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Abrahams, Scott (2025): Unequal Job Security, Unemployment Scarring, and the Distribution of Welfare in a Search and Bargaining Model. In: Labour, Jg. 39, H. 3, S. 189-205. DOI:10.1111/labr.70001

Abstract

"What causes unemployment to concentrate among the same workers over time, and what are the welfare consequences? I demonstrate that unemployment scarring emerges naturally in a frictional labor market when firms with lower-productivity matches have smaller profit margins to absorb negative shocks. I develop a search model with endogenous job termination that reproduces two key empirical regularities: lower-wage jobs are less stable and previous unemployment predicts future job loss. The model captures a crucial non-monotonic pattern I document empirically, where termination risk drops sharply in the left tail of the wage distribution but flattens beyond the median wage. This mechanism increases lifetime wage and unemployment inequality by 7% compared to models with uniform termination risk. Counterfactual experiments reveal that unemployment insurance reduces scarring by enabling workers to wait for higher-quality matches, but simultaneously strengthens workers' bargaining position, which counterintuitively decreases job security at every productivity level." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Abrams, Leah, Daniel Schneider & Kristen Harknett (2025): New Technology, Older Workers: How Workplace Technology is Associated with Indicators of Job Retention. In: Journal of Aging & Social Policy, S. 1-17. DOI:10.1080/08959420.2025.2523122

Abstract

"Middle-aged and older adults who are employed in precarious, high-strain jobs may face challenges to continued work, risking economic insecurity and poor wellbeing in retirement. Technology in the workplace, an under-studied aspect of work environments, could accommodate aging workers or could add stress to their jobs. This study examines how technology in sales and surveillance at work are related to job satisfaction and planned job exits among approximately 6,000 workers aged 50–69 employed in the low-wage service sector (e.g. retail, pharmacy, grocery, hardware, fast food, casual dining, delivery, and hotel). On-the-job surveillance was related to lower job satisfaction and higher reports of looking for a new job, especially when combined with sanctioning for slow speed of work. However, rewards for speed, and to a lesser extent the use of leaderboards, were associated with higher job satisfaction, demonstrating the potential of technology to enhance the work experience for older employees. The use of sales technologies was not associated with job satisfaction or intentions to look for a new job. These results provide a uniquely detailed portrait of prevailing labor market conditions for aging workers in the service sector and demonstrate how certain kinds of technology matter for older workers ’ employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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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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Gruber, Anja (2025): The Labor Market Impacts of Fair Work Legislation. In: ILR review, S. 1-32. DOI:10.1177/00197939251355234

Abstract

"Fair Workweek (FWW) ordinances, which typically require employers to provide workers with advance notice of their schedules and extra pay for last-minute changes, have become an increasingly debated policy tool to address the unpredictability of low-wage work in the United States. In this article, the author studies the labor market impacts of the Oregon FWW law using data on treated workers from the Quarterly Workforce Indicators and American Community Survey, and a variety of empirical approaches that address the factors complicating such a labor market analysis. Taken together, the evidence points to limited effects on the average labor market outcomes of workers covered by the legislation. However, findings indicate increased employment and hours worked for men, and decreased employment and hours worked for women. Also, results show consistent evidence of decreased average monthly earnings for newly hired women at treated employers. Despite the ability of employers to bypass compensation requirements through voluntary standby lists, this study identifies compositional effects on the workforce resulting from FWW legislation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lachowska, Marta, Isaac Sorkin & Stephen A. Woodbury (2025): Employers and Unemployment Insurance Take-Up. In: The American economic review, Jg. 115, H. 8, S. 2529-2573. DOI:10.1257/aer.20230195

Abstract

"We quantify the employer's role in unemployment insurance (UI) take-up. Employer effects on claiming and appeals are substantial, and those effects are negatively correlated, consistent with appeals deterring claims. Low-wage workers are less likely to claim and more likely to have their claims appealed than median-wage workers. Employer effects help explain these income gradients, so equalizing employer effects on claiming would increase the progressivity of UI. Finally, the main source of targeting error in UI is that eligible workers do not claim." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Wiltshire, Justin, Carl McPherson, Michael Reich & Denis Sosinskiy (2025): Minimum Wage Effects and Monopsony Explanations. In: Journal of labor economics, S. 1-46. DOI:10.1086/735551

Abstract

"We present the first causal analysis of a seven-year run-up of minimum wages to $15. Using a novel stacked county-level synthetic control estimator and data on fast-food restaurants, we find substantial pay growth and no disemployment. Our results hold among lower-wage counties and counties without local minimum wages. Minimum wage increases reduce Separation rates and raise wages faster than prices at McDonald’s stores; both findings imply a monopsonistic labor market with declining rents. In the tight post-pandemic labor market, when laborsupply becomes more elastic, we find positive employment effects. These become larger and statistically significant after addressing pandemic-response confounds." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ashenfelter, Orley & Štepán Jurajda (2024): The U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison. (IZA discussion paper / Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 17142), Bonn, 34 S.

Abstract

"Thanks to standardized work protocol and technology of McDonald's restaurants, the hourly wage of McDonald's Basic Crew enables wage comparisons under near-identical skill inputs and hedonic job conditions. McWages capture labor costs in entry-level jobs, while the Big Macs (earned) Per Hour (BMPH) index measures corresponding purchasing power of wages. We document large and growing geographical wage differences in standardized jobs using data covering most U.S. counties during 2016-2023. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no BMPH growth where minimum wages stayed constant, but the pandemic wage increase, which diminished the importance of minimum wages, was stronger in these areas." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mouw, Ted, Arne L. Kalleberg & Michael A. Schultz (2024): “Stepping-Stone” versus “Dead-End” Jobs: Occupational Structure, Work Experience, and Mobility Out of Low-Wage Jobs. In: American sociological review, Jg. 89, H. 2, S. 298-345. DOI:10.1177/00031224241232957

Abstract

"Does working in a low-wage job lead to increased opportunities for upward mobility, or is it a dead-end that traps workers? In this article, we examine whether low-wage jobs are “stepping-stones” that enable workers to move to higher-paid jobs that are linked by institutional mobility ladders and skill transferability. To identify occupational linkages, we create two measures of occupational similarity using data on occupational mobility from matched samples of the Current Population Survey (CPS) and data on multiple dimensions of job skills from the O*NET. We test whether work experience in low-wage occupations increases mobility between linked occupations that results in upward wage mobility. Our analysis uses longitudinal data on low-wage workers from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY) and the 1996 to 2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). We test the stepping-stone perspective using multinomial conditional logit (MCL) models, which allow us to analyze the joint effects of work experience and occupational linkages on achieving upward wage mobility. We find evidence for stepping-stone mobility in certain areas of the low-wage occupational structure. In these occupations, low-wage workers can acquire skills through work experience that facilitate upward mobility through occupational changes to skill and institutionally linked occupations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Sheely, Amanda (2024): More than Money? Job Quality and Food Insecurity among Employed Lone Mother Households in the United States. In: Social Policy and Society, Jg. 23, H. 1, S. 35-52. DOI:10.1017/S1474746421000877

Abstract

"This article examines the relationship between food insecurity and the uncertainty and inadequate financial resources associated with low quality work among lone mother households in the United States. Food insecurity has increased since the start of the Great Recession and is particularly high among lone mother households. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, I find that mothers who have been employed part-time involuntarily and experienced job loss have an increased likelihood of experiencing food insecurity. This relationship holds even after controlling for multiple measures of household income, suggesting the relationship between low quality work and food insecurity is not solely determined by low financial resources. Results suggest that, to reduce food insecurity among lone mother families, policymakers must address both the low wages and uncertainty associated with low quality employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Elvery, Joel A., C. Lockwood Reynolds & Shawn M. Rohlin (2023): Employer Wage Subsidy Caps and Part-Time Work. In: ILR review, Jg. 76, H. 1, S. 189-209. DOI:10.1177/00197939221102865

Abstract

"Using tract-level US Census data and triple-difference estimators, the authors test whether firms increase their use of part-time workers when faced with capped wage subsidies. By limiting the maximum subsidy per worker, such subsidies create incentives for firms to increase the share of their payroll that is eligible for the subsidy by increasing use of part-time or low-wage workers. Results suggest that firms located in federal Empowerment Zones in the United States responded to the program’s capped wage subsidies by expanding their use of part-time workers, particularly in locations where the subsidy cap is likely to bind. Results also show a shift toward hiring lower-skill workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gerritsen, Aart (2023): To Redistribute or to Predistribute? The Minimum Wage versus Income Taxation When Workers Differ in Both Wages and Working Hours. (CESifo working paper 10734), München, 53 S.

Abstract

"I consider the case for the minimum wage alongside (optimal) income taxes when workers differ in both wages and working hours, such that a given level of income corresponds to multiple wage rates. The minimum wage is directly targeted at the lowest-wage workers, while income taxes are at most targeted at all low-income workers, regardless of their hourly wage rates. This renders the minimum wage unambiguously desirable in a discrete-type model of the labor market. Desirability of the minimum wage is a priori ambiguous in a continuous-type model of the labor market. Compared to the minimum wage, income taxes are less effective in compressing the wage distribution but more effective in redistributing income. Desirability of the minimum wage depends on this trade-off between the “predistributional advantage” of the minimum wage and the “redistributional advantage” of the income tax. I derive a desirability condition for the minimum wage and write it in terms of empirical sufficient statistics. A numerical application to the US suggests a strong case for a higher federal minimum wage – especially if social preferences for the lowest-wage workers are relatively strong and the wage elasticity of labor demand relatively small." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Rose, Evan K. & Yotam Shem-Tov (2023): How Replaceable Is a Low-Wage Job? (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 31447), Cambridge, Mass, 104 S.

