Niedriglohnarbeitsmarkt
Der Ausbau des Niedriglohnsektors sollte Ende der 1990er Jahre die hohe Arbeitslosigkeit reduzieren. Als Niedriglohn gilt ein Arbeitsentgelt, das trotz Vollzeitbeschäftigung keine angemessene Existenzsicherung gewährleistet – die OECD definiert den ihn als einen Bruttolohn, der unterhalb von zwei Dritteln des nationalen Medianbruttolohns aller Vollzeitbeschäftigten liegt. Betroffen von Niedriglöhnen sind überdurchschnittlich häufig Personen ohne beruflichen Abschluss, jüngere Erwerbstätige und Frauen.
Bietet der Niedriglohnsektor eine Chance zum Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt oder ist er eine Sackgasse? Das IAB-Themendossier erschließt Informationen zum Forschungsstand.
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- Theorie
- Politik und Maßnahmen
- Arbeitsmarkt- und Lohnentwicklung
- Arbeitswelt, Personalpolitik
- Personengruppen
- Wirtschaftszweige
- Geschlecht
- geografischer Bezug
- Alter
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Literaturhinweis
Low-wage employment in France: A cross-country perspective (2025)
Barreto, César; Puymoyen, Agnes; Fluchtmann, Jonas ; Pearsall, Eliza-Jane; Georgieff, Alexandre; Carcillo, Stéphane ; Pacifico, Daniele; Hijzen, Alexander;Zitatform
Barreto, César, Stéphane Carcillo, Jonas Fluchtmann, Alexandre Georgieff, Alexander Hijzen, Daniele Pacifico, Eliza-Jane Pearsall & Agnes Puymoyen (2025): Low-wage employment in France. A cross-country perspective. (OECD social, employment and migration working papers 313), Paris, 47 S. DOI:10.1787/82539f44-en
Abstract
"This study investigates factors favoring a possible "smicardization" of French workers - the process of an increasing coverage of workers at the minimum wage. First, the minimum wage is relatively high in France compared with other countries, with the result that a large number of workers are close to it. Second, low wages reflect less the characteristics of firms or sectors than the low skills of workers, the resolution of which requires appropriate education and training policies, effective over the long-term. Finally, an analysis of tax and benefit systems highlights the existence of potential low-wage trap mechanisms, which are particularly significant in France compared to other countries. Nevertheless, analysis of individual trajectories shows that it is no more difficult for low-wage workers to climb the wage ladder in France than in the other selected countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
In-work poverty in Western Europe. A longitudinal perspective (2024)
Zitatform
Barbieri, Paolo, Giorgio Cutuli & Stefani Scherer (2024): In-work poverty in Western Europe. A longitudinal perspective. In: European Societies, Jg. 26, H. 4, S. 1232-1264. DOI:10.1080/14616696.2024.2307013
Abstract
"This study investigates levels and determinants of in-work poverty (IWP) in Western Europe using EU-SILC longitudinal data 2004-2019. We compared IWP risk and their dynamics across fourteen countries by examining individual labor market positions, household total labor supplies, and employment patterns. We further explored the social class gradient in exposure to IWP, as well as drivers and patterns of longitudinal accumulation of poverty. Relying on a single (standard) earner is often not enough to keep families out of poverty, confirming the importance of dual-earner household arrangements, even if they entail non-standard employment conditions for one partner. This holds particularly true for countries with high levels of IWP and for less privileged social and occupational groups across all contexts. Analyzing IWP inertia, we examined the interplay between genuine state dependence (GSD) and unobserved heterogeneity in the accumulation of economic disadvantage over time. Previous experiences with IWP can lead to future IWP for some, yet this causal effect appears rather small. Our findings have clear implications for the social stratification of risk and policies designed to combat poverty accumulation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
A new measurement approach for identifying high-polluting jobs across European countries (2024)
Causa, Orsetta; Soldani, Emilia; Nguyen, Maxime;Zitatform
Causa, Orsetta, Maxime Nguyen & Emilia Soldani (2024): A new measurement approach for identifying high-polluting jobs across European countries. (OECD Economics Department working papers 1795), Paris, 27 S. DOI:10.1787/f5127e4c-en
Abstract
"This paper develops a novel classification of high-polluting occupations for a large sample of European countries. Unlike previous efforts in the literature, the classification exploits country-level data on air polluting emission intensity by industry. The country-level data allows to capture important cross-country differences, due to differences in technology and in production focus. Applying the new classification to European Labour Force Survey data shows that, on average across the countries covered, about 4% of workers are employed in high-polluting jobs, ranging from 9% in Czechia and the Slovak Republic to around 2% in Austria. These shares do not exhibit any clear decreasing trend over the past decade. High-polluting jobs are unequally distributed, being over-represented among men, workers with lower and medium educational attainment and those living in rural areas." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Low-wage employment in Central and Eastern European Member States (2024)
