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.
Mit dem Filter „Autorenschaft“ können Sie auf IAB-(Mit-)Autorenschaft eingrenzen.
- Theorie
- Politik und Maßnahmen
- Arbeitsmarkt- und Lohnentwicklung
- Arbeitswelt, Personalpolitik
- Personengruppen
- Wirtschaftszweige
- Geschlecht
- geografischer Bezug
- Alter
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Literaturhinweis
Bridging the wage gap: A discussion of wage subsidies to low-paid workers and their costs in Italy (2025)
Bonatti, Luigi; Lorenzetti, Lorenza Alexandra; Traverso, Silvio;Zitatform
Bonatti, Luigi, Lorenza Alexandra Lorenzetti & Silvio Traverso (2025): Bridging the wage gap: A discussion of wage subsidies to low-paid workers and their costs in Italy. (GLO discussion paper / Global Labor Organization 1552), Essen, 24 S.
Abstract
"This paper discusses the potential introduction of permanent public subsidies to supplement the wages of low-paid workers in Italy, taking inspiration from Edmund Phelps' ideas on supporting the working poor. We consider how a negative taxation scheme for low-wage earners might address structural labor market challenges such as low participation rates, labor market segmentation, and widespread in-work poverty. Using a stylized theoretical model, we illustrate how such subsidies could affect wages, employment, and labor supply-demand dynamics, with a particular focus on potential cost implications under different elasticity assumptions. We also consider how design features - such as targeting full-time workers or integrating the subsidy with broader social and economic reforms - could maximize the measure's impact while mitigating risks related to fraud or uneven coverage. Finally, a scenario analysis based on Italian Labor Force Survey data provides an indication of the policy's likely scale and distributional effects. The paper concludes by reflecting on both opportunities and challenges for implementing wage subsidies in Italy's segmented labor market." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Minimum wages and insurance within the firm (2024)
Adamopoulou, Effrosyni; Rachedi, Omar; Manaresi, Francesco; Yurdagul, Emircan;Zitatform
Adamopoulou, Effrosyni, Francesco Manaresi, Omar Rachedi & Emircan Yurdagul (2024): Minimum wages and insurance within the firm. (ZEW discussion paper 24-021), Mannheim, 66 S.
Abstract
"Minimum wages generate an asymmetric pass-through of firm shocks across workers. We establish this result leveraging employer-employee data on Italian metalmanufacturing firms, which face different wage floors that vary within occupations. In response to negative firm productivity shocks, workers close to the wage floors experience higher job separations but no wage loss. However, the wage of high-paid workers decreases, and more so in firms with higher incidence of minimum wages. A neoclassical model with complementarities across workers with different skills rationalizes these findings. Our results uncover a novel channel that tilts the welfare gains of minimum wages toward low-paid workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Revisiting Dualism? The Governance of the Low Pay-Low Skill Labour Market in Four European Countries (2024)
Zitatform
Eichhorst, Werner & Gemma Scalise (2024): Revisiting Dualism? The Governance of the Low Pay-Low Skill Labour Market in Four European Countries. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 17378), Bonn, 25 S.
Abstract
"The permanent restructuring of the economy, exacerbated by the digital transition and combined with labour market dualization, is progressively increasing semi- and low-skilled workers' risk of marginalization. This article analyses how countries balance employment and equality concerns in core private services sectors and inquires the policy strategy that governments in Germany, France, Italy and Spain have implemented over the last two decades for workers 'at the margins'. The analysis encompasses multiple policy tools – skill upgrading, social benefits, incentives toreduce barriers to employment and wage regulation – and reveals varied trajectories. A common direction is followed by Germany and Spain, which have adopted policies to mitigate long-standing labor market dualism by implementing protective policies that aim at improving job conditions for low-wage and at-risk workers. France is stuck in its protective approach, focusing on job stabilization through subsidies without addressing the need for skill development, which limits long-term labor market mobility. Italy is exacerbating dualism by failing to improve job quality and training opportunities, leading to persistent low productivity and increasing in-work poverty." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Is working enough to escape poverty? Evidence on low-paid workers in Italy (2023)
Zitatform
Bavaro, Michele & Michele Raitano (2023): Is working enough to escape poverty? Evidence on low-paid workers in Italy. (ECINEQ working paper series / Society for the Study of Economic Inequality 656), Verona, 32 S.