Abstract

"We study the long-run consequences of losing a low-wage job using linked employer-employee wage records and household surveys. For full-time workers earning $15 per hour or less, job loss due to an idiosyncratic, firm-wide contraction generates a 13% reduction in earnings six years later and over $40,000 cumulative lost earnings. Most of the long-run decrease stems from reductions in employment and hours as opposed to wage rates: job losers are twice as likely to report being unemployed and looking for work. By contrast, workers initially earning $15-$30 per hour see comparable long-run earnings losses driven primarily by reductions in hourly wages. Calibrating a dynamic job ladder model to the estimates implies that the rents from holding a full-time $15 per hour job relative to unemployment are worth about $20,000, more than seven times monthly earnings." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Siddique, Abu Bakkar (2023): Job market polarization and American poverty. In: Journal for labour market research, Jg. 57. DOI:10.1186/s12651-023-00356-5

Abstract

"The article posits that the puzzles of stagnating poverty rates amidst high growth and declining unemployment in the United States can be substantially explained by polarized job markets characterized by job quality and job distribution. In recent decades, there has been an increased number of poor-quality jobs and an unequal distribution of jobs in the developed world, particularly in the United States. I have calculated measures of uneven job distribution indices that account for the distribution of jobs across households. A higher value of the uneven job distribution indices implies that there are relatively large numbers of households with multiple employed people and households with no employed people. Similarly, poor-quality jobs are those jobs that do not offer full-time work. Two-way fixed-effect models estimate that higher uneven job distribution across households worsens aggregated poverty at the state level. Similarly, good-quality jobs help households escape poverty, whereas poor-quality jobs do not. This paper suggests that eradicating poverty requires the government to direct labor market policies to be tailored more toward distributing jobs from individuals to households and altering bad jobs into good jobs, rather than merely creating more jobs in the economy. This paper contributes by elaborating on relations of employment and poverty, addressing employment quality and distribution, and providing empirical evidence." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Torosyan, Karine, Sicheng Wang, Elizabeth A. Mack, Jenna A. Van Fossen & Nathan Baker (2023): Assessing the impact of technological change on similar occupations: Implications for employment alternatives. In: PLoS ONE, Jg. 18. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0291428

Abstract

"Background: The fast-changing labor market highlights the need for an in-depth understanding of occupational mobility impacted by technological change. However, we lack a multidimensional classification scheme that considers similarities of occupations comprehensively, which prevents us from predicting employment trends and mobility across occupations. This study fills the gap by examining employment trends based on similarities between occupations. Method: We first demonstrated a new method that clusters 756 occupation titles based on knowledge, skills, abilities, education, experience, training, activities, values, and interests. We used the Principal Component Analysis to categorize occupations in the Standard Occupational Classification, which is grouped into a four-level hierarchy. Then, we paired the occupation clusters with the occupational employment projections provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We analyzed how employment would change and what factors affect the employment changes within occupation groups. Particularly, we specified factors related to technological changes. Results: The results reveal that technological change accounts for significant job losses in some clusters. This poses occupational mobility challenges for workers in these jobs at present. Job losses for nearly 60% of current employment will occur in low-skill, low-wage occupational groups. Meanwhile, many mid-skilled and highly skilled jobs are projected to grow in the next ten years. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the utility of our occupational classification scheme. Furthermore, it suggests a critical need for skills upgrading and workforce development for workers in declining jobs. Special attention should be paid to vulnerable workers, such as older individuals and minorities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bergman, Nittai K., David Matsa & Michael Weber (2022): Inclusive Monetary Policy: How Tight Labor Markets Facilitate Broad-Based Employment Growth. (CESifo working paper 9512), München, 45 S.

Abstract

"This paper analyzes the heterogeneous effects of monetary policy on workers with differing levels of labor force attachment. Exploiting variation in labor market tightness across metropolitan areas, we show that the employment of populations with lower labor force attachment—Blacks, high school dropouts, and women—is more responsive to expansionary monetary policy in tighter labor markets. The effect builds up over time and is long lasting. We develop a New Keynesian model with heterogeneous workers that rationalizes these results. The model shows that expansionary monetary shocks lead to larger increases in the employment of less attached workers when the central bank follows an average inflation targeting rule and when the Phillips curve is flatter. These findings suggest that, by tightening labor markets, the Federal Reserve’s recent move from a strict to an average inflation targeting framework especially benefits workers with lower labor force attachment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Duggan, Mark, Audrey Guo & Andrew C. Johnston (2022): Would Broadening the UI Tax Base Help Low-Income Workers? (IZA discussion paper 15020), Bonn, 12 S.

Abstract

"The tax base for state unemployment insurance (UI) programs varies significantly in the U.S., from a low of $7,000 annually in California to a high of $52,700 in Washington. Previous research has provided surprisingly little guidance to policy makers regarding the tradeoffs associated with this variation. In this paper, we use 37 years of data for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. to estimate the impact of the UI tax base on labor-market outcomes. We find that the low tax base that exists in California and many other states (and the necessarily higher tax rates that accompany these) negatively affects labor market outcomes for part-time and other low-earning workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Katz, Lawrence F., Jonathan Roth, Richard Hendra & Kelsey Schaberg (2022): Why Do Sectoral Employment Programs Work? Lessons from WorkAdvance. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 40, H. S1, S. S249-S291. DOI:10.1086/717932

Abstract

"This paper examines the evidence from randomized evaluations of sector-focused training programs that target low-wage workers and combine up-front screening, occupational and soft-skills training, and wraparound services. The programs generate substantial and persistent earnings gains (12%–34%) following training. Theoretical mechanisms for program impacts are explored for the WorkAdvance demonstration. Earnings gains are generated by getting participants into higher-wage jobs in higher-earning industries and occupations, not just by raising employment. Training in transferable and certifiable skills (likely underprovided from poaching concerns) and reductions of employment barriers to high-wage sectors for nontraditional workers appear to play key roles." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kupfer, Antonia (2022): Supermagd : Arbeitsaneignung im Niedriglohnsektor im Ländervergleich. In: Arbeits- und industriesoziologische Studien, Jg. 15, H. 1, S. 26-39.

Abstract

"Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird ein Konzept der Arbeitsaneignung vorgestellt, das die Subjektperspektive Beschäftigter eingebettet in soziale Kontexte erfasst und analysiert. Damit geraten strukturelle Einflüsse auf die Art und Weise wie Beschäftigte ihre Arbeit wahrnehmen, bewerten und bewältigen in den Blick. Am Beispiel von Supermarktverkäufer_innen in Deutschland und den USA wird das Konzept mit seinen drei Dimensionen sozialer Status der Tätigkeit, Gebrauchswert und Tätigsein entfaltet. Ihr Beschäftigtenanteil ist hoch und – nicht erst in der Corona-Pandemie – systemrelevant. Auf der Grundlage zweier kontrastierender Fälle werden Thesen zur unterschiedlichen Arbeitsaneignung in einem ausgewählten Niedriglohnsektor vorgestellt. Im Ergebnis wird deutlich, dass Arbeitsaneignung in Deutschland im Vergleich zu den USA arbeitnehmerinnenfreundlicher stattfindet. Für eine Verbesserung von Lebensverhältnissen sind daher politische Veränderungen und nicht subjektive Anrufungen erforderlich." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Ortigueira, Salvador & Nawid Siassi (2022): The U.S. tax-transfer system and low-income households: Savings, labor supply, and household formation. In: Review of Economic Dynamics, Jg. 44, S. 184-210. DOI:10.1016/j.red.2021.02.010

Abstract

"Eligibility and benefits for anti-poverty income transfers in the U.S. are based on both the means and the household characteristics of applicants, such as their filing status, living arrangement, and marital status. In this paper we develop a dynamic structural model to study the effects of the U.S. tax-transfer system on the decisions of non-college-educated workers with children. In our model workers face uninsurable idiosyncratic risks and make decisions on savings, labor supply, living arrangement, and marital status. We find that the U.S. anti-poverty policy distorts the cohabitation/marriage decision of single mothers, providing incentives to cohabit. We also find quantitatively important effects on savings, and on the labor supply of husbands and wives. Namely, the model yields a U-shaped relationship between the earnings of one spouse and the labor supply of the other spouse, a result that we also find in the data. We show that these U-shaped relationships stem in part from the current design of anti-poverty income programs, and that the introduction of an EITC deduction on the earnings of secondary earners—as proposed in the 21st Century Worker Tax Cut Act—would increase the employment rate of the spouses of workers earning between $15K and $35K, especially of female spouses." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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Carr, Michael D. & Emily E. Wiemers (2021): The role of low earnings in differing trends in male earnings volatility. In: Economics Letters, Jg. 199. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109702

Abstract

"Trends in male earnings volatility vary across studies. Volatility is flat or increasing in most studies using survey data but falling in recent studies using administrative data. This paper uses Survey of Income and Program Participation data linked to administrative earnings histories from the Detailed Earnings Records to investigate the effect of the treatment of low earnings on earnings volatility. We show that volatility trends are sensitive to the treatment of low earnings: when low earnings are treated as is typically done with survey data, volatility is flat or increasing slightly, but when low earnings are treated as in recent studies using administrative earnings data, volatility declines." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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Cavenaile, Laurent (2021): Offshoring, computerization, labor market polarization and top income inequality. In: Journal of macroeconomics, Jg. 69. DOI:10.1016/j.jmacro.2021.103317

Abstract

"This paper proposes a model of occupational choice with heterogeneous agents in terms of human capital to quantify the role of offshoring and computerization in labor market polarization and increased top income inequality. We find that both offshoring and computerization played a major role regarding labor market polarization in the US over the period 1975–2008. We further show that the last decades can be decomposed into two subperiods. Computerization is the main driver of labor market polarization from 1975 to the mid 1990s, after which globalization (through decreased costs of offshoring) explains more than 70% of job and wage polarization. Our model can also explain around 40% of the observed increase in top income inequality since 1975." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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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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Engelhardt, Gary V. & Patrick J. Purcell (2021): The minimum wage and annual earnings inequality. In: Economics Letters, Jg. 207. DOI:10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110001

Abstract

"We estimate the impact of the minimum wage on U.S. male annual earnings inequality, using administrative Social Security earnings records from 1981-2015. The minimum wage reduces inequality in the bottom quartile of the earnings distribution, and especially in the bottom decile." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2021 Elsevier) ((en))

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Farmand, Aida & Owen Davis (2021): Who Does the Earned Income Tax Credit Benefit? A Monopsony View. (Working paper / Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis 2021-02), New York, NY, 45 S.

Abstract

"The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) targets refundable tax credits to low-income workers, incentivizing labor supply and raising the incomes of tens of millions of Americans. One possible consequence of subsidizing low-wage work, however, is to reduce wage growth. A monopsony model of the EITC is developed in order to analyze its impacts on labor market outcomes, which are identified by exploiting variation in state EITC supplements. A first set of results focused on the food service industry find that the EITC increases employment and reduces turnover among young women. Further results suggest that the EITC reduces wages for workers without college degrees. These findings prompt a reconsideration of the redistributive effects of the EITC, particularly for groups like older low-wage workers who face slower wage growth as a result of the policy but do not receive the same level of benefits on average." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Struffolino, Emanuela & Zachary Van Winkle (2021): Gender and race differences in pathways out of in-work poverty in the US. In: Social science research, Jg. 99. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2021.102585

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Grimes, Donald R., Penelope B. Prime & Mary Beth Walker (2019): Geographical variation in wages of workers in low-wage service occupations. A U.S. metropolitan area analysis. In: Economic Development Quarterly, Jg. 33, H. 2, S. 121-133. DOI:10.1177/0891242419836493

Abstract

"Low-wage, service-providing occupations accounted for almost half of all U.S. net job growth between 2006 and 2016. The authors study the variation in wages of low-wage service employees across U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, using cross-sectional estimations for 2016 for the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentile wage rates. New data are used to examine the impact of different cost-of-living adjustments on model results, arguing that the preferred adjustment separates housing costs from other costs. The main results are that strong labor market conditions positively contribute to real wages in most of the categories; minimum wages contribute positively to the 10th percentile of four occupations with evidence of influencing higher wages in the 50th and 90th percentiles; and using the authors' cost-of-living adjustment and controlling for housing costs, the presence of an educated population did not substantially raise wages in the four low-wage, low-skill occupations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Phelan, Brian J. (2019): Hedonic-based labor supply substitution and the ripple effect of minimum wages. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 37, H. 3, S. 905-947. DOI:10.1086/702651

Abstract

"This paper analyzes a new explanation of the 'ripple effect' of minimum wages based on how minimum wages affect hedonic compensation. Minimum wage hikes lower compensating differentials at low-skill undesirable jobs because they raise wages at the most desirable low-skill job, the minimum wage job. This change in hedonic compensation may cause some individuals to optimally leave low-wage undesirable jobs and seek more desirable employment. If labor supply falls at low-wage undesirable jobs, employers would raise wages, consistent with the ripple effect. Empirically, I provide evidence that hedonic-based labor supply substitution is taking place and contributing to the ripple effect." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Struffolino, Emanuela & Zachary Van Winkle (2019): Is there only one way out of in-work poverty? Difference by gender and race in the US. (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung. Discussion papers SP 1 2019-601), Berlin, 41 S.