Fialová, Kamila;Zitatform
Fialová, Kamila (2024): Low-wage employment in Central and Eastern European Member States. (Social situation monitor), Brussels, 70 S. DOI:10.2767/001750
Abstract
"This research note offers a comprehensive view of low-wage employment. It investigates the nature and extent of low-pay persistence in European countries, using longitudinal data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) spanning 2004 to 2019. The study focuses on the overall EU situation while highlighting differences between CEE and WE countries. It contributes to the limited research on low-wage employment in CEE countries, shedding light on the characteristics of low-wage populations across Europe and adding value for shaping social policies to tackle poverty and in-work poverty. It examines the institutional and macroeconomic factors that contribute to the incidence and persistence of low pay. Understanding the identity of low-wage earners and the drivers of low pay is pivotal in developing strategies to raise wages. The latest EU-SILC data only covers wage information to 2019, impeding a direct analysis of recent trends such as increasing energy costs, high inflation, the Ukraine conflict and related migration, digital and green transition, or the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Financial hardship while working: A comparison of standard and non-standard workers across Europe (2024)
Zitatform
Visser, Mark, Marleen Damman & Gerbert Kraaykamp (2024): Financial hardship while working: A comparison of standard and non-standard workers across Europe. In: Economic and Industrial Democracy. DOI:10.1177/0143831x241287649
Abstract
"This study examines differences between non-standard (here: temporary employees and solo self-employed people) and standard workers (here: permanent employees) in financial hardship. It also examines whether these differences are conditional on the country context. To this aim, multilevel regression analysis was applied to European Social Survey data, covering 32 countries and the time period 2002–2018. The results show that temporary employees and the solo self-employed report more financial hardship compared to permanent employees, and that temporary employees experience more financial hardship than the solo self-employed. Both macroeconomic decline and higher levels of social protection generally enlarge the gap in financial hardship between non-standard and standard workers. Furthermore, solo self-employed persons are hit harder by macroeconomic adversity and they are not or less entitled to social benefits than temporary employees, reflected by smaller differences in financial hardship between these groups of non-standard workers. The findings are mostly in line with labor market dualization theories." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Posted work as an extreme case of hierarchised mobility (2023)
Zitatform
Arnholtz, Jens & Nathan Lillie (2023): Posted work as an extreme case of hierarchised mobility. In: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Jg. 49, H. 16, S. 4206-4223. DOI:10.1080/1369183X.2023.2207341
Abstract
"This article draws on a range of case studies to explain how worker posting can cause hierarchised labour mobility, involving nationality-based hierarchies in pay and conditions between workers in the same labour markets or work sites. This hierarchisation is most apparent on large construction sites, where companies systematically use posting for labour cost advantage, but it is also found on smaller sites and in other sectors besides construction. The article outlines three features of this low-wage posting system – worker hypermobility and dependency, transnational enforcement challenges, and multifaceted employer arbitrage strategies – that conspire to maintain posting as a form of hierarchised mobility. We argue that posting undermines many countervailing forces that typically mediate hierarchisation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Low-wage mobility in Central Europe (2023)
Zitatform
Gerbery, Daniel & Tomáš Miklošovič (2023): Low-wage mobility in Central Europe. In: International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Jg. 64, H. 5, S. 509-527. DOI:10.1177/00207152231156436
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." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
International Trade Responses to Labor Market Regulations (2023)
Muñoz, Mathilde;Zitatform
Muñoz, Mathilde (2023): International Trade Responses to Labor Market Regulations. (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 31876), Cambridge, Mass, 61 S.