Abstract
"We investigate the dynamics of incidence, intensity and persistence of low pay in Italy from 1990 to 2018 by exploiting a large administrative sample of employees in the private sector. We refer to various relative and absolute low pay thresholds and assess workers' conditions according to annual earnings, weekly wages and full-time-equivalent (FTE) weekly wages, to depurate low pay dynamics from the influence of changes in worked weeks and hours. Regardless of the chosen threshold, we find that the incidence of low pay is high and steeply increased in the last decades when the focus is on annual earnings and weekly wages. A flat trend emerges instead when low pay is assessed according to FTE weekly wages, signalling that a major role in the low pay dynamics is played by the reduction in the number of hours worked by low-paid individuals because of the increasing spread of part-time contracts. Nevertheless, the share of low-paid workers is rather high even when the focus is on FTE weekly wages. Furthermore, low pay is a persistent status for a large and rising share of workers. These findings reveal a clear worsening of workers' conditions at the bottom of the earnings distribution in Italy." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Labor income inequality and in-work poverty: a comparison between euro area countries (2023)
Zitatform
Bovini, Giulia, Emanuele Ciani, Marta De Philippis & Stefania Romano (2023): Labor income inequality and in-work poverty: a comparison between euro area countries. (Questioni di economia e finanza (Occasional papers) / Banca d'Italia 2023,806), Rom, 35 S.
Abstract
"We study inequality in gross labor income among the working-age population, comparing Italy to the other main euro area countries. We use EU-SILC data between 2008 and 2018, the longest period without time breaks. We show that inequality in individual labor income is higher in Italy than in France and Germany. This is mainly a consequence of the lower employment rate, i.e. of the higher share of working-age individuals with no labor income, rather than of wider earnings disparities among workers. Inequality in equivalised household labor income is also higher in Italy than in France in Germany because a lower employment rate translates into a larger share of single or no-earner households. In line with these findings, while in Italy low-earning workers are relatively few, they face a greater risk of poverty than in France or Germany, since they more often live in households where other members are not employed or have low-work-intensity jobs. These results stress the importance of jointly considering earnings and employment dynamics when analyzing labor income inequality, low-pay work, and in-work poverty." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
In-work poverty and family policy in Italy: from a frozen to a thawing landscape? (2023)
Zitatform
Giuliani, Giovanni Amerigo & Nicola De Luigi (2023): In-work poverty and family policy in Italy: from a frozen to a thawing landscape? In: Community, work & family, S. 1-21. DOI:10.1080/13668803.2023.2282356
Abstract
"The article investigates in-work poverty (IWP) in Italy through the lens of family policies. Adopting a longitudinal perspective, the work scrutinizes whether and to what extent the configuration of family policy tools - family allowances, leave and ECEC (Early Childhood Care and Education) - has been effective in contrasting IWP in Italy. Furthermore, it probes whether the Italian family policy has reconfigured over time as a tool for countering IWP. The study shows that family policy can be useful both directly - by providing income support for the most disadvantaged families - and indirectly - by fostering the transition to a dual-earner family model. However, the analysis of the Italian case shows that such positive effects are only potential, and not automatic. In Italy, historically, family policy has been scarcely effective. Nevertheless, in the last few years a pattern of slow change has initiated, and its effectiveness as a device to tackle IWP appears to have increased." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Young retail shift workers (not) planning their future: working with customers in the 24/7 service society in the transition to adulthood (2022)
Zitatform
Dordoni, Annalisa (2022): Young retail shift workers (not) planning their future: working with customers in the 24/7 service society in the transition to adulthood. In: The international journal of sociology and social policy, Jg. 42, H. 13/14, S. 66-80. DOI:10.1108/IJSSP-02-2022-0060
Abstract
"Purpose: The retail sector is not largely studied in Italy. The study offers a comparison between youth retail shift work in Milan and London. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the one hand on youth work and on the other hand to the debate on agency and structural factors in life planning, representation of the future and the transition to adulthood, observed in the United Kingdom's and Italian labour market. Even if the second one is a Southern European Country, these contexts are both characterised by a service-oriented economy and the widespread of precarious and flexible jobs. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative methods were used: one year of ethnographic observation, 50 interviews and two focus groups were carried out between 2015 and 2018 with retail workers and trade unionists. The contexts are Corso Buenos Aires in Milan, Italy, and Oxford Street in London, United Kingdom. Analysing young workers' discourses, the author identifies narratives that allow to grasp their present agency and imagined future. Findings: Observing the crisis of the narrative (Sennett, 2020) allows to highlight the social consequences of working times on young workers' everyday life and future. The author argues that young workers struggle with the narrative of their present everyday life and the representation of the future. This relates to the condition of time alienation due to the flexible schedules and the fast pace of work in retail, both affecting the work-life balance. Originality/value: The social consequences of flexible schedules in retail and fast fashion sector, which are new issues not yet sufficiently explored, are here investigated from the perspective of young workers. The study is focussed on the representations of young people working with customers in social and economic contexts characterised by flexible schedules and the deregulation of shop openings, the so-called 24/7 service society, not largely investigated in the sociological scientific literature, above all in the Italian context." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Emerald Group) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Matching and sorting across regions (2021)
Zitatform
Lacava, Chiara (2021): Matching and sorting across regions. (ICIR working paper series 2021,44), Frankfurt am Main, 39 S.
