad health and functional limitation are all associated with the higher likelihood of retirement. Finding suggested that the incentive structure of the public pension for public sector workers, who are mostly Mainlanders, could contribute to the higher likelihood of retirement. However, the magnitude of mediator is much larger for the older cohort than the younger cohort. The study not only could benefit cumulative advantage approach by analyzing East Asia data but also bring policy implication, that retirement policy makers should reduce public pension incentive for public sector workers to delay the retirement age.