In-work Poverty Research Articles

What Does In-Work Poverty Mean for Women: Comparing the Gender Employment Segregation in Belgium and China

This article presents an analysis of the female working poor in relation to gender employment segregation. It draws a cross-national profile of the female working poor in Belgium and China: two different nations with distinct stories of socio-economic development and cultural heritage, while both are characterized by high female employment participation. Analyses show that (1) women share a higher proportion among the total working poor population in both nations during recent years, whereas (2) in-work poverty has been a chronic condition, particularly among female workers in low-quality jobs. Thus, to some extent, labor market institutions may shape this gendered tendency of in-work poverty. In this article, women’s position in the public sphere in relation to employment segregation is discussed, and a contextual analysis identifies the causes of gender employment segregation. The results shed light on the crucial role of gender employment segregations related to in-work poverty and show that gender ideology and stereotypes do matter in explaining such employment differences. We argue that the promotion of female participation should be combined with explicit measures to reduce the disadvantageous position of women in the labor market.

IN-WORK POVERTY IN LATVIA

The results of a survey carried out in Latvia in 2015 are examined to estimate the scope and depth of in-work poverty. The widely used EU-SILC data considerably underestimate in-work poverty in Latvia. Logistic regression analysis indicates that persons with low education, poor health, persons of pre-retirement age, and those employed in non-standard work arrangements are more likely exposed to a high in-work poverty risk. Social transfers and the income of other household members do not significantly reduce this risk. The Latvian government should provide adequate social protection and funding to alleviate the in-work poverty problem.

Being Working Poor or Feeling Working Poor? The Role of Work Intensity and Job Stability for Subjective Poverty

Low work intensity and high job instability are crucial micro-determinants of in-work poverty. Importantly, they might also affect subjective poverty in households that are above the poverty threshold. We contribute to the literature by studying the relationship between subjective and objective in-work poverty and how this relationship is affected by household members’ job characteristics. We use data from the 2014 wave of the Italian module of the EU-SILC survey. Italy is an interesting case as—similarly to other Southern European countries—the share of individuals and households reporting subjective hardship is strikingly high compared to the levels reported in other EU areas. We find no statistically significant differences in the association between subjective poverty and different degrees of objective poverty by different levels of work intensity. Conversely, subjective poverty is positively associated with the instability of household members’ job contracts. We argue that policies aimed at increasing work intensity rather than work stability might not help to reduce subjective poverty as well as its (negative) spillover effects on other life domains—such as well-being, adequate levels of consumption, and social integration.

The Living Wage in the UK: testing the limits of soft regulation?

This article critically evaluates the mixed fortunes of the Living Wage in the UK since its introduction in London nearly 20 years ago. The evidence shows that the gains in hourly pay have been significant, and have been achieved at little or no cost to jobs or working hours. An adequate living wage is therefore a necessary factor in reducing labour market inequality and eradicating in-work poverty. However, the UK case demonstrates that a living wage is not a sufficient factor in the absence of both a coordinated approach for universal implementation and linkages with effective collective bargaining. Poor coordination explains the very low proportion of low-wage workers covered by a voluntary Living Wage. Weak links with collective bargaining mean that even where a Living Wage is introduced by a low-wage employer, further positive wage ripple effects (e.g. by sustaining wage differentials) are rare. The argument advanced here is that while employers increasingly perceive voluntary accreditation with the Living Wage Foundation as an important symbol of ‘business ethics’, the Living Wage remains a relatively isolated wage-setting instrument in the UK. This is the result not only of the voluntarist nature of the campaign but also of the limited scope for direct interaction with other wage-setting mechanisms in the UK, despite evidence of positive complementarity between a living wage and collectively bargained pay structures. The article concludes by exploring different mechanisms through which the Living Wage could be extended and embedded across low-wage labour markets.