Abstract

"The persistency of in-work poverty during the last decades challenges the idea that employment is sufficient to escape poverty. Research has focused on the risk factors associated with in-work poverty, but scholars know little about individuals' experiences after exiting it. The Sequence Analysis Multistate Model procedure is applied to three high-quality longitudinal data sources (NLSY79, NLSY97, and PSID) to establish a typology of employment pathways out of in-work poverty and estimate how gender and race are associated with each pathway. We identify five distinct pathways characterized by varying degrees of labor market attachment, economic vulnerability, and volatility. White men are most likely exit in-work poverty into stable employment outside of poverty, while Black men and women likely remain vulnerable and at-risk of social exclusion as well as recurrent spells of in-work poverty. Gender and race differences persist even after controlling for labor market related characteristics and family demographic behavior." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Leung, Pauline & Alexandre Mas (2018): Employment effects of the affordable care act medicaid expansions. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 57, H. 2, S. 206-234. DOI:10.1111/irel.12207

Abstract

"We examine whether the recent expansions in Medicaid from the Affordable Care Act reduced 'employment lock' among childless adults who were previously ineligible for public coverage. We compare employment in states that chose to expand Medicaid versus those that chose not to expand, before and after implementation. We find that although the expansion increased Medicaid coverage by 3.0 percentage points among childless adults, there was no significant impact on employment." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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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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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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Panikkar, Bindu, Doug Brugge, David M. Gute & Raymond R. Hyatt (2015): "They see us as machines:" the experience of recent immigrant women in the low wage informal labor sector. In: PLoS one, Jg. 10, H. 11, S. 1-18. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0142686

Abstract

"This study explores the organization of work and occupational health risk as elicited from recently immigrated women (n = 8) who have been in the US for less than three years and employed in informal work sectors such as cleaning and factory work in the greater Boston area in Massachusetts. Additional interviews (n = 8) with Community Key Informants with knowledge of this sector and representatives of temporary employment agencies in the area provides further context to the interviews conducted with recent immigrant women. These results were also compared with our immigrant occupational health survey, a large project that spawned this study. Responses from the study participants suggest health outcomes consistent with being a day-laborer scholarship, new immigrant women are especially at higher risk within these low wage informal work sectors. A difference in health experiences based on ethnicity and occupation was also observed. Low skilled temporary jobs are fashioned around meeting the job performance expectations of the employer; the worker's needs are hardly addressed, resulting in low work standards, little worker protection and poor health outcomes. The rising prevalence of non-standard employment or informal labor sector requires that policies or labor market legislation be revised to meet the needs presented by these marginalized workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Sykes, Jennifer, Katrin Križ, Kathryn Edin & Sarah Halpern-Meekin (2015): Dignity and dreams: what the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) means to low-income families. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 80, H. 2, S. 243-267. DOI:10.1177/0003122414551552

Abstract

"Money has meaning that shapes its uses and social significance, including the monies low-income families draw on for survival: wages, welfare, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This study, based on in-depth interviews with 115 low-wage EITC recipients, reveals the EITC is an unusual type of government transfer. Recipients of the EITC say they value the debt relief this government benefit brings. However, they also perceive it as a just reward for work, which legitimizes a temporary increase in consumption. Furthermore, unlike other means-tested government transfers, the credit is seen as a springboard for upward mobility. Thus, by conferring dignity and spurring dreams, the EITC enhances feelings of citizenship and social inclusion." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Thiede, Brian C., Daniel T. Lichter & Scott R. Sanders (2015): America's working poor. Conceptualization, measurement, and new estimates. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 42, H. 3, S. 267-312. DOI:10.1177/0730888415573635

Abstract

"This article addresses measurement challenges that have stymied contemporary research on the working poor. The authors review previously used measurement schemes and discuss conceptual assumptions that underlie each. Using 2013 March Current Population Survey data, the authors estimate national- and race-specific rates of working poverty using more than 125 measures. The authors then evaluate the association between each measure and a latent construct of working poverty using factor analysis and develop a working poverty index derived from these results. Finally, the authors estimate multivariate regression models to identify key social and demographic risk factors for poverty among workers. The authors' national estimates of working poverty range from 2% to nearly 19% and are highly sensitive to alternative assumptions. The authors' analyses find that the latent construct is most highly correlated with empirical measures of working poverty that include part-time or part-year employment and that use poverty income thresholds that include both the poor and near poor. Crude rates and conditional risks of poverty among workers vary considerably among racial groups. This article provides a conceptual and empirical baseline for decisions about how best to estimate the magnitude and composition of America's working poor population." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Albelda, Randy & Michael Carr (2014): Double trouble: US low-wage and low-income workers, 1979 - 2011. In: Feminist economics, Jg. 20, H. 2, S. 1-28. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2014.886125

Abstract

"There is research on low-wage earners and on low-income adults, yet little that looks specifically at workers who are both. Changes in antipoverty programs and job structure in the United States suggest a rise in this group of workers, but not necessarily an accompanying change in the set of social protections that might cover them. We track the share of low-wage and low-income (LW/LI) workers and their access to a subset of employer benefits and antipoverty programs from 1979 - 2011. We explore changes by worker's gender and family status based on feminist labor market and welfare state regime research that argues jobs and social protection programs are shaped by a heteronormative male-breadwinner model. We find increased shares of LW/LI workers; that LW/LI workers are least likely to receive antipoverty supports and employer benefits; and evidence for a male-breadwinner model in US social protection programs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gesthuizen, Maurice & Heike Solga (2014): Is the labor market vulnerability of less-educated men really about job competition? New insights from the United States. In: Journal for labour market research, Jg. 47, H. 3, S. 205-221., 2013-03-01. DOI:10.1007/s12651-013-0131-4

Abstract

"Es gibt verschiede Gründe, warum schlechter ausgebildete Männer höheren Risiken der Arbeitsmarktverwundbarkeit - Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiken oder bei Beschäftigten ein niedriger sozioökonomischer Status - unterliegen. Die gebräuchliche Erklärung hierfür ist, dass der Grund für diese höheren Risiken ein gesteigerter beruflicher Wettbewerb ist, der auf ein Überangebot an besser ausgebildeten Arbeitskräften zurückzuführen ist, die die schlechter ausgebildeten Arbeitskräfte aus ihren Beschäftigungen verdrängen. Zusätzlich zur Untersuchung dieser Erklärung analysieren wir den Einfluss der kognitiven Fähigkeiten schlechter ausgebildeter Männer, ihre sozialen Ressourcen und den (historisch eingebetteten) Signalwert, über keine Bildungsnachweise zu verfügen. Wir untersuchen diese Auswirkungen mittels institutioneller und kompositioneller Variationen über Arbeitsmarkt-Eintrittskohorten hinweg in den USA. Für unsere Analysen nutzen wir die Daten des 1974-2008 US General Social Survey (GSS). Sie zeigen, dass ein Überangebot an gut ausgebildeten Arbeitskräften hauptsächlich die Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiken der besser ausgebildeten Personen selbst steigert. In Arbeitsmarkt-Eintrittskohorten, in welchen die negative Selektion basierend auf dem Hintergrund der Eltern der Gruppe der schlechter ausgebildeten deutlicher ist, haben die schlechter ausgebildeten ein relativ hohes Arbeitslosigkeitsrisiko." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Henly, Julia R. & Susan J. Lambert (2014): Unpredictable work timing in retail jobs. Implications for employee work-life conflict. In: ILR review, Jg. 67, H. 3, S. 986-1016. DOI:10.1177/0019793914537458

Abstract

"Unpredictability is a distinctive dimension of working time that has been examined primarily in the context of unplanned overtime and in male-dominated occupations. The authors assess the extent to which female employees in low-skilled retail jobs whose work schedules are unpredictable report greater work -- life conflict than do their counterparts with more predictable work schedules and whether employee input into work schedules reduces work -- life conflict. Data include measures from employee surveys and firm records for a sample of hourly female workers employed across 21 stores of a U.S. women's apparel retailer. Results demonstrate that, independent of other dimensions of nonstandard work hours, unpredictability is positively associated with three outcomes: general work -- life conflict, time-based conflict, and strain-based conflict as measured by perceived employee stress. Employee input into work schedules is negatively related to these outcomes. Little evidence was found that schedule input moderates the association between unpredictable working time and work -- life conflict." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lewchuk, Wayne, Michelynn Laflèche, Diane Dyson, Luin Goldring, Alan Meisner, Stephanie Procyk, Dan Rosen, John Shields, Peter Viducis & Sam Vrankulj (2014): Is precarious employment low income employment? The changing labour market in Southern Ontario. In: Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, Jg. 22, H. Autumn, S. 51-73.