Abstract
"This paper studies how differences in labor market regulations shape countries' comparative advantage in the cross-border provision of labor-intensive services, using administrative data in Europe for the last two decades. I exploit exogenous variation in labor taxes and minimum wages faced by exporting firms engaged in a large European trade program. Firms from different countries compete to supply the same physical service in the same location but their employees are subject to different payroll taxes and minimum wages. These rules varied across countries, sectors, and over time. Reduced-form country case-studies as well as model-implied gravity estimates show evidence of large trade responses to lower labor taxes and minimum wages, with an elasticity that is around one. The Bolkestein directive, by exempting foreign firms from all labor regulations in the destination country, would have doubled exports of physical services from Eastern European countries, rationalizing the wave of protests in high-wage countries that led to the withdrawal of the proposal." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Firm-to-Firm Trade: Imports, Exports, and the Labor Market (2022)
Eaton, Jonathan; Kramarz, Francis; Kortum, Samuel S.;Zitatform
Eaton, Jonathan, Samuel S. Kortum & Francis Kramarz (2022): Firm-to-Firm Trade: Imports, Exports, and the Labor Market. (NBER working paper 29685), Cambridge, Mass, 65 S. DOI:10.3386/w29685
Abstract
"Customs data reveal heterogeneity and granularity of relationships among buyers and sellers. A key insight is how more exports to a destination break down into more firms selling there and more buyers per exporter. We develop a quantitative general equilibrium model of firm-to-firm matching that builds on this insight to separate the roles of iceberg costs and matching frictions in gravity. In the cross section, we find matching frictions as important as iceberg costs in impeding trade, and more sensitive to distance. Because domestic and imported intermediates compete directly with labor in performing production tasks, our model also fits the heterogeneity of labor shares across French producers. Applying the framework to the 2004 expansion of the European Union, reduced iceberg costs and reduced matching frictions contributed equally to the increase in French exports to the new members. While workers benefitted overall, those competing most directly with imports gained less, even losing in some countries entering the EU." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Employment and wage effects of extending collective bargaining agreements: Sectoral collective contracts reduce inequality but may lead to job losses among workers with earnings close to the wage floors (2022)
Zitatform
Villanueva, Ernesto & Effrosyni Adamopoulou (2022): Employment and wage effects of extending collective bargaining agreements. Sectoral collective contracts reduce inequality but may lead to job losses among workers with earnings close to the wage floors. (IZA world of labor 136), Bonn, 12 S. DOI:10.15185/izawol.136.v2
Abstract
"Der Gesamteffekt der Allgemeinverbindlichkeit von Tarifverträgen hängt davon ab, wie viele Arbeitsplätze aufgrund der tariflich geregelten Lohnuntergrenzen und sonstigen Arbeitsbedingungen abgebaut werden. Um die Auswirkungen auf Löhne und Beschäftigung bewerten zu können, müssen Informationen über Tarifverträge mit Längsschnittdaten zu Arbeitgebern und Arbeitnehmern verknüpft werden. Neue Erkenntnisse der Forschung zeigen, dass negative Effekte meist auf Arbeitnehmer mit Verdiensten in der Nähe der Mindestlöhne beschränkt sind. Öffnungsklauseln und Repräsentativitätserfordernisse können dem entgegenwirken." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)
Weiterführende Informationen
deutsche Kurzfassung -
Literaturhinweis
Trade and Inequality in Europe and the US (2021)
Zitatform
Dorn, David & Peter Levell (2021): Trade and Inequality in Europe and the US. (IZA discussion paper 14914), Bonn, 65 S.
