Low-wage mobility in Central Europe

Abstract

The article provides analyses of the mobility and resilience to mobility among low-wage earners in four Central European (CE) countries. It examines transitions into higher-paid jobs, unemployment/inactivity, and the stability of low-wage status. In addition to standard transition matrices and summary mobility indices, it employs multinomial logit models with the aim of identifying individual determinants of low-wage earners’ prospects. The findings show that the CE countries do not represent a homogeneous group in terms of presence of low wages when the period of 2010–2016 is considered. In regard to future prospects, low-wage employees in the countries with higher incidence of low pay are more likely to reproduce their status, as compared with countries with lower incidence. Upward mobility is more likely among younger, high-educated employees and among those who work in “better” occupations.