Abstract

"This paper examines the association between income and precarious employment, how this association is changing and how it is shaped by gender and race. It explores how precarious employment has spread to even middle income occupations and what this implies for our understanding of contemporary labour markets and employment relationship norms. The findings indicate a need to refine our views of who is in precarious employment and a need to re-evaluate the nature of the Standard Employment Relationship, which we would argue is not only becoming less prevalent, but also transitioning into something that is less secure." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lindstrom, Lauren, Kara Hirano, Colleen McCarthy & Charlotte Alverson (2014): "Just having a job". Career advancement for low-wage workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In: Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals, Jg. 37, H. 1, S. 40-49. DOI:10.1177/2165143414522092

Abstract

"This study examined career development and early employment experiences for four young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Researchers used a multiple-method, multiple case-study longitudinal design to explore career development within the context of family systems, high school and transition programs, adult services, and early and continued experiences in the labor market. Data sources included school and rehabilitation records, job observations, and interviews with young adults, family members, high school special education personnel, employers, and adult agency staff (N = 39). During the early career years, participants maintained stable employment, but earned annual wages well under the federal poverty line. Employment opportunities seemed to be influenced by family advocacy and expectations, schoolbased work experiences, job development services, and work environments." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Masters, Adrian (2014): Statistical discrimination from composition effects in the market for low-skilled workers. In: Labour economics, Jg. 26, H. January, S. 72-80. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2013.12.002

Abstract

"In a random search environment with two racial groups each composed of identical numbers of high and low productivity workers, firms use an imperfect screening device (interviews) to control hiring. If inconclusive interviews lead firms to hire majority workers but not minority workers, then the unemployment pool for majority workers is of higher average quality. This can justify the initial hiring choices. Color-blind hiring always eliminates racial disparities but is not necessarily beneficial; in the USA it would improve welfare with only a brief small increase in white unemployment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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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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Addison, John T., McKinley L. Blackburn & Chad D. Cotti (2013): Minimum wage increases in a recessionary environment. In: Labour economics, Jg. 23, H. August, S. 30-39. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2013.02.004

Abstract

"Do seemingly large minimum-wage increases in an environment of deep recession produce clearer evidence of disemployment than is often observed in the modern minimum wage literature? This paper uses three data sets to examine the employment effects of the most recent increases in the U.S. minimum wage. We focus on two high-risk groups - restaurant-and-bar employees and teenagers - for the years 2005 - 2010. Although the evidence for a general disemployment effect is not uniform, estimates do suggest the presence of a negative minimum wage effect in states hardest hit by the recession." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boffy-Ramirez, Ernest (2013): Minimum wages, earnings, and migration. In: IZA journal of migration, Jg. 2, S. 1-24. DOI:10.1186/2193-9039-2-17

Abstract

"Does increasing a state's minimum wage induce migration into the state? Previous literature has shown mobility in response to welfare benefit differentials across states, yet few have examined the minimum wage as a cause of mobility. Focusing on low-skilled immigrants, this paper empirically examines the effect of minimum wages on location decisions within the United States. This paper expands upon minimum wage and immigration literatures by demonstrating that the choice of destination is sensitive to minimum wage changes, and that the effects are highly dependent on the number of years an immigrant has resided in the U.S." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boyd-Swan, Casey, Chris M. Herbst, John Ifcher & Homa Zarghamee (2013): The Earned Income Tax Credit, health, and happiness. (IZA discussion paper 7261), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"This paper contributes to the small but growing literature evaluating the health effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). In particular, we use data from the National Survey of Families and Households to study the impact of the 1990 federal EITC expansion on several outcomes related to mental health and subjective well-being. The identification strategy relies on a difference-in-differences framework to estimate intent-to-treat effects for the post-reform period. Our results suggest that the 1990 EITC reform generated sizeable health benefits for low-skilled mothers. Such women experienced lower depression symptomatology, an increase in self-reported happiness, and improved self-efficacy relative to their childless counterparts. Consistent with previous work, we find that married mothers captured most of the health benefits, with unmarried mothers' health changing very little following the 1990 EITC reform." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Brady, David, Regina S. Baker & Ryan Finnigan (2013): When unionization disappears: state-level unionization and working poverty in the United States. In: American Sociological Review, Jg. 78, H. 5, S. 872-896. DOI:10.1177/0003122413501859

Abstract

"Although the working poor are a much larger population than the unemployed poor, U.S. poverty research devotes much more attention to joblessness than to working poverty. Research that does exist on working poverty concentrates on demographics and economic performance and neglects institutions. Building on literatures on comparative institutions, unionization, and states as polities, we examine the influence of a potentially important labor market institution for working poverty: the level of unionization in a state. Using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) for the United States, we estimate (1) multi-level logit models of poverty among employed households in 2010; and (2) two-way fixed-effects models of working poverty across seven waves of data from 1991 to 2010. Further, we replicate the analyses with the Current Population Survey while controlling for household unionization, and assess unionization's potential influence on selection into employment. Across all models, state-level unionization is robustly significantly negative for working poverty. The effects of unionization are larger than the effects of states' economic performance and social policies. Unionization reduces working poverty for both unionized and non-union households and does not appear to discourage employment. We conclude that U.S. poverty research can advance by devoting greater attention to working poverty, and by incorporating insights from the comparative literature on institutions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Coomer, Nicole M. & Walter J. Wessels (2013): The effect of the minimum wage on covered teenage employment. In: Journal of labor research, Jg. 34, H. 3, S. 253-280. DOI:10.1007/s12122-013-9160-6

Abstract

"Unlike previous studies on the minimum wage, which focused on its effect on total teenage employment, we examine its effect on covered employment. A covered job was defined to be one paying the minimum wage or more. Using contemporary wages to classify workers this way may inflate the estimated effect of minimum wages on covered employment. To avoid this bias, covered jobs are identified using a logit procedure run over years in which the minimum age was not increased. We find that minimum wages reduced covered employment significantly more than total employment. We also show that covered employment may be overstated in the period following an increase in the minimum wage." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dorn, David (2013): The growth of low-skill service jobs and the polarization of the US labor market. In: The American economic review, Jg. 103, H. 5, S. 1553-1597. DOI:10.1257/aer.103.5.1553

Abstract

"We offer a unified analysis of the growth of low-skill service occupations between 1980 and 2005 and the concurrent polarization of US employment and wages. We hypothesize that polarization stems from the interaction between consumer preferences, which favor variety over specialization, and the falling cost of automating routine, codifiable job tasks. Applying a spatial equilibrium model, we corroborate four implications of this hypothesis. Local labor markets that specialized in routine tasks differentially adopted information technology, reallocated low-skill labor into service occupations (employment polarization), experienced earnings growth at the tails of the distribution (wage polarization), and received inflows of skilled labor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Doussard, Marc (2013): Degraded work. The struggle at the bottom of the labor market. University of Minnesota Press 275 S.

Abstract

"Critics on the left and the right typically agree that globalization, the loss of manufacturing jobs, and the expansion of the service sector have led to income inequality and rising numbers of low-paying jobs with poor working conditions. In Degraded Work, Marc Doussard demonstrates that this decline in wages and working conditions is anything but the unavoidable result of competitive economic forces. Rather, he makes the case that service sector and other local-serving employers have boosted profit with innovative practices to exploit workers, demeaning their jobs in new ways - denying safety equipment, fining workers for taking scheduled breaks, requiring unpaid overtime - that go far beyond wage cuts. Doussard asserts that the degradation of service work is a choice rather than an inevitability, and he outlines concrete steps that can be taken to help establish a fairer postindustrial labor market.
Drawing on fieldwork in Chicago, Degraded Work examines changes in two industries in which inferior job quality is assumed to be intrinsic: residential construction and food retail. In both cases, Doussard shows how employers degraded working conditions as part of a successful and intricate strategy to increase profits. Arguing that a growing service sector does not have to mean growing inequality, Doussard proposes creative policy and organizing opportunities that workers and advocates can use to improve job quality despite the overwhelming barriers to national political action." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gorry, Aspen (2013): Minimum wages and youth unemployment. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 64, H. November, S. 57-75. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2013.08.004

Abstract

"This paper constructs a labor search model to explore the effects of minimum wages on youth unemployment. To capture the gradual decline in unemployment for young workers as they age, the standard search model is extended so that workers gain experience when employed. Experienced workers have higher average productivity and lower job finding and separation rates that match wage and worker flow data. In this environment, minimum wages can have large effects on unemployment because they interact with a worker's ability to gain job experience. The increase in minimum wages between 2007 and 2009 can account for a 0.8 percentage point increase in the steady state unemployment rate and a 2.8 percentage point increase in unemployment for 15-24 year old workers in the model parameterized to simulate outcomes of high school educated workers. Minimum wages can also help explain the high rates of youth unemployment in France compared to the United States." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lofstrom, Magnus (2013): Does self-employment increase the economic well-being of low-skilled workers? In: Small business economics, Jg. 40, H. 4, S. 933-952. DOI:10.1007/s11187-011-9402-z

Abstract

"Low-skilled workers do not fare well in today's skill intensive economy and their opportunities continue to diminish. Utilizing data from the survey of income and program participation, this paper provides an analysis of the economic returns to business ownership among low-skilled workers and addresses the essential question of whether self-employment is a good option for low-skilled individuals that policymakers might consider encouraging. The analysis reveals substantial differences in the role of self-employment among low-skilled workers across gender and nativity - women and immigrants are shown to be of particular importance from both the perspectives of trends and policy relevance. We find that, although the returns to low-skilled self-employment among men is higher than among women, the analysis shows that wage/salary employment is a more financially rewarding option for most low-skilled workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mazzolari, Francesca & Giuseppe Ragusa (2013): Spillovers from high-skill consumption to low-skill labor markets. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 95, H. 1, S. 74-86. DOI:10.1162/REST_a_00234

Abstract

"The least-skilled workforce in the United States is disproportionally employed in the provision of time-intensive services that can be thought of as market substitutes for home production activities. At the same time, skilled workers, with their high opportunity cost of time, spend a larger fraction of their budget in these services. Given the skill asymmetry between consumers and providers in this market, product demand shifts - such as those arising when relative skilled wages increase - should boost relative labor demand for the least-skilled workforce. We estimate that this channel may explain one-third of the growth of employment of noncollege workers in low-skill services in the 1990s." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Neumark, David, Matthew Thompson, Francesco Brindisi, Leslie Koyle & Clayton Reck (2013): Simulating the economic impacts of living wage mandates using new public and administrative data. Evidence for New York City. In: Economic Development Quarterly, Jg. 27, H. 4, S. 271-283. DOI:10.1177/0891242413490795

Abstract

"Policy researchers often have to estimate the future effect of imposing a policy in a particular location. There is often evidence on the effects of similar policies in other jurisdictions but no information on the effects of the policy in the jurisdiction in question. And the policy may have specific features not reflected in the experiences of other areas. It is then necessary to combine the evidence from other locations with detailed information and data specific to the jurisdiction in question, with which to simulate the effects of the policy in the new jurisdiction. We illustrate and use this approach in estimating the impact of a proposed living wage mandate for New York City, emphasizing how our ex ante simulations make use of detailed location-specific information on workers, families, and employers using administrative data and other new public data sources." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Riley, Rebecca (2013): Modelling demand for low skilled/low paid labour. Exploring the employment trade-offs of a living wage. (NIESR discussion paper 404), London, 37 S.

