Sedentary work that does not exceed six hours of sitting in an eight-hour day represents a small window. The DOT and the regulations define sedentary work as involving standing or walking not more than occasionally, 2.3 hours. Sedentary work as depicted by a residual functional capacity question with a lower limit of 5.7 hours an upper limit of 6.0 hours constitutes a slender reed.
Understanding sedentary work rests on the difference between and and or. Light work exists (1) when it requires walking or standing to a significant degree; OR (2) when it requires sitting most of the time but entails pushing and/or pulling of arm or leg controls; AND/OR (3) when the job requires working at a production rate pace entailing the constant pushing and/or pulling of materials even though the weight of those materials is negligible.
Sedentary work exists when the work (1) when it does not require walking or standing to a significant degree; AND (2) when it requires sitting most of the time and does not involve pushing and/or pulling of arm or leg controls; AND (3) when the job requires working at a production rate pace but does not entail the constant pushing and/or pulling of materials even though the weight of those materials is negligible. Transgressing the standing/walking, lifting/carrying, pushing/pulling with the arms or legs, or production rate pace strips away any hope for that sedentary label.
The cadre of vocational experts rely on 16 different DOT codes in the sedentary range. Ignoring obsolescence and industry, the question is whether the occupations are unskilled, sedentary, and do not exceed 6.0 hours of sitting in a full-time workday.
6. Cutter-and-Paster, Press Clippings
7. Document Preparer, Microfilming
Cutter-and-paster, press clippings and document preparer, microfilming belong to the same occupational group, Office Clerks, General (SOC 43-9061). General office clerks represent about 2.9 million jobs in the national economy. General office clerks contains 74 DOT codes, 11 of which are unskilled. We have long railed against and rejected the use of equal distribution. The skill level required is the first challenge.
The O*NET Resource Center describes the three component of SVP: on-the-job training, related work experience, and required level of education separately.
| On-the-Job Training |
| Duration | Value |
| None or short demonstration | 4.85% |
| Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month | 27.91% |
| Related Work Experience |
| Duration | Value |
| None | 7.72% |
| Up to and including 1 month | 1.14% |
| Required Level of Education |
| Education Level | Value |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 1.5% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent | 40.59% |
If OTJ were the end all and be all of SVP, we would think that 32% of general office clerks are unskilled. But work experience counts. Related work experience of one month or less applies in 9% of jobs. Using the O*NET Resource Center, incumbent data suggests that 9% of the jobs are unskilled.
The Occupational Requirements Survey rolls the data into a composite.
| SVP Calculations |
| SVP | Value | Jobs | Calculation |
| SVP 1 | 2.7% | 2,933,900 | 79,215 |
| SVP 2 | 28.4% | 2,933,900 | 833,228 |
The ORS data corresponds with the OTJ information from the O*NET Resource Center, about 31% of the jobs represent unskilled work. The O*NET Resource Center
reports that the information for general office clerks comes form incumbent surveys. The OccuCollect calculator uses the Occupational Outlook Handbook numbers, about 900,000 unskilled general office clerk jobs at all exertion levels.
The next step in estimating the number of unskilled sedentary general office clerk jobs is to tease that conclusion from the data. We start again with the O*NET OnLine:
| Exertional | % | Response |
Spend Time Sitting — How much does this job require sitting? | 60 | Continually or almost continually |
25 | More than half the time |
7 | About half the time |
8 | Less than half the time |
Spend Time Standing — How much does this job require standing? | 1 | Continually or almost continually |
7 | More than half the time |
12 | About half the time |
72 | Less than half the time |
9 | Never |
Spend Time Walking and Running — How much does this job require walking and running? | 4 | Continually or almost continually |
14 | More than half the time |
14 | About half the time |
32 | Less than half the time |
36 | Never |
Because the definition of sedentary includes a standing/walking duration element, we can confidently state that the O*NET permits the inference that at least 60% of the jobs require sedentary exertion. We compare that incumbent-based conclusion to the employer-based data from the ORS. BLS reports exertion categories for some occupations and provides that data here:
| Strength Calculations |
| Strength Type | Value | Jobs | Calculation |
| Sedentary | 79.4% | 2,933,900 | 2,329,517 |
| Light Work | 17.1% | 2,933,900 | 501,697 |
| Medium Work | 3.1% | 2,933,900 | 90,951 |
Using the ORS classification, the number of unskilled sedentary jobs is around 720,000.