In-work poverty: reversing a trend through business commitment

PurposeThis study aims to explore whether employer action may contribute towards reducing in-work poverty. Essentially, the study examines the extent to which small firm owners accept as being among their core responsibilities the support of the working poor both from an ethical and financial perspective. It further explores the impact of employee-friendly policies to support the working poor on the organizational performance of small enterprises.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was adopted consisting of 60 responses from 30 small firm owners and 30 employees. More specifically, the study draws on the empirical data collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with the firm owners of 30 low-paying enterprises operating in Greece and 30 employees working in those firms.FindingsThe findings reveal that employer measures to reduce in-work poverty such as systematic training, travel allowance, provision of free meals and retail vouchers, bonus schemes and other indirect financial rewards do enhance overall employee well-being, which, in turn, makes employees more engaged with their work and motivate them to “go the extra mile” for their employer. As a result, organizations appear to enjoy several benefits including less absenteeism and staff turnover, reduced errors in production and increased productivity.Practical implicationsThe present analysis argues that a narrow focus by policymakers on both direct and indirect governmental measures (e.g. an increase of the minimum wage, childcare and housing support) to reduce in work-poverty could be problematic as there are employer instruments that could also have a direct and indirect impact on employee income that could be useful when thinking about how in-work poverty can best be addressed. The empirical work showed that the above-mentioned measures have the potential to bring various organizational benefits including increased staff loyalty, less absenteeism, improved customer service and increased productivity. Such findings indicate that there is a strong business case for employers to combat in-work poverty and provide “better” jobs to individuals.Originality/valueThe emphasis of research around in-work poverty has been placed predominantly on welfare state measures to support the working poor, whereas the contribution of employers has been ignored. The present study fills this knowledge gap by leading to a better understanding of whether there is a business case for employers to fight in-work poverty.

Food bank operational characteristics and rates of food bank use across Britain

BackgroundFood banks are a common community-based response to household food insecurity in high-income countries. While the profile of their users and nature of the quality of food they provide have been researched, few studies have examined their operational characteristics to explore the accessibility of their services for people at risk of food insecurity. This study describes the nature of operations in a food bank network operating in Britain and explores how operations are associated with volume of use.MethodsData from The Trussell Trust Foodbank’s network of 1145 distribution centres in 2015/16 on hours of operation, locations, and usage were combined with national statistics on Working Tax Credit claimants, disability and unemployment. Descriptive statistics focused on how often and when food banks were open within local authorities. The relationships between operational characteristics and volume of use were examined using regression analyses. Interaction terms tested how relationships between indicators of need with food bank usage changed with operational characteristics.ResultsWeekday operating hours were primarily between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., but at any given hour no more than 20% of distribution centres were open, with fewer than 3% open after 4 pm. Where food banks had fewer distribution centres and operating hours, the volume of food bank usage was lower. In-work poverty, disability, and unemployment rates were all associated with higher volume of usage; however, the relationship between disability and food bank use was modified by the density of food banks and number of operating hours. Where food banks were less accessible, the relationship between disability and food bank use was diminished.ConclusionsThese findings suggest operational characteristics are an important part of access to food banks and raise questions about the ability of food banks to meet the needs of people at risk of food insecurity in Britain.

Socially irresponsible human resource management? Conceptualising HRM practice and philosophy in relation to in-work poverty in the UK

This article is motivated by extant literature on how first-world countries, such as the UK, increasingly face problems with poverty arising from employment (in-work poverty). The main problem addressed by this article concerns making a clearer conceptual link between HRM philosophy and practice and in-work poverty. To address this conceptual problem, life history interviews (n = 27) were conducted with employees experiencing in-work poverty, due to their effectiveness at explaining why people get into low pay cycles. Based on a lens built through consulting literature on socially responsible HRM (SRHRM) and in-work poverty, the findings demonstrate a conceptual link between HRM philosophy and practice and in-work poverty, resulting in a proposed model of socially irresponsible HRM (SIHRM). We suggest that, negative and important employee outcomes from forms of SIHRM arise not just in the work setting, but also at the work-life interface. The article has implications in terms of informing a range of HRM and in-work poverty debates. Further research and the testing of the ideas generated through this article is recommended before concluding on the wider implications of a model of HRM based on social irresponsibility.