Abstract

"This paper analyses labour demand for low skill/low pay labour in order to explore the potential employment trade-offs associated with moving to a Living Wage. Using industry sector panel data we model demand for labour classified into 5 groups defined by age and highest educational qualification. Low pay is most prevalent amongst the less skilled and the young. Amongst the 11 market sector industry groups we consider, the three sectors that would face the largest rise in their wage bill were all employers to sign up to the Living Wage are: Wholesale & Retail, Hotels & Catering; Other Community, Social & Personal Services; and less skill intensive manufacturing industries. Our calculations suggest that, conditional on the level of output and worker effort, these cost increases would reduce employers' demand for young low-skilled employees in the private sector by approximately 300,000. The analysis highlights the importance of allowing for labour substitution in considering the employment demand effects of exogenous shifts in wages. We find that in aggregate the reduction in conditional labour demand with the Living Wage is around 160,000; this is around half the reduction in the demand for young lower-skilled employees because employers substitute younger with more experienced workers. The number of employees who would see their earnings rise with a Living Wage far outweighs the estimated reduction in labour demand." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Sethupathy, Guru (2013): Offshoring, wages, and employment. Theory and evidence. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 62, H. August, S. 73-97. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2013.04.004

Abstract

"This paper investigates the wage and employment effects of offshoring. I use firm-level data and two events in Mexico as a natural experiment to identify the effects of a fall in the marginal cost of offshoring to Mexico. I find that domestic wages actually rise at US firms likely to take advantage of this new offshoring opportunity. At the same time, domestic wages fall at US firms unlikely to take advantage of this opportunity. Furthermore, I find no evidence of greater domestic job loss at the former compared to the latter firms. These findings are consistent with productivity effects from offshoring. To explain the mechanism, I develop a theoretical framework that combines heterogeneous firms with imperfect labor markets and rent-sharing. Firms likely to take advantage of new offshoring opportunities increase their productivity and profitability at the expense of their competitors. Through rent-sharing, this channel leads to higher domestic wages at the former firms relative to the latter. Further, there is no empirical evidence of greater domestic job loss at the firms likely to expand their offshoring compared to their competitors that are unlikely to increase their offshoring." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ajilore, Olugbenga (2012): Did the Work Opportunity Tax Credit cause subsidized worker substitution? In: Economic Development Quarterly, Jg. 26, H. 3, S. 231-237. DOI:10.1177/0891242412453306

Abstract

"This article questions whether the implementation of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) created an incentive for employers to substitute subsidized workers for incumbent workers. To see if this substitution occurs, the author uses a differences-in-differences methodology to test whether the implementation of the WOTC caused both an increase in employment from a representative target group and a decrease in employment of a group that is a close substitute for members of the target group. The author finds no evidence that subsidized worker substitution occurred in the period after the WOTC was implemented. There is evidence that the WOTC is effective in increasing the employment rates of long-term welfare recipients." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Autor, David & David Dorn (2012): The growth of low skill service jobs and the polarization of the U.S. labor market. (IZA discussion paper 7068), Bonn, 58 S.

Abstract

"We offer an integrated explanation and empirical analysis of the polarization of U.S. employment and wages between 1980 and 2005, and the concurrent growth of low skill service occupations. We attribute polarization to the interaction between consumer preferences, which favor variety over specialization, and the falling cost of automating routine, codifiable job tasks. Applying a spatial equilibrium model, we derive, test, and confirm four implications of this hypothesis. Local labor markets that were specialized in routine activities differentially adopted information technology, reallocated low skill labor into service occupations (employment polarization), experienced earnings growth at the tails of the distribution (wage polarization), and received inflows of skilled labor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blundell, Richard & Andrew Shephard (2012): Employment, hours of work and the optimal taxation of low income families. In: The Review of Economic Studies, Jg. 79, H. 2, S. 481-510. DOI:10.1093/restud/rdr034

Abstract

"The optimal design of low-income support is examined using a structural labour supply model. The approach incorporates unobserved heterogeneity, fixed costs of work, childcare costs and the detailed non-convexities of the tax and transfer system. The analysis considers purely Pareto improving reforms and also optimal design under social welfare functions with different degrees of inequality aversion. We explore the gains from tagging and also examine the case for the use of hours-contingent payments. Using the tax schedule for lone parents in the U.K. as our policy environment, the results point to a reformed non-linear tax schedule with tax credits only optimal for low earners. The results also suggest a welfare improving role for tagging according to child age and for hours-contingent payments, although the case for the latter is mitigated when hours cannot be monitored or recorded accurately by the tax authorities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Campolieti, Michele, Morley Gunderson & Byron Lee (2012): The (non) impact of minimum wages on poverty. Regression and simulation evidence for Canada. In: Journal of labor research, Jg. 33, H. 3, S. 287-302. DOI:10.1007/s12122-012-9139-8

Abstract

"We estimate the effect of minimum wages on poverty for Canada using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) for 1997 to 2007 and find that minimum wages do not have a statistically significant effect on poverty and this finding is robust across a number of specifications. Our simulation results, based on the March 2008 Labour Force Survey (LFS), find that only about 30 % of the net earnings gain from minimum wage increases goes to the poor while about 70 % 'spill over' into the hands of the non-poor. Furthermore, we find that job losses are disproportionately concentrated on the poor. Our results highlight that, political rhetoric not-withstanding, minimum wages are poorly targeted as an anti-poverty device and are at best an exceedingly blunt instrument for dealing with poverty." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Chyi, Hau (2012): The 1993 EITC expansion and low-skilled single mothers' welfare use decision. In: Applied Economics, Jg. 44, H. 13, S. 1717-1736. DOI:10.1080/00036846.2011.554372

Abstract

"Previous studies on low-skilled single mothers focus generally either on the binary welfare use or work decision. However, work among welfare participants has increased steadily since the mid-1990s. This study estimates the role of the 1993 Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansion on the decline of welfare caseloads using a bivariate probit model. Using monthly Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) information, I find that the 1993 EITC expansion has at least the same effect on reducing welfare use as the welfare reform initiatives. Moreover, the elasticity estimates indicate that single mothers, especially those who were not employed and dependent solely on welfare before the expansion, were the most responsive to the policy initiatives. Finally, the increase in work among welfare participants is due to the relative ineffectiveness of the policies in reducing the net population of those who are on welfare and work simultaneously." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Fontes, Adriana, Valéria Pero & Janine Berg (2012): Low-paid employment in Brazil. In: International Labour Review, Jg. 151, H. 3, S. 193-219. DOI:10.1111/j.1564-913X.2012.00145.x

Abstract

"While low pay is prevalent in developing countries, the issue has not been studied in depth. To help fill this gap, the authors use panel data on six Brazilian metropolitan areas for the years 2002 - 09 to investigate the incidence, permanence and profile of low-paid employment. Over the period, low-paid work declined from 24.4 to 21.5 per cent of total wage employment. As in high-income countries, the probability of being low-paid was greater for women, non-whites, younger workers and those with fewer years of education. A mobility analysis shows that job experience improved labour market prospects, even for low-paid wage earners." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ford, William F., Travis Minor & Mark F. Owens (2012): State minimum wage differences: economic factors or political inclinations? In: Business Economics, Jg. 47, H. 1, S. 57-67. DOI:10.1057/be.2011.37

Abstract

"This paper examines the importance of factors that influence a state's decision to adopt an above-federal minimum wage level. Our results indicate that state political leanings are the primary factor explaining differences in state minimum wage laws since 1991. Further, state cost of living differences do not appear to influence a state's decision to increase its minimum wage above the federal level. This result is interesting since proponents of raising the minimum wage cite the rising cost of living as a principal justification for an increase. Our findings should be of special interest to economists responsible for analyzing and forecasting labor cost trends within and among states where their employers operate or plan to relocate." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kemeny, Thomas & David Rigby (2012): Trading away what kind of jobs? Globalization, trade and tasks in the US economy. In: Review of world economics, Jg. 148, H. 1, S. 1-16. DOI:10.1007/s10290-011-0099-5

Abstract

"Economists and other social scientists are calling for a reassessment of the impact of international trade on labor markets in developed and developing countries. Classical models of globalization and trade, based upon the international exchange of finished goods, fail to capture the fragmentation of much commodity production and the geographical separation of individual production tasks. This fragmentation, captured in the growing volume of intra-industry trade, prompts investigation of the effects of trade within, rather than between, sectors of the economy. In this paper we examine the relationship between international trade and the task structure of US employment. We link disaggregate US trade data from 1972 to 2006, the NBER manufacturing database, the Decennial Census, and occupational and task data from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Within-industry shifts in task characteristics are linked to import competition and technological change. Our results suggest that trade has played a major role in the growth in relative demand for nonroutine tasks, particularly those requiring high levels of interpersonal interaction." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Marx, Ive, Sarah Marchal & Brian Nolan (2012): Mind the gap: Net incomes of minimum wage workers in the EU and the US. (IZA discussion paper 6510), Bonn, 25 S.

Abstract

"This paper focuses on the role of minimum wages, tax and benefit policies in protecting workers against financial poverty, covering 21 European countries with a national minimum wage and three US States (New Jersey, Nebraska and Texas). It is shown that only for single persons and only in a number of countries, net income packages at minimum wage level reach or exceed the EU's at-risk-of poverty threshold, set at 60 per cent of median equivalent household income in each country. For lone parents and sole breadwinners with a partner and children to support, net income packages at minimum wage are below this threshold almost everywhere, usually by a wide margin. This is the case despite shifts over the past decade towards tax relief and additional income support provisions for low-paid workers. We argue that there appear to be limits to what minimum wage policies alone can achieve in the fight against in-work poverty. The route of raising minimum wages to eliminate poverty among workers solely reliant on it seems to be inherently constrained, especially in countries where the distance between minimum and average wage levels is already comparatively small and where relative poverty thresholds are mostly a function of the dual-earner living standards. In order to fight in-work poverty new policy routes need to be explored. The paper offers a brief discussion of possible alternatives and cautions against 'one size fits all' policy solutions." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Massini, Silvia & Marcela Miozzo (2012): Outsourcing and offshoring of business services. Challenges to theory, management and geography of innovation. In: Regional Studies. Journal of the Regional Studies Association, Jg. 46, H. 9, S. 1219-1242. DOI:10.1080/00343404.2010.509128

Abstract

"Auf der Grundlage einer Originalerhebung erörtern wir in diesem Beitrag die Trends und Probleme beim Outsourcing und bei der Auslandsverlagerung von Geschäftsdiensten. Wir dokumentieren und analysieren die zunehmende Verlagerung von Geschäftsdiensten (Verwaltungsdiensten, Callcentern, Informationstechnologie-Diensten, Beschaffung und Produktentwicklung) von den USA und Europa in weniger entwickelte Länder und untersuchen die ausgelagerten Funktionen, die Größe und die Zielorte der auslagernden Firmen sowie die Umsetzungsmodelle. Ebenso untersuchen wir die Rolle der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnik und die Entwicklung von großen, weltweit tätigen Dienstanbietern sowie von neuen Firmen in entwickelten und weniger entwickelten Ländern. Wir erörtern die Auswirkungen hinsichtlich der Outsourcing-Entscheidungen, der Globalisierung von hochgradig wertsteigernden Aktivitäten (wie z. B. Produktentwicklung und Innovation), der Probleme in sich entwickelnden Marktstrukturen und des Entstehens von fachlichen Clustern, in denen Firmen Fachwissen entwickeln, um Aktivitäten und Fachkenntnisse in einem breiten Spektrum von Sektoren anzubieten bzw. um darum zu konkurrieren." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Neumark, David, Matthew Thompson & Leslie Koyle (2012): The effects of living wage laws on low-wage workers and low-income families. What do we know now? In: IZA journal of labor policy, Jg. 1, S. 1-44. DOI:10.1186/2193-9004-1-11