Abstract
"The share of low-income countries in global exports nearly tripled between 1990 and 2015, driven largely by the rapid emergence of China as an exporting powerhouse. While research in economics had long acknowledged that trade with lower-income countries could raise income inequality in Europe and the US, empirical estimates indicated only a modest contribution of trade to growing national skill premia. However, if workers are not highly mobile across firms, industries and locations, then the unequal impacts of trade can manifest along different margins. Recent evidence from countries across Europe and the US shows that growing import competition from China differentially reduced earnings and employment rates for workers in more trade-exposed industries, and for the residents of more trade-exposed geographic regions. These adverse impacts were often largest for lower-skilled individuals. We show that domestic manufacturing employment declined much more in countries that saw a large growth of net imports from China (such as the UK and the US), than in countries that maintained relatively balanced trade with China (such as Germany and Switzerland). Drawing on a new analysis for the UK, we further show that trade with China contributed to job loss in manufacturing, but also to substantial declines in consumer prices. However, while the adverse labour market impacts were concentrated on specific groups of workers and regions, the consumer benefits from trade were widely dispersed in the population, and appear similarly large for high-income and low-income households. Globalisation has thus created pockets of losers, and recent evidence indicates that in addition to financial losses, residents of regions with greater exposure to import competition also suffer from higher crime rates, a deterioration of health outcomes, and a dissolution of traditional family structures. We argue that new import tariffs such as those imposed by the US in 2018 and 2019 are unlikely to help the losers from globalisation. Instead, displaced workers may be better supported by a combination of transfers to avert financial hardship, skills training that facilitate reintegration into the labour market, and place-based policies that stimulate job creation in depressed locations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Job polarisation: Capturing the effects of work organisation (2021)
Zitatform
Lopes, Helena & Teresa Calapez (2021): Job polarisation: Capturing the effects of work organisation. In: The Economic and Labour Relations Review, Jg. 32, H. 4, S. 594-613. DOI:10.1177/1035304621996064
Abstract
"This article critically challenges the findings and assumptions of mainstream job polarisation literature. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey data and on the Job Demand-Control model, which allows for capturing the organizational dimension of jobs, we examine the patterns and evolution of occupations in 22 European countries from 2005 to 2015. Instead of pervasive job polarisation, we observe a near-pervasive trend of upgrading job quality, suggesting that job polarisation may be caused by the undervaluation/devaluation of jobs low in the occupational hierarchy – not by computerization-driven changes in work tasks. Indeed, only the former can explain the decrease in the number of low-quality jobs while the number of low-paid jobs increases. After documenting the relevance of firm-level organisational choices, we suggest that counteracting job polarisation requires, beyond meso-level collective bargaining, a public intervention that promotes participatory decision-making in firms. JEL Codes: J2, J81, M540" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Individual and household in-work poverty in Europe: understanding the role of labor market characteristics (2019)
Zitatform
Filandri, Marianna & Emanuela Struffolino (2019): Individual and household in-work poverty in Europe. Understanding the role of labor market characteristics. In: European Societies, Jg. 21, H. 1, S. 130-157. DOI:10.1080/14616696.2018.1536800
Abstract
"The 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." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Work must pay: Does it? Precarious employment and employment motivation for low-income households (2019)
Zitatform
Trlifajová, Lucie & Jakob Hurrle (2019): Work must pay: Does it? Precarious employment and employment motivation for low-income households. In: Journal of European social policy, Jg. 29, H. 3, S. 376-395. DOI:10.1177/0958928718805870
Abstract
"One of the core dilemmas of current welfare politics is the question of how to ensure social protection while providing incentives to seek employment at the same time. A way to address this dilemma is to base policies and policy models on the principle notion that 'work must pay'; in other words, income from employment should be higher than the social support of the unemployed. However, how accurately do these approaches and models represent the reality of benefit recipients, particularly in the context of increased employment precariousness? In this article, we use the cases of two disadvantaged regions in Czech Republic in order to contrast the presumptions of 'making work pay' policies with the everyday experience of welfare recipients. As we show, their situations are strongly shaped by current changes in the labour market, particularly the precarious character of accessible employment and high levels of indebtedness. The modelling of financial employment incentives and the public policies based on these calculations often do not correspond with the reality of welfare recipients that are often cycling in and out of precarious forms of employment. However, the authors' main claim is that the very idea of the 'work must pay' approach focuses on the wrong question. A truly functioning financial incentive would need to focus not solely on the difference in income between those who work and those who do not work, but rather should analyse what type of arrangements allow working households to rise permanently above the poverty line." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
The 'Great Recession' and low pay in Europe (2018)
Vacas-Soriano, Carlos;Zitatform
Vacas-Soriano, Carlos (2018): The 'Great Recession' and low pay in Europe. In: European journal of industrial relations, Jg. 24, H. 3, S. 205-220. DOI:10.1177/0959680117715932
Abstract
"This article contributes to the literature on low-paid work by analysing the shares of low-paid employment in the period 2006 - 2014 and the underlying causes. I use an inflation-adjusted low-pay threshold anchored at 60 percent of median wages to assess the impact of the Great Recession, which increased the share of low-paid employees in two-thirds of European countries and in the EU as a whole. This was driven by a general decline in real wages, which was particularly intense in European periphery countries and at the bottom of the wage distribution as well as among employees with shorter tenure. However, compositional effects either prevented a larger expansion of low-pay shares by masking the real extent of the wage correction or were generally negligible in driving low-pay shares. Moreover, growing part-time employment emerges as a significant source of low-paid work from the onset of the crisis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Precarious work and care responsibilities in the economic crisis (2017)
Zitatform
Haskova, Hana & Radka Dudová (2017): Precarious work and care responsibilities in the economic crisis. In: European journal of industrial relations, Jg. 23, H. 1, S. 47-63. DOI:10.1177/0959680116672279
Abstract
"Economic transformation after 1989 and the global economic recession that began in 2008 have caused an increase in precarious work in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. As a result of refamilialization, precarious work acquired a specific form for women. We use the Czech Republic as an example in analysing a trend that is obvious throughout the Visegrád countries and apply the capabilities approach to understand the dynamics of precarious work in the lives of women with care responsibilities. Neither the objective characteristics of work nor its subjective assessment alone makes it possible to understand precarious work. The explanation lies in the (temporal) dynamics of the interconnection between the two: insecure jobs accepted by women with care responsibilities as a temporary strategy may turn into a trap excluding them from a stable job." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Income support policies for the working poor (2017)
Zitatform
Marchal, Sarah, Ive Marx & Gerlinde Verbist (2017): Income support policies for the working poor. (IZA discussion paper 10665), Bonn, 16 S.