Abstract
"I measure the effects of workers' mobility across regions of different productivity through the lens of a search and matching model with heterogeneous workers and firms estimated with administrative data. In an application to Italy, I find that reallocation of workers to the most productive region boosts productivity at the country level but amplifies differentials across regions. Employment rates decline as migrants foster job competition, and inequality between workers doubles in less productive areas since displacement is particularly severe for low-skill workers. Migration does affect mismatch: mobility favors co-location of agents with similar productivity but within-region rank correlation declines in the most productive region. I show that worker-firm complementarities in production account for 33% of the productivity gains. Place-based programs directed to firms, like incentives for hiring unemployed or creating high productivity jobs, raise employment rates and reduce the gaps in productivity across regions. In contrast, subsidies to attract high-skill workers in the South have limited effects." (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
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
Low-skill jobs or jobs for low-skilled workers?: An analysis of the institutional determinants of the employment rates of low-educated workers in 19 OECD countries, 1997 - 2010 (2015)
Zitatform
Abrassart, Aurélien (2015): Low-skill jobs or jobs for low-skilled workers? An analysis of the institutional determinants of the employment rates of low-educated workers in 19 OECD countries, 1997 - 2010. In: Journal of European social policy, Jg. 25, H. 2, S. 225-241. DOI:10.1177/0958928715573485
Abstract
"We often hear that the high unemployment rates of low-educated workers in Europe are due to the rigidities of the institutions increasing the labour costs that burden employers. In this article, we challenge this traditional view and offer alternative explanations to the cross-national variation in the employment rate of low-educated workers. Using macro-data and an error correction model, we analyse the determinants of the creation of jobs for low-educated workers in 19 countries between 1997 and 2010. Our findings tend to invalidate the neoliberal view, while also pointing to the positive impact of investing in public employment services and the predominant role of economic growth, which can be weakened by union density and employment protection in the case of male workers. Last but not least, creating low skill jobs has no or little impact on the employment outcomes of low-educated workers, thus indicating job displacement issues." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Cognitive skills matter: the employment disadvantage of low-educated workers in comparative perspective (2013)
Zitatform
Abrassart, Aurélien (2013): Cognitive skills matter: the employment disadvantage of low-educated workers in comparative perspective. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 29, H. 4, S. 707-719. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcs049
Abstract
"It is now a widely acknowledged fact that the low-educated workers are facing important risks of labour market exclusion in modern economies. However, possessing low levels of educational qualifications leads to very different situations from one country to another, as the cross-national variation in the unemployment rates of these workers attest. While conventional wisdom usually blames welfare states and the resulting rigidity of labour markets for the low employment opportunities of low-educated workers, empirical evidence tends to contradict this predominant view. Using microdata from the International Adult Literacy Survey that was conducted between 1994 and 1998, we examine the sources of the cross-national variation in the employment disadvantage of low-educated workers in 14 industrialized nations. In particular, we test the validity of the conventional theories concerning the supposedly harmful effect of labour market regulation against a new and promising hypothesis on the importance of cognitive skills for the employment opportunities of the low-educated workers. Our findings support the latter and suggest that the greater the cognitive gap between the low-educated workers and those with intermediate education, the lower the chances of being employed for the former relatively to their higher educated counterparts." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Low pay persistence in Europe (2013)
Zitatform
Clark, Ken & Nikolaos C. Kanellopoulos (2013): Low pay persistence in Europe. In: Labour economics, Jg. 23, H. August, S. 122-134. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2013.04.014
Abstract
"Using panel data for twelve European countries over the period 1994-2001 we estimate the extent of state dependence in low pay for male workers. Controlling for observable and unobservable heterogeneity as well as the endogeneity of initial conditions we find positive, statistically significant state dependence in every single country. The magnitude of this effect varies by country, however this variation is not systematically related to labour market institutions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Patterns of integration: low educated people and their jobs in Norway, Italy and Hungary (2013)
Köllö, János;Zitatform
Köllö, János (2013): Patterns of integration. Low educated people and their jobs in Norway, Italy and Hungary. (IZA discussion paper 7632), Bonn, 32 S.