Abstract

"We provide updated evidence on the effects of living wage laws in U.S. cities, relative to the earlier research covering only the first six or seven years of existence of these laws. There are some challenges to updating the evidence, as the CPS data on which it relies changed geographic coding systems in the mid-2000s. The updated evidence is broadly consistent with the conclusions reached by prior research, including a recent review of that earlier evidence. Living wage laws reduce employment among the least-skilled workers they are intended to help. But they also increase wages for many of them. This implies that living wage laws generate both winners and losers among those affected by them. For broader living wage laws that cover recipients of business or financial assistance from cities, the net effects point to modest reductions in urban poverty." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schmeiser, Maximilian D. (2012): Expanding New York State's Earned Income Tax Credit Programme. The effect on work, income and poverty. In: Applied Economics, Jg. 44, H. 16, S. 2035-2050. DOI:10.1080/00036846.2011.558478

Abstract

"Given its favourable employment incentives and ability to target the working poor, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has become the primary antipoverty programme at both the federal and state levels. However, when evaluating the effect of EITC programmes on income and poverty, governments generally calculate the effect using simple accounting, where the value of the state or federal EITC benefit is added to a person's income. These calculations omit the behavioural incentives created by the existence of these programmes, the corresponding effect on labour supply and hours worked, and therefore the actual effect on income and poverty. This article simulates the full effect of an expansion of the New York State EITC benefit on employment, hours worked, income, poverty and programme expenditures. These results are then compared to those omitting labour supply effects. Relative to estimates excluding labour supply effects, the preferred behavioural results show that an expansion of the New York State EITC increases employment by an additional 14?244 persons, labour earnings by an additional $95.8 million, family income by an additional $84.5 million, decreases poverty by an additional 56?576 persons and increases costs to the State by $29.7 million." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schmitt, John & Janelle Jones (2012): Bad jobs on the rise. Washington, DC, 18 S.

Abstract

"The decline in the economy's ability to create good jobs is related to deterioration in the bargaining power of workers, especially those at the middle and the bottom of the pay scale. The restructuring of the U.S. labor market - including the decline in the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage, the fall in unionization, privatization, deregulation, pro-corporate trade agreements, a dysfunctional immigration system, and macroeconomic policy that has with few exceptions kept unemployment well above the full employment level - has substantially reduced the bargaining power of U.S. workers, effectively pulling the bottom out of the labor market and increasing the share of bad jobs in the economy.
In this paper, we define a bad job as one that pays less than $37,000 per year (in inflation-adjusted 2010 dollars); lacks employer-provided health insurance; and has no employer-sponsored retirement plan. By our calculations, about 24 percent of U.S. workers were in a bad job in 2010 (the most recently available data). The share of bad jobs in the economy is substantially higher than it was in 1979, when 18 percent of workers were in a bad job by the same definition. The problems we identify here are long-term and largely unrelated to the Great Recession. Most of the increase in bad jobs - to 22 percent in 2007 - occurred before the recession and subsequent weak recovery." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schmitt, John (2012): Low-wage lessons. Washington, DC, 13 S.

Abstract

"Over the last two decades, high - and, in some countries, rising - rates of low-wage work have emerged as a major political concern. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2009, about one-fourth of U.S. workers were in low-wage jobs, defined as earning less than two-thirds of the national median hourly wage. About one-fifth of workers in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and Germany were receiving low wages by the same definition. In all but a handful of the rich OECD countries, more than 10 percent of the workforce was in a low-wage job.
If low-wage jobs act as a stepping stone to higher-paying work, then even a relatively high share of low-wage work may not be a serious social problem. If, however, as appears to be the case in much of the wealthy world, low-wage work is a persistent and recurring state for many workers, then low-wages may contribute to broader income and wealth inequality and constitute a threat to social cohesion. This report draws five lessons on low-wage work from the recent experiences of the United States and other rich economies in the OECD." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Schulten, Thorsten (2012): WSI-Mindestlohnbericht 2012. Schwache Mindestlohnentwicklung unter staatlicher Austeritätspolitik. In: WSI-Mitteilungen, Jg. 65, H. 2, S. 124-130. DOI:10.5771/0342-300X-2012-2-124

Abstract

"Der WSI-Mindestlohnbericht 2012 gibt einen aktuellen Überblick über die gegenwärtige Mindestlohnpolitik in Europa und ausgewählten außereuropäischen Staaten. Unter Auswertung der WSI-Mindestlohndatenbank werden neueste Daten zur Höhe und Entwicklung gesetzlicher Mindestlöhne präsentiert. Im Jahr 2011 wurden die Mindestlöhne in der Regel nur geringfügig angehoben oder sogar gänzlich eingefroren. In den meisten europäischen Ländern erlitten die Mindestlohnbezieher zum Teil deutliche Reallohnverluste. Im Rahmen des aktuellen Krisenmanagements in der Europäischen Union wurde die Mindestlohnpolitik zum Bestandteil einer allgemeinen Austeritätspolitik." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Thiess, Rebecca (2012): The future of work: Trends and challenges for low-wage workers. (EPI briefing paper 341), Washington, DC, 15 S.

Abstract

"This paper focuses on low-wage workers - who they are, where they work, where they live, and what their future challenges may be in regards to education/skill requirements, job quality, and wages. Analysis of employment projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals that the future of work will be shaped by much more than labor market skill demands. And in the future, rising wages will depend more on the wage growth within occupations than on any change in the mix of occupations." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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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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Addison, John T., McKinley L. Blackburn & Chad D. Cotti (2011): Minimum wage increases under straightened circumstances. (IZA discussion paper 6036), Bonn, 42 S.

Abstract

"Do apparently large minimum wage increases in an environment of recession produce clearer evidence of disemployment effects than is typically observed in the new minimum wage literature? This paper augments the sparse literature on the most recent increases in the U.S. minimum wage, using three different data sets and the two main estimation strategies for handling geographically-disparate trends. The evidence is generally unsupportive of negative employment effects, still less of a 'recessionary multiplier.' Minimum wage workers seem to be concentrated in sectors of the economy for which the labor demand response to wage mandates is minimal." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Albelda, Randy (2011): Time binds: US antipoverty policies, poverty, and the well-being of single mothers. In: Feminist economics, Jg. 17, H. 4, S. 189-214. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2011.602355

Abstract

"Many US antipoverty programs and measures assume mothers have little, intermittent, or no employment and therefore have sufficient time to care for children, perform household tasks, and apply for and maintain eligibility for these programs. Employment-promotion policies directed toward low-income mothers since the late 1980s have successfully increased their time in the labor force. However, low wages and insufficient employer-based benefits often leave employed single mothers with inadequate material resources to support families and less time to care for their children. The lack of consideration given to the value of poor women's time in both the administration and benefit levels of antipoverty government support, as well as the measures used to calculate poverty, place more binds on poor and low-income mothers' time. Ignoring these binds causes researchers and policymakers to overestimate single mothers' well-being and reduces the effectiveness of the policies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Coleman-Jensen, Alisha J. (2011): Working for peanuts: Nonstandard work and food insecurity across household structure. In: Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Jg. 32, H. 1, S. 84-97. DOI:10.1007/s10834-010-9190-7

Abstract

"This study investigates the relationship between household head's work form (by considering number of hours worked and multiple job holding) and household food insecurity utilizing the Food Security Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Households where the head is employed in multiple jobs, in work with varied hours, or part-time work are more likely to be food insecure than households with a head in a regular full-time job, even when controlling for income and other social demographic characteristics. Models are estimated separately for married couple, cohabiting, male-headed, female-headed and single-person households to show the interaction between work form and household structure. The relationship between food insecurity and nonstandard work arrangements may be due to unstable incomes and complex schedules." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gesthuizen, Maurice, Heike Solga & Ralf Künster (2011): Context matters: economic marginalization of low-educated workers in cross-national perspective. In: European Sociological Review, Jg. 27, H. 2, S. 264-280. DOI:10.1093/esr/jcq006

Abstract

"This article explains the different extent of economic marginalization of low-educated persons in different countries. Research on economic marginalization mainly studies the so-called displacement mechanism: the higher the high-skill supply is in relation to the high-skill demand, the higher is the risk of being unemployed for low-educated workers. In this article, we examine their economic marginalization in terms of status position. This research expands the explanation of economic marginalization of low-educated workers by scrutinizing additional causes, such as negative social selection, negative cognitive competence selection, and the increasing negative signal of being low educated (discredit). The results of the country comparison, using multilevel estimation techniques with inclusion of cross-level interactions, depict that, indeed, educational differences in socio-economic status attainment are larger in countries where the average competence of the group is low, the social composition is unfavourable, and the size of the low-educated group is relatively small. By considering these additional explanations, we are now better able to understand the economic vulnerability of low-educated people in educationally expanded countries." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Harrison, Ann & Margaret McMillan (2011): Offshoring jobs? Multinationals and U.S. manufacturing employment. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 93, H. 3, S. 857-875. DOI:10.1162/REST_a_00085

Abstract

"Using firm-level data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, we estimate the impact on U.S. manufacturing employment of changes in foreign affiliate wages. We show that the motive for offshoring and, consequently, the location of offshore activity, significantly affects the impact of offshoring on parent employment. In general, offshoring to low-wage countries substitutes for domestic employment. However, for firms that do significantly different tasks at home and abroad, foreign and domestic employment are complements. These offsetting effects may be combined to show that offshoring by U.S.-based multinationals is associated with a quantitatively small decline in manufacturing employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hirsch, Barry T., Bruce E. Kaufman & Tetyana Zelenska (2011): Minimum wage channels of adjustment. (IZA discussion paper 6132), Bonn, 45 S.

Abstract

"The economic impact of the 2007-2009 increases in the federal minimum wage (MW) is analyzed using a sample of quick-service restaurants in Georgia and Alabama. Store-level biweekly payroll records for individual employees are used, allowing us to precisely measure the MW compliance cost for each restaurant. We examine a broad range of adjustment channels in addition to employment, including hours, prices, turnover, training, performance standards, and non-labor costs. Exploiting variation in the cost impact of the MW across restaurants, we find no significant effect of the MW increases on employment or hours over the three years. Cost increases were instead absorbed through other channels of adjustment, including higher prices, lower profit margins, wage compression, reduced turnover, and higher performance standards. These findings are compared with MW predictions from competitive, monopsony, and institutional/behavioral models; the latter appears to fit best in the short run." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kalleberg, Arne L. (2011): Good jobs, bad jobs. The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s. (American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology), New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 292 S.

