Low-wage employment

Abstract

Low-wage employment has become an important feature of the labor market and a controversial topic for debate in many countries. How to interpret the prominence of lowpaid jobs and whether they are beneficial to workers or society is currently an open question. The answer depends on whether low-paid jobs are largely transitory and serve as stepping stones to higher-paid employment, whether they become persistent, or whether they result in repeated unemployment. The empirical evidence is mixed, pointing to both stepping-stone effects and “scarring” effects (i.e. long-lasting detrimental effects) of low-paid work. TS - CrossRef