Abstract
"This paper asks what governments in the EU Member States and some US states are doing to support workers on low wages. Using model family simulations, we assess the policy measures currently in place to guarantee an adequate disposable income to working families, taking into account minimum wages, social security contributions, taxes and cash benefits. We show that despite increased efforts over the past decade, disposable incomes of certain types of minimum wage workers still fall well below the EU at-risk-of-poverty thresholds in many countries. Single earners with dependent children are especially at risk of poverty. We discuss the options for making progress." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
The impact of in-work benefits on employment and poverty (2017)
Zitatform
Vandelannoote, Dieter & Gerlinde Verbist (2017): The impact of in-work benefits on employment and poverty. (EUROMOD working paper 2017,04), Colchester, 33 S.
Abstract
"This article studies the impact of design characteristics of in-work benefits on employment and poverty in an international comparative setting, taking account of both first and second order labour supply effects. We use the micro-simulation model EUROMOD, which has been enriched with a discrete labour supply model. The analysis is performed for four EU-member states: Belgium, Italy, Poland and Sweden. The results show that design characteristics matter substantially, though the specific effects differ in magnitude across countries, indicating there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Throughout the analysis, numerous trade-offs are uncovered: not only between employment and poverty goals, but also within employment incentives itself (extensive vs. intensive margin). Taking account of behavioural reactions attenuates the impact on poverty outcomes, signalling the importance of bringing these effects into the empirical analysis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Hanging in, but only just: part-time employment and in-work poverty throughout the crisis (2016)
Zitatform
Horemans, Jeroen, Ive Marx & Brian Nolan (2016): Hanging in, but only just. Part-time employment and in-work poverty throughout the crisis. In: IZA journal of European Labor Studies, Jg. 5, S. 1-19. DOI:10.1186/s40174-016-0053-6
Abstract
"The crisis has deepened pre-existing concerns regarding low-wage and non-standard employment. Countries where unemployment increased most strongly during the crisis period also saw part-time employment increasing, particularly involuntary part-time work. With involuntary part-time workers, as a particular group of underemployed, facing especially high poverty rates, this was accompanied by an increase, on average, in the poverty risk associated with working part-time. However, this was not reflected in a marked increase in the overall in-work poverty rate because full-time work remains dominant and its poverty risk did not change markedly. The household context is of the essence when considering policy implications." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Social upgrading in globalized production: the case of the textile and clothing industry (2015)
Zitatform
Gimet, Céline, Bernard Guilhon & Nathalie Roux (2015): Social upgrading in globalized production. The case of the textile and clothing industry. In: International Labour Review, Jg. 154, H. 3, S. 303-327. DOI:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2015.00244.x
Abstract
"Vertical specialization generated by the international fragmentation of production within global networks is driven not only by comparative advantage, but also by the locational decisions of lead firms which determine the role and bargaining power of local producers in their value chain. This study examines the consequences of such specialization in textiles and clothing for 26 labour-abundant countries from 1990 to 2007. Fixed effects regressions based on panel data reveal that the industry does not always reap the benefits of the resulting international trade integration. Rather, the authors observe a negative relationship between vertical specialization and relative real wages in the textile and clothing industry." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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