Abstract

"The economic boom of the 1990s veiled a grim reality: in addition to the growing gap between rich and poor, the gap between good and bad quality jobs was also expanding. The postwar prosperity of the mid-twentieth century had enabled millions of American workers to join the middle class, but as the author shows, by the 1970s this upward movement had slowed, in part due to the steady disappearance of secure, well-paying industrial jobs. Ever since, precarious employment has been on the rise - paying low wages, offering few benefits, and with virtually no long-term security. Today, the polarization between workers with higher skill levels and those with low skills and low wages is more entrenched than ever. The book traces this trend to large-scale transformations in the American labor market and the changing demographics of low-wage workers. The author draws on nearly four decades of survey data, as well as his own research, to evaluate trends in U.S. job quality and suggest ways to improve American labor market practices and social policies. The book provides an insightful analysis of how and why precarious employment is gaining ground in the labor market and the role these developments have played in the decline of the middle class. The author shows that by the 1970s, government deregulation, global competition, and the rise of the service sector gained traction, while institutional protections for workers - such as unions and minimum-wage legislation - weakened. Together, these forces marked the end of postwar security for American workers. The composition of the labor force also changed significantly; the number of dual-earner families increased, as did the share of the workforce comprised of women, non-white, and immigrant workers. Of these groups, blacks, Latinos, and immigrants remain concentrated in the most precarious and low-quality jobs, with educational attainment being the leading indicator of who will earn the highest wages and experience the most job security and highest levels of autonomy and control over their jobs and schedules." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lacroix, Guy & Dany Brouillette (2011): Assessing the impact of a wage subsidy for single parents on social assistance. In: Canadian Journal of Economics, Jg. 44, H. 4, S. 1195-1221. DOI:10.1111/j.1540-5982.2011.01672.x

Abstract

"This paper studies the impact of a wage subsidy program aimed at long-term social assistance recipients in Quebec. The program closely mimics the Self-Sufficiency Project and was implemented for a trial period of one year in 2002. We focus on the labour market transitions of the targeted population starting one year before the implementation of the program and until the end of 2005. Our results show that the duration of spells off social assistance increased, while the duration of social assistance spells decreased slightly. The response to the program varies considerably with both observed and unobserved characteristics." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lofstrom, Magnus (2011): Low-skilled immigrant entrepreneurship. In: Review of Economics of the Household, Jg. 9, H. 1, S. 25-44. DOI:10.1007/s11150-010-9106-1

Abstract

"More than 1/2 of the foreign born workforce in the US have no schooling beyond high school and about 20% of the low-skilled workforce are immigrants. More than 10% of these low-skilled immigrants are self-employed. Utilizing longitudinal data from the 1996, 2001 and 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation panels, this paper analyzes the returns to self-employment among low-skilled immigrants. We find that the returns to low-skilled self-employment among immigrants is higher than it is among natives but also that wage/salary employment is a more financially rewarding option for most low-skilled immigrants. In analyses of earnings differences, we find that most of the 20% male native-immigrant earnings gap among low-skilled business owners can be explained primarily by differences in the ethnic composition. Low-skilled female foreign born entrepreneurs are found to have earnings roughly equal to otherwise observationally similar self-employed native born women." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Mincy, Ronald B., Serena Klempin & Heather Schmidt (2011): Income support policies for low-income men and noncustodial fathers. Tax and transfer programs. In: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Jg. 635, H. 1, S. 240-261. DOI:10.1177/0002716210393869

Abstract

"Both wages and labor force participation have been declining for young, less-educated men since the mid-1970s. The purpose of this article is to examine how key income-security policy areas - including unemployment insurance, payroll taxes and the Earned Income Tax Credit, and child support enforcement - affect these men. The article concludes with policy recommendations to improve the impact of work-based subsidies on poverty among low-income men. Subsidized jobs in transitional job programs could play a critical role in helping these men to access these subsidies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Neumark, David (2011): Policies to encourage job creation. Hiring credits vs. worker subsidies. (NBER working paper 16866), Cambridge, Mass., 60 S. DOI:10.3386/w16866

Abstract

"The Great Recession has spurred interest in policy efforts to spur job creation. This article surveys existing research on two 'direct' job creation policies: subsidies to employers to hire workers ('hiring credits'); and subsidies to individuals to enter the labor market ('worker subsidies'). The research suggests that in the short-term, when recovery from the recession is a priority, hiring credits are likely a more effective policy response. First, hiring credits are likely more cost effective, as long as they focus on the recently unemployed and create incentives for new job creation. Second, in general, worker subsidies better target benefits to low-income families and especially single mothers. At this juncture, however, because the recession fell so heavily on men, a hiring credit focused on the unemployed may target low-income families well, and the usual distributional concern with low-income female-headed households may be less paramount. And third, employment subsidies may not be as effective when there is high cyclical unemployment. In the longer-term, however, when the labor market has recovered more from the recession and the focus can shift to longer-standing employment problems and distributional concerns, greater reliance on worker subsidies may do more to increase employment while shifting the distribution of benefits more toward lower-income households." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Neumark, David & William Wascher (2011): Does a higher minimum wage enhance the effectiveness of the Earned Income Tax Credit? In: Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Jg. 64, H. 4, S. 712-746.

Abstract

"The authors estimate the effects of the interactions between the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and minimum wages on labor market outcomes. They use information on policy variation from the Department of Labor's Monthly Labor Review, reports published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and data on individuals and families from the Current Population Survey to assess the economic impact of minimum wages and the EITC on families. Their results indicate that for single women with children, the EITC boosts employment and earnings, and coupling the EITC with a higher minimum wage enhances this positive effect. Conversely, for less-skilled minority men and for women without children, employment and earnings are more adversely affected by the EITC when the minimum wage is higher. Turning from individuals to families, for very poor families with children a higher minimum wage increases the positive impact of the EITC on incomes, so that a higher minimum wage appears to enhance the effects of the EITC. Whether the policy combination of a high EITC and a high minimum wage is viewed as favorable or unfavorable depends in Part on whom policymakers are trying to help." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Olivetti, Claudia & Barbara Petrongolo (2011): Gender gaps across countries and skills. Supply, demand and the industry structure. (CEP discussion paper 1093), London, 42 S.

Abstract

"The gender wage gap varies widely across countries and across skill groups within countries. Interestingly, there is a positive cross-country correlation between the unskilled-to-skilled gender wage gap and the corresponding gap in hours worked. Based on a canonical supply and demand framework, this positive correlation would reveal the presence of net demand forces shaping gender differences in labor market outcomes across skills and countries. We use a simple multi-sector framework to illustrate how differences in labor demand for different inputs can be driven by both within-industry and between-industry factors. The main idea is that, if the service sector is more developed in the US than in continental Europe, and unskilled women tend to be over-represented in this sector, we expect unskilled women to suffer a relatively large wage and/or employment penalty in the latter than in the former. We find that, overall, the between-industry component of labor demand explains more than half of the total variation in labor demand between the US and the majority of countries in our sample, as well as one-third of the correlation between wage and hours gaps. The between-industry component is relatively more important in countries where the relative demand for unskilled females is lowest." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Pedace, Roberto & Stephanie Rohn (2011): The impact of minimum wages on unemployment duration. Estimating the effects using the Displaced Worker Survey. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 50, H. 1, S. 57-75. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-232X.2010.00625.x

Abstract

"This paper examines the impact of minimum wages on unemployment duration. Our estimates suggest that higher minimum wages are associated with shorter unemployment duration for older males and those with at least a high school diploma, but longer unemployment spells for male high school dropouts and females who are older and in lower-skilled occupations. The results are consistent with other studies in generating concerns about the distributional impact of minimum wages." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Shannon, Michael (2011): The employment effects of lower minimum wage rates for young workers. Canadian evidence. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 50, H. 4, S. 629-655. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-232X.2011.00655.x

Abstract

"Between 1986 and 1998, six of the ten Canadian provinces abolished their lower minimum wage rates for younger teenage workers. Using data from the Canadian Labour Force Survey, this paper evaluates the effects of abolition on the employment and weekly hours worked of 15- to 16-year-olds using teenagers in provinces where there is no legislative change and young people above the age to which youth rates applied as control groups. The results provide some evidence that abolishing these youth rates significantly lowered employment and work hours of 15- to 16-year-olds, but the lack of evidence for some jurisdictions and patterns of effects using age controls do raise some questions regarding the interpretation of the results." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Sum, Andrew, Ishwar Khatiwada, Joseph McLaughlin & Sheila Palma (2011): No country for young men: Deteriorating labor market prospects for low-skilled men in the United States. In: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Jg. 635, H. 1, S. 24-55. DOI:10.1177/0002716210393694

Abstract

"The labor market fate of the nation's male teens and young adults (ages 20-29) has deteriorated along most employment, weekly wages, and annual earnings dimensions in recent decades. The employment rates reached new post-World War II lows in 2009, with the less well educated faring the worst. The deterioration in the labor market well-being of these young men has had a number of adverse consequences on their social behavior. Less-educated young men, especially high school dropouts, are far more likely to be incarcerated than their peers in earlier decades. They are considerably less likely to be married and more likely to be absent fathers, with gaps in marriage rates across educational groups widening substantially since the 1970s. The decline in marriage among less-educated young adults, high assortative mating among younger married couples, and growing gaps in earnings across educational groups have contributed to a substantial widening in income and wealth disparities among the nation's young families." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Tonin, Mirco & Ann-Sofie Kolm (2011): In-work benefits and unemployment. (IZA discussion paper 5472), Bonn, 31 S.

Abstract

"In-work benefits are becoming an increasingly relevant labour market policy, gradually expanding in scope and geographical coverage. This paper investigates the equilibrium impact of in-work benefits and contrasts it with the traditional partial equilibrium analysis. We find under which conditions accounting for equilibrium wage adjustments amplifies the impact of in-work benefits on search intensity, participation, employment, and unemployment, compared to a framework in which wages are fixed. We also account for the financing of these benefits and determine the level of benefits necessary to achieve efficiency in a labour market characterized by search externalities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Woodhall, Julia R. & Alicja Muszynski (2011): Fordism at work in Canadian coffee shops. In: Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, Jg. 17/18, S. 56-69.