Material Deprivation and Working Poor in Hong Kong

In-work poverty is a growing problem in many developed economies. In Hong Kong, there were 200,700 working poor households in 2016, and approximately half of the total poor population in Hong Kong was living in those working poor households. A growing body of literature has examined the problem of the working poor, but most studies have used relative income as a measure of poverty. In this paper, we adopt the material deprivation approach for assessing the poverty situation of in-work poverty households in Hong Kong. We have interviewed 3565 workers in Hong Kong during a survey conduct in 2016. We compare the results of the material deprivation approach with those of the income poverty approach and evaluate the adequacy of the official income poverty line in gauging the situation of in-work poverty. Our findings reinforce existing studies indicating that deprivation offers an important complement to the income poverty line in poverty analysis. Our results show that there is a moderate overlap between workers identified as poor by the deprivation approach and by the income poverty line. And these two groups of workers have very different profiles. The results provide important policy implications for alleviating poverty among the working poor in Hong Kong.

Immigrant social inclusion in Europe: A descriptive investigation

This paper represents an empirical investigation into the risk of poverty or social exclusion facing immigrants across Europe. The methodological approach is based on the set of ‘Zaragoza indicators’, in the domain of social inclusion, together with some proposed additional ones: income distribution and monetary poverty, material deprivation, in-work poverty, child poverty and risk of poverty or social exclusion. The main research question concerns whether immigrants/third-country nationals and nationals constitute two rather distinct groups in terms of exposure to poverty or social exclusion. Mainly using data from the EU-SILC Survey, we find that third-country nationals are severely disadvantaged in most countries, and are occasionally exposed to risks multiple times higher than nationals. There are European countries with similar immigrant populations in which these immigrants experience less favorable outcomes compared to other populations in other countries. Comparative analysis allows us to test the significance of different welfare systems in protecting vulnerable groups such as immigrants, using Eurostat statistics and the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). In a cross-country analysis, taking demographic and macro-economic differences into account, results show that the impact of social expenditure on poverty is not significant when it comes to protecting third-country nationals.

The immediate impact of the global financial crisis and neo-liberal austerity policies on in-work poverty dynamics in Lithuania

ABSTRACTThe article analyzes the extent and features of in-work poverty in Lithuania in the aftermath of the global economic crisis of 2007–2008. It argues that the significant expansion of the phenomenon during this time period was fostered by neoliberal policies that have been shaping the welfare system in the country for more than two decades. Furthermore, it draws attention to employment conditions and seeks to understand the experiences of those who live in in-work poverty. This article reveals that, during the period investigated, in-work poverty in Lithuania was associated with being a woman, having children, belonging to single-parent household, and being employed in a precarious working environment.

Institutional Dynamics of In-Work Poverty Determination: Distributive Process of Labor Markets, Households, and the Welfare State Using Korean Welfare Panel Study, 2008-15

Institutional Dynamics of In-Work Poverty Determination: Distributive Process of Labor Markets, Households, and the Welfare State Using Korean Welfare Panel Study, 2008-15

Falling Through the Cracks: The Cost of the School Day for Families Living in In-work and Out-of-work Poverty

Poverty is known to deleteriously affect children's experience of, and success in, education. One facet of this relationship is the financial costs associated with full participation in education in what has become known as the ‘cost of the school day’. This paper draws on a small-scale longitudinal qualitative study of families living in poverty, drawn from a wider study called the ‘Early Warning System’, carried out in collaboration with the Child Poverty Action Group Scotland. The paper explores the experiences of parents in out-of-work and in-work poverty, and cycling between the two, in relation to school costs for their children and the effects this has on their wider financial situation. The findings show that families experiencing in-work poverty, especially those who have recently moved from receipt of out-of-work benefits, face the financial hurdle of not being entitled to passported benefits such as free school meals, school clothing grants, and initiatives such as schools’ subsidies of activities and trips. The longitudinal aspects of the study design allow the impacts that changes in entitlement to benefits have on families. The paper concludes that the costs of the school day can be unseen and not well understood by educators but keenly felt by children and families living in low-income and makes recommendations to mitigate this.