Abstract
"The paper looks at how the distribution of jobs by complexity and firms' willingness to hire low educated labor for jobs of different complexity contribute to unskilled employment in Norway, Italy and Hungary. In search of how unqualified workers can attend complex jobs, it compares their involvement in various forms of post-school skills formation. The countries are also compared by the weight of small firms, which are assumed to assist low skilled workers through interpersonal relationships. The data suggest that unskilled employment in Norway benefits from synergies between work in skill-intensive jobs, intense adult training, informal learning and involvement in civil activities. In Italy, workplaces requiring no literacy skills at all have the largest contribution but small businesses tend to employ low educated workers at a large scale even in highly complex jobs. In Hungary, insufficient skills (relative to Norway) and an undersized small-firm sector (relative to Italy) set limits to the inclusion of the low educated. An extreme degree of social isolation is likely to deteriorate their skills and jobs prospects further." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Service offshoring and the skill composition of labour demand (2012)
Zitatform
Crinò, Rosario (2012): Service offshoring and the skill composition of labour demand. In: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 74, H. 1, S. 20-57. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-0084.2010.00634.x
Abstract
"This article studies the effects of service offshoring on the skill composition of labour demand, using novel comparable data for nine Western European countries between 1990 and 2004. The results show that service offshoring raises the relative demand for high- and medium-skilled workers. Its effects are qualitatively identical, and quantitatively similar, to those of material offshoring. Additional evidence suggests, however, that the two types of offshoring may work through different channels: complementarity between imported services and domestic skills in the case of service offshoring, substitution of low-skilled labour in the case of material offshoring. Overall, the effects are not large in economic terms." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
In-work benefits for married couples: an ex-ante evaluation of EITC and WTC policies in Italy (2012)
Zitatform
De Luca, Giuseppe, Claudio Rossetti & Daniela Vuri (2012): In-work benefits for married couples. An ex-ante evaluation of EITC and WTC policies in Italy. (IZA discussion paper 6739), Bonn, 41 S.
Abstract
"This paper investigates labor supply and redistributive effects of in-work benefits for Italian married couples using a tax-benefit microsimulation model and a multi-sectoral discrete choice model of labor supply. We consider two in-work benefit schemes following the key principles of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Working Tax Credit (WTC) existing in the US and the UK, respectively. The standard design of these in-work benefits is however augmented with a new benefit premium for two-earner households in order to overcome the well-known disincentive effects that these welfare instruments may generate on secondary earners. In simulation, the proposed in-work benefits are financed through the abolition of Italian family allowances for dependent employees and contingent workers thus ensuring tax revenue neutrality. We show that our EITC and WTC reforms have strong positive effects on labor supply of wives, weak negative effects on labor supply of husbands, and strong positive effects on equity. The EITC is more effective than the WTC in boosting employment of wives, while the WTC is more effective than the EITC in fighting poverty. In both schemes, the trade-off between labor supply incentives and redistributive effects is crucially related to the new benefit premium for two-earner households. Other things being equal, tax revenue neutrality implies that a higher value of this policy coefficient yields stronger incentive effects and weaker redistributive effects." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Capacities and vulnerabilities in precarious work: the perspective of employees in European low wage work. Synthesis report on employees' experiences and work trajectories for Workpackage 7 of the walqing project (2012)
Hohnen, Pernille;Zitatform
Hohnen, Pernille (2012): Capacities and vulnerabilities in precarious work. The perspective of employees in European low wage work. Synthesis report on employees' experiences and work trajectories for Workpackage 7 of the walqing project. Wien, 174 S.