Abstract

"Although many areas of work today are characterized by post-Fordist principles, there are still significant numbers of workplaces that have adapted and continue to operate using a Fordist model, and in particular, low-paying service industries that rely on a largely female and part-time labour force. This paper explores how the Fordist model has been adapted and extended within the Canadian coffee shop franchise industry. Qualitative interviews were conducted with staff and managers in selected coffee shops to gain a better understanding of how work is organized and managed in this industry." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Wozniak, Abigail (2011): Field perspectives on the causes of low employment among less skilled black men. In: The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Jg. 70, H. 3, S. 811-844. DOI:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2011.00791.x

Abstract

"This article presents findings from a unique survey that assessed explanations for low black male employment by questioning participants in a low skill labor market. Black men identified barriers to hiring - including felony convictions, drug testing, low skill levels, and bias - as major reasons for their non-employment. Employers believed black male applicants were less likely to have the desired interpersonal skills and work ethic, and that they were less likely to pass pre-employment drug tests." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Athreya, Kartik B., Devin Reilly & Nicole B. Simpson (2010): Earned Income Tax Credit recipients: income, marginal tax rates, wealth, and credit constraints. In: Economic Quarterly, Jg. 96, H. 3, S. 229-258.

Abstract

"The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has evolved into the largest anti-poverty program in the United States by providing tax credits for low and moderate income working families. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of EITC recipients at various ages using Current Population Survey data. In addition, we discuss the relevance of the EITC in affecting marginal income tax rates in the United States and discuss the effects of the EITC on household labor supply decisions. Lastly, using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, we estimate wealth distributions for EITC recipients and analyze the extent to which EITC recipients are credit constrained." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Autor, David, Alan Manning & Christopher L. Smith (2010): The contribution of the minimum wage to U.S. wage inequality over three decades. A reassessment. (CEP discussion paper 1025), London, 70 S.

Abstract

"We reassess the effect of state and federal minimum wages on U.S. earnings inequality, attending to two issues that appear to bias earlier work: violation of the assumed independence of state wage levels and state wage dispersion, and errors-in-variables that inflate impact estimates via an analogue of the well known division bias problem. We find that erosion of the real minimum wage raises inequality in the lower tail of the wage distribution (the 50/10 wage ratio), but the impacts are typically less than half as large as those reported in the literature and are almost negligible for males. Nevertheless, the estimated effects of the minimum wage on points of the wage distribution extend to wage percentiles where the minimum is nominally non-binding, implying spillovers. We structurally estimate these spillovers and show that their relative importance grows as the nominal minimum wage becomes less binding. Subsequent analysis underscores, however, that spillovers and measurement error (absent spillovers) have similar implications for the effect of the minimum on the shape of the lower tail of the measured wage distribution. With available precision, we cannot reject the hypothesis that estimated spillovers to non-binding percentiles are due to reporting artifacts. Accepting this null, the implied effect of the minimum wage on the actual wage distribution is smaller than the effect of the minimum wage on the measured wage distribution." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Belman, Dale L. & Paul Wolfson (2010): The effect of legislated minimum wage increases on employment and hours. A dynamic analysis. In: Labour, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 1-25. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9914.2010.00468.x

Abstract

"We present a dynamic policy simulation analysing what would have happened to wages, employment, and total hours had the federal minimum wage increased in September 1998, a year after the last actual increase in our data. Prior work suggests that employment responses take 6 years to play out. Using a time-series model for 23 low-wage industries, we find a positive response of average wages over 54 months following an increase in the minimum wage, but neither employment nor hours can be distinguished from random noise. Ignoring confidence intervals, the adjustment of hours is complete after 1 year, the adjustment of employment after no more than two and one half years." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boschmann, E. Eric & Mei-Po Kwan (2010): Metropolitan area job accessibility and the working poor. Exploring local spatial variations of geographic context. In: Urban Geography, Jg. 31, H. 4, S. 498-522. DOI:10.2747/0272-3638.31.4.498

Abstract

"Critical geographic perspectives argue that employment access in U.S. metropolitan areas is more complex than traditional understandings, calling for research utilizing approaches that reflect the spatially dynamic structure of cities. This study uses a job proximity indicator of employment access among the working poor, with cluster analysis and spatial regimes modeling, to explore the spatial dimensions of geographic context (neighborhood characteristics) at a localized scale. The findings indicate that: (1) patterns of high or low employment access are not consistent with neoclassical conceptualizations of metropolitan areas; and (2) the statistical relationship between geographic context indicators and the measure of job accessibility were not spatially constant, but varied across the urban landscape. This supports the critical geographic arguments that a high degree of complexity underlies the employment access problem. To better inform public policy, future empirical research needs access to more sophisticated data and methodological approaches to analyze this complex sociospatial phenomenon." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cheng, Tyrone (2010): Financial self-sufficiency or return to welfare? A longitudinal study of mothers among the working poor. In: International journal of social welfare, Jg. 19, H. 2, S. 162-172. DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2397.2010.00718.x

Abstract

"This study investigated how working-poor mothers who withdrew from a US government assistance program were affected by the economy, welfare reform policies, and their own human capital, in terms of their likelihood of returning to welfare and their likelihood of becoming nonpoor through work. The study employed longitudinal data (covering 42 months) extracted from a national data set. The sample for the current study, which relied on event history analysis, consisted of 228 working-poor former welfare mothers. Results showed that the women's return to welfare was correlated to high unemployment, restrictive welfare policies, enrollment in Medicaid and food-stamp programs, possession of service-job skills, and being Hispanic. The women were most likely to attain relative financial independence in the presence of generous government assistance program policies, housing assistance, full-time employment, operative-job skills, college education, and marriage. African American ethnicity also made achievement of financial independence more likely." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dube, Arindrajit, T. William Lester & Michael Reich (2010): Minimum wage effects across state borders. Estimates using contiguous counties. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 92, H. 4, S. 945-964.

Abstract

"We use policy discontinuities at state borders to identify the effects of minimum wages on earnings and employment in restaurants and other low-wage sectors. Our approach generalizes the case study method by considering all local differences in minimum wage policies between 1990 and 2006. We compare all contiguous county-pairs in the United States that straddle a state border and find no adverse employment effects. We show that traditional approaches that do not account for local economic conditions tend to produce spurious negative effects due to spatial heterogeneities in employment trends that are unrelated to minimum wage policies. Our findings are robust to allowing for long-term effects of minimum wage changes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gautie, Jerome & John Schmitt (Hrsg.) (2010): Low-wage work in the wealthy world. (The Russell Sage Foundation case studies of job quality in advanced economies), New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 485 S.

Abstract

"The book builds on an earlier Russell Sage Foundation study (Low-Wage America) to compare the plight of low-wage workers in the United States to five European countries - Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom - where wage supports, worker protections, and social benefits have generally been stronger. By examining low-wage jobs in systematic case studies across five industries, this groundbreaking international study goes well beyond standard statistics to reveal national differences in the quality of low-wage work and the well being of low-wage workers. The United States has a high percentage of low-wage workers - nearly three times more than Denmark and twice more than France. Since the early 1990s, however, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany have all seen substantial increases in low-wage jobs. While these jobs often entail much the same drudgery in Europe and the United States, quality of life for low-wage workers varies substantially across countries. The authors focus their analysis on the 'inclusiveness' of each country's industrial relations system, including national collective bargaining agreements and minimum-wage laws, and the generosity of social benefits such as health insurance, pensions, family leave, and paid vacation time - which together sustain a significantly higher quality of life for low-wage workers in some countries. Investigating conditions in retail sales, hospitals, food processing, hotels, and call centers, the book's industry case studies shed new light on how national institutions influence the way employers organize work and shape the quality of low-wage jobs. A telling example: in the United States and several European nations, wages and working conditions of front-line workers in meat processing plants are deteriorating as large retailers put severe pressure on prices, and firms respond by employing low-wage immigrant labor. But in Denmark, where unions are strong, and, to a lesser extent, in France, where the statutory minimum wage is high, the low-wage path is blocked, and firms have opted instead to invest more heavily in automation to raise productivity, improve product quality, and sustain higher wages. However, as the book also shows, the European nations' higher level of inclusiveness is increasingly at risk. 'Exit options,' both formal and informal, have emerged to give employers ways around national wage supports and collectively bargained agreements. For some jobs, such as room cleaners in hotels, stronger labor relations systems in Europe have not had much impact on the quality of work. The booked offers an analysis of low-wage work in Europe and the United States based on concrete, detailed, and systematic contrasts. Its revealing case studies not only provide a human context but also vividly remind us that the quality and incidence of low-wage work is more a matter of national choice than economic necessity and that government policies and business practices have inevitable consequences for the quality of workers' lives." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Giulietti, Corrado (2010): Is the minimum wage a pull factor for immigrants? (IZA discussion paper 5410), Bonn, 25 S.

Abstract

"This paper studies the impact of the minimum wage on immigration. A framework is presented in which inflows of immigrants are a function of the expected wage growth induced by the minimum wage. The analysis focuses on the US minimum wage increase of 1996 and 1997, using data from the Current Population Survey and the census. The estimation strategy consists of using the fraction of affected workers as the instrumental variable for the growth of expected wages. The findings show that States in which the growth of expected wages was relatively large (around 20%) exhibit inflow rate increases that are four to five times larger than States in which average wages grew 10% less. Placebo tests confirm that the policy did not affect the immigration of high wage earners." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Green, David A. & James Townsend (2010): Understanding the wage patterns of Canadian less skilled workers: the role of implicit contracts. In: Canadian Journal of Economics, Jg. 43, H. 1, S. 373-403. DOI:10.1111/j.1540-5982.2009.01576.x

Abstract

"We examine the wage patterns of Canadian less skilled male workers over the last quarter-century by organizing workers into job entry cohorts. We find entry wages for successive cohorts declined until 1997 and then began to recover. Wage profiles steepened for cohorts entering after 1997, but not for cohorts entering in the 1980s - a period when start wages were relatively high. We argue that these patterns are consistent with a model of implicit contracts with recontracting in which a worker's current wage is determined by the best labour market conditions experienced during the current job spell." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hendra, Richard, Keri-Nicole Dillman, Gayle Hamilton, Erika Lundquist, Karin Martinson & Melissa Wavelet (2010): How effective are different approaches aiming to increase employment retention and advancement? Final impacts for twelve models. The Employment Retention and Advancement Project. Washington, D.C., 540 S.

Abstract

"Research completed since the 1980s has yielded substantial knowledge about how to help welfare recipients and other low-income individuals prepare for and find jobs. Many participants in these successful job preparation and placement programs, however, ended up in unstable, low-paying jobs, and little was known about how to effectively help them keep employment and advance in their jobs. The national Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project sought to fill this knowledge gap, by examining over a dozen innovative and diverse employment retention and advancement models developed by states and localities for different target groups, to determine whether effective strategies could be identified.
Using a random assignment research design, the ERA project tested the effectiveness of programs that attempted to promote steady work and career advancement for current and former welfare recipients and other low-wage workers, most of whom were single mothers. The programs -- generally supported by existing public funding, not special demonstration grants -- reflected state and local choices regarding target populations, goals, ways of providing services, and staffing. The ERA project is being conducted by MDRC, under contract to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. This report presents the final effectiveness findings, or impacts, for 12 of the 16 ERA programs, and it also summarizes how the 12 programs were implemented and individuals' levels of participation in program services." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))