Individual and household in-work poverty in Europe: understanding the role of labor market characteristics

ABSTRACTThe article presents an analysis of the association between labor market characteristics related to female employment and the prevalence of in-work poverty. We compare two relative measures of in-work poverty: The individual definition refers to workers whose salary is below 60% of the median, while the household-level definition refers to individuals whose household income is below 60% of the median. Microdata from the 2014 EU-SILC survey and macrodata on involuntary part-time employment and female labor market participation are used to perform a multilevel analysis on 31 European countries. The results show a positive relationship between involuntary part-time work and in-work poverty according to the household definition. Female labor market participation is positively associated with the individual definition and negatively with the household one. However, after controlling for the level of within-country income inequality, only the effect of the female employment rate remains positive and significant for the individual in-work. These results shed light on the multifaceted role of labor market characteristics related to female employment and their implications for policy. We argue that the promotion of female participation should be combined with explicit measures to reduce the disadvantageous position of women in the labor market.

When working isn’t enough: Family demographic processes and in-work poverty across the life course in the United States

[Background:] In-work poverty, a phenomenon that engenders social exclusion, is exceptionally high in the United States. The literature on in-work poverty focuses on occupational polarization, human capital, demographic characteristics, and welfare generosity. However, we have no knowledge on the effects of family demographic processes on in-work poverty across individuals' life courses. [Objective:] We estimate the risk of in-work poverty in the United States over the life course as a function of family demographic processes, namely leaving the parental home, union formation and dissolution, and the transition to parenthood. [Methods:] We use data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) and fixed effects regression models with interactions between age and each family demographic process to estimate age-specific associations between these processes and the probability of in-work poverty. [Results:] In-work poverty is a common phenomenon across the life courses of our study cohort: 20% of individuals are at risk of in-work poverty at every age. However, the risk generally decreases for men and increases for women across the life course. Leaving the parental home, entering parenthood, and separation increase, while marriage decreases the risk of in-work poverty. While the associations between marital statuses and in-work poverty are stable over the life course, the associations between parental home leaving and fertility with in-work poverty vary by age. [Contribution:] Our findings demonstrate the importance of family demographic processes over and above traditional stratification factors for the risk of in-work poverty. Associations between family demographic processes and in-work poverty estimated for all age groups may be grossly underestimated.

From Mini to Maxi Jobs? Low Pay, ‘Progression’, and the Duty to Work (Harder)

Abstract The scale of low pay and in-work poverty affecting the bottom three deciles of the labour market highlights the weaknesses in the two main mechanisms for assisting the low-paid: the statutory minimum wage provided for by the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and State in-work benefits, particularly Universal Credit (UC) as it operates under the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and Universal Credit Regulations 2013. Both mechanisms are failing badly. The paper argues for new approaches. On the Labour side of what may be called the Labour Law–Social Security Law interface these include reconstruction of the national minimum wage scheme in the 1998 Act so that there are two minimum wage floors: a primary floor based on the current national scheme; and a higher, secondary floor at sectoral level. Sectoral wage-setting, informed by support from a Low Pay Commission with an extended remit, could in time pave the way to wider-ranging, regulated sectoral collective bargaining and systems which align more closely and efficiently to what employers can afford, and relieve the growing fiscal pressures on in-work social security. On the Social Security side, remedial work on UC is urgently needed, particularly on the work allowances which set the earnings thresholds at which in-work State support starts to be withdrawn. If mandatory ‘progression’ requirements under the in-work progression (IWP) scheme are to continue—which is likely given the government’s concern that, without this, workers in low hours, low paid mini jobs will opt to stay parked in such highly subsidised work—then exemptions and protections need to be strengthened and put on a statutory footing (particularly for workers with family responsibilities). Introducing what would, in effect, be a ‘right not to work’ in prescribed cases—typically when requirements impact disproportionately on workers and their family members—would go some way to establishing the necessary safeguards. Clearly, both low pay mechanisms face a crisis of growing proportions: a crisis of coverage as dependence grows and newer groups look to the State for support; a fiscal crisis as costs rise and cuts to support impact on its effectiveness; and a political crisis as support for UC and the wider low pay regime erodes.