We must also exclude part-time work from the calculation. The O*NET provides that answer:
| Duration of Typical Work Week Calculations |
| Hours | Value | Jobs | Calculation |
| Less Than 40 Hours | 25.6% | 2,933,900 | 751,078 |
| 40 Hours | 59.1% | 2,933,900 | 1,733,935 |
| More Than 40 Hours | 15.1% | 2,933,900 | 443,019 |
|
A quarter of the jobs do not qualify at step five of the sequential evaluation process, the existence of other work. The results in the estimate of 540,000 full-time unskilled sedentary jobs as a general office clerk.
We now turn to sitting less than or equal to six hours in an eight-hour day. The O*NET does not provide the granular data to make that assessment. We use the ORS.
| Sitting is Required Calculations |
| % Of Day | Percentile | Jobs | Calculation |
| <= 86.3% | Mean | 2,933,900 | Not Applicable |
| <= 70% | 10th | 2,933,900 | 293,390 |
| <= 80% | 25th | 2,933,900 | 733,475 |
| <= 90% | 50th | 2,933,900 | 1,466,950 |
| <= 95% | 75th | 2,933,900 | 2,200,425 |
| <= 100% | 90th | 2,933,900 | 2,640,510 |
The 10th percentile would violate a two-hour limit on standing and walking even though it does not violate the definition of sedentary work (up to a third of the workday, 33.3%). The 25th percentile requires more sitting than a six-hour limit would permit (75% of an eight-hour day). None of the jobs would permit a strict six hours sitting, two hours standing work environment. We must examine worker choice.
| Sitting/Standing Calculations |
| Sitting/Standing At Will | Value | Jobs | Calculation |
| choice of sitting or standing is allowed | 91.1% | 2,933,900 | 2,672,783 |
| choice of sitting or standing is not allowed | 8.9% | 2,933,900 | 261,117 |
The ORS does report a choice of sitting or standing is allowed in 91.1% of jobs. The
2020 Collections Manual describes the choice:
This element captures jobs that have the ability to choose or control how and when they respond to external factors. When collecting for this element, consult the job’s documented task list to determine whether any of the critical tasks assigned would prevent the ability to sit/stand at will.
The ORS instructs:
The ability to alternate between Sitting/Standing at Will is present when the following conditions exist:
• Workers typically have the flexibility to choose between sitting and standing throughout the day and
• There is no assigned time during the day to sit or stand and
• No external factors determine whether an employee must sit or stand.
Through the 75th percentile, general office clerks stand/walk some of the day. A worker that has flexibility to choose when to engage in the activities has a "choice of sitting or standing" during the workday. The presence of choice or at will sitting/standing in the ORS data does not mean that the person can assume any posture they choose. The presence of choice or at will sitting/standing allow the worker to divide up the day as they choose but does not alter the amount of sitting or standing required to perform the job.
The ORS also codes sitting where:
Workers may choose between sitting and standing for a given task. For example, office workers can choose a standing desk.
A standing desk may represent an accommodation and therefore irrelevant for Social Security purposes. SSR 00-1c. The ORS instructs employers to assess the performance of critical tasks without accommodation, how most workers perform the job. The example of a standing desk would apply if workers typically have a standing desk at the workstation without asking for one.
The ORS excludes "incidental tasks" from the assessment of work requirements. The fourth example provided by the ORS to code choice or at will describes an office clerk that can choose when to file and typically stands while filing invoices. The ORS instructs employers to code that occupation as "At Will is Yes" because the organization of the worker's day is "Worker's Choice."
How many cutter-and-paster, press clippings and document preparer, microfilming jobs exist where standing/walking does not exceed two hours and sitting does not exceed six hours? None.
This is a logical conclusion. Most work environments outside of production work require flexibility. While a worker might have to stand/walk for two hours on day one, that fact does not suggest that the worker stands/walks two hours a day, every day. A data set of one is meaningless. It could represent the statistical average, median, or the data point three standard deviations from the mean. The data published by Labor in general and BLS in particular is incompatible with general office clerks standing/walking exactly two hours and sitting exactly six hours every day of every week, month after month.
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Suggested Citation:
Lawrence Rohlfing, Common DOT Codes -- Sedentary Unskilled -- Cutter-and-Paster, Press Clippings; Document Preparer, Microfilming, California Social Security Attorney (December 20, 2021) https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com