Abstract
"The report discusses work and life quality in new and growing jobs from an individual perspective. The empirical data on which the analysis is based consists of 22 country reports investigating elderly care, cleaning, catering, waste collection and construction in 11 different countries (4-5 countries per sector, see the matrix table below). Each country report is based on 20-25 individual semi-structured interviews with employees working in the selected sector and business functions.
The report consists of this introduction, five chapters, each focusing on one sector, and a conclusion. The chapters follow the same structure by starting with a brief introduction of the main characteristics of work in the sector. The remaining part of each chapter is organized into four sections. The first concentrates on workers' perceptions of the main quality of work and life issues. Then follows a section on agency, career trajectories and career options. The next section examines vulnerability in work and processes of vulnerabilization in the sector. Finally, the last section discusses workers' aspirations and capacities to aspire, followed by a summary and conclusion. The last concluding chapter discusses cross-sector findings in terms of the impact of new and growing jobs on individual lives, and highlights some trends in the present labour market and their possible implications for vulnerability." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) -
Literaturhinweis
Hard work: Job quality and organisation in European low-wage sectors: synthesis report on company case studies for work package 6 of the walqing project (2012)
Zitatform
Holtgrewe, Ursula & Karin Sardadvar (2012): Hard work: Job quality and organisation in European low-wage sectors. Synthesis report on company case studies for work package 6 of the walqing project. Wien, 196 S.
Abstract
"This report presents the findings of the company case studies conducted in Work Package 6 of the walqing project by all twelve partners in the eleven countries participating in walqing. Company case studies were used to investigate how companies are located and position themselves in the sectors and in their respective markets, how they compete and find their niches in changing environments, and how they enhance productivity by restructuring, changing work and creating new jobs. In line with the research focus, the key question the company case studies were supposed to provide an answer for was how these organisational characteristics impact the quality of work for employees. The assumption was that neither markets nor just the institutional environments and industrial relations in diverse employment regimes shape the quality of work, but that the quality of employees' work and life centrally results from managerial strategies and decision-making in the company's respective environment. We aimed to look for examples of both negative and positive configurations of work and life quality in new and expanding jobs, and for the conditions of such configurations through first describing and analysing individual cases and then comparing the findings. Indeed, comparative case study research allows for an exploration of complex causal relationships and histories of such configurations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Cognitive skills matter: The employment disadvantage of the low-educated in international comparison (2011)
Abrassart, Aurelien;Zitatform
Abrassart, Aurelien (2011): Cognitive skills matter: The employment disadvantage of the low-educated in international comparison. (Working Papers on the Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe. REC-WP 04/2011), Edinburgh, 26 S.
Abstract
"It is now a widely acknowledged fact that the low-skilled are facing important risks of labour market exclusion in modern economies. However, possessing low levels of educational qualifications leads to very different situations from one country to another, as the cross-national variation in the unemployment rates of the low-skilled attest. While conventional wisdom usually blames welfare states and the resulting rigidity of labour markets for the low employment opportunities of low-skilled workers, empirical evidence tends to contradict this predominant view.
Using microdata from the International Adult Literacy Survey that was conducted between 1994 and 1998, we examine the sources of the cross-national variation in the employment disadvantage of low-skilled workers in 14 industrialized nations. In particular, we test the validity of the conventional theories concerning the supposedly harmful effect of labour market regulation against a new and promising hypothesis on the importance of cognitive skills for the employment opportunities of the low-educated. Our findings support the latter and suggest that the employment disadvantage the low-educated experience relatively to medium-educated workers is mainly due to their deficit in the skills that have become so important for labour market success in the recent past, namely cognitive skills." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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- Theorie
- Politik und Maßnahmen
- Arbeitsmarkt- und Lohnentwicklung
- Arbeitswelt, Personalpolitik
- Personengruppen
- Wirtschaftszweige
- Geschlecht
- geografischer Bezug
- Alter