Pobreza laboral en España. Un análisis dinámico

Las relaciones entre el riesgo de pobreza y el empleo se han convertido en un problema de creciente interés en los últimos años. El grueso de la investigación disponible sobre este problema es de tipo transversal. El análisis dinámico de la pobreza laboral es particularmente interesante para la respuesta de varias cuestiones: ¿es el empleo suficiente para evitar la pobreza? ¿Es la pobreza laboral una situación temporal o permanente? En este trabajo se analiza la dinámica de la pobreza de los trabajadores en España; con el objetivo de conocer si las caídas en la pobreza laboral se producen solo temporalmente, si las personas caen varias veces en esta situación o si, de lo contrario, la pobreza laboral se configura como un fenómeno que produce atrapamiento y del cual es muy difícil salir. A su vez se pretende analizar los distintos perfiles de pobreza laboral en función de su duración.

Tax Credits and In-Work Poverty in the UK: An Analysis of Income Packages and Anti-Poverty Performance

This article examines the relationship between tax credits and in-work poverty, drawing on the findings from a major national study on in-work poverty. We present an analysis of (i) the income packages of working families and (ii) the performance of tax credits in relation to anti-poverty objectives, drawing on data from the Households Below Average Income survey between 2004/5 and 2014/15. Our study generates five novel findings, including that tax credits reduce the poverty gap of recipient households by two-thirds; that tax credit cuts post-2010/11 have served to focus payments on single parent families and households with greater numbers of children; and that tax credits make up just one third of the social security income of working households. We argue that understanding in greater depth the interaction between tax credits and income adequacy amongst working families is necessary to provide a firmer foundation for an effective assault on in-work poverty.

Cross-national research on female working poor in Belgium and China

In general, the gendered trends in working poor are reshaping a new relationship between a processing globalized market and numbers of women, both in developed and developing nations. In this research, we draw up a socio-demographic picture of female working poor between Belgium and China. And within such a cross-national profile examination, we focus on the common and different ways that working poor women were experiencing life. In short, we found that in-work poverty shows a gendered tendency that has been a chronic condition, particularly among women with low income in both nations. Otherwise, in-work poverty focuses on different specific female working groups under varied socioeconomic national contexts.

Welfare-to-work interventions and their effects on the mental and physical health of lone parents and their children.

Welfare-to-work interventions and their effects on the mental and physical health of lone parents and their children.

The intersection of disability and in-work poverty in an advanced industrial nation: The lived experience of multiple disadvantage in a post-financial crisis UK

The 2007–2008 financial crisis has affected the prospects for workers in a range of ways. In-work poverty represents just one, yet key feature of how prospects for workers have changed in recent times. In-work poverty disproportionately impacts on marginalised groups, such as the disabled. Current research reveals little about how disability and poverty intersect in the context of employment. To address this oversight, life history interviews were conducted with disabled people in in-work poverty. The findings were analysed using the social model of disability and the lens of intersectionality. The results highlight how government policies, employer practices and household finances impact on disabled workers’ lived experience of in-work poverty. The findings suggest that governments and employers can do more to reduce barriers to escaping in-work poverty for disabled workers.