In-work poverty

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In- work poverty is when a person is poor or at risk of poverty despite having a job . Working poor are also referred to in English as the working poor .

Definitions

The term “working poor” is not defined uniformly in the literature.

Frequently used definitions, which are particularly common in Switzerland, are:

  • Working poor describes (mostly) the intersection between the employed and the poor, i.e. people who do at least one hour of paid work per week and live in a household below the poverty line . For reasons of data, only people between the ages of 20 and 59 are included for empirical calculations, at least in Switzerland;
  • Full-time working poor are employed people who live in a poor household whose members work a total of at least 36 hours per week (“full-time household”);
  • Part-time working poor are employed people who live in a poor household whose members work less than 36 hours a week (“part-time household”).

The terms poor and poverty line generally refer to relative poverty and, accordingly, the relative poverty line . Sometimes the working poor also refer to those who are gainfully employed but live in a household with a (household) income below the subsistence level ; in Germany also often who receives or could receive unemployment benefit II in addition to a wage .

In these definitions, the working poor must be clearly distinguished from those receiving low or low wages, for whom the individual earned income is below a certain limit.

The definitions of working poor used can vary from state to state.

With regard to the definition of full-time working poor used above, it should be noted that this definition, which is customary in Switzerland, is adapted to the model of quasi-full-time work (in the sense of at least 90% of a 40-hour weekly working time) within a household with a provider marriage corresponding volume of work. In this model, the total work volume in couple households corresponds to that of a (quasi) full-time employee. This definition is based on a model of employment behavior that is not applicable to all countries. For example , working poor may be defined differently in countries where full-time employment is common for both partners ( dual provider model ) .

In the United States, individuals who have been employed or seeking employment for at least 27 weeks but whose earnings fall below the official poverty line are known as the working poor .

International comparative studies on the working poor are generally based on our own standardized definitions.

According to a scientific study, the segment of the labor market represented by the working poor is growing in all countries around the turn of the millennium ; however, there are no international comparative data.

Despite low pay, work has an integrative function, i. H. it is often better for the person concerned to be a working poor than to be poor and unemployed.

Situation in European countries

European Union

As at risk of poverty is considered as defined by the European Union , if someone less than 60% of the average equivalent income has the country's available (in Austria: 785 euros per month).

Germany

Presentation of the material subsistence minimums to be exempt from tax in 2005 and the corresponding income tax allowances (in euros)
See page 5, overview 3 (PDF; 96 kB) sole
standing
Married couples children
Standard rate
(per year)
4.164 7,488 2,688
Accommodation costs (per year) 2,592 3,984 804
heating costs 600 768 156
neuter
subsistence level
7,356 12,240 3,648
tax
exemption
7,664 *) 15,329 3,648 *)
*) Basic allowance for single persons: cf. Household Supplementary Act 2004 of 29 December 2003 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 3076 ); Exemption for the neuter subsistence level of a child: cf. Second law on family support of August 16, 2001 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2074 )

The federal government stated the socio-cultural subsistence level (" neuter subsistence level ") in 2005 for single people at a total of 7,356 euros per year (fifth subsistence level report). For married couples, the subsistence level was put at 12,240 euros and for children at 3,648 euros. The income tax subsistence level was € 7,664 for singles, € 15,328 for married couples and € 5,808 for children ( allowances for children ).

The low-wage earners are to be distinguished from the working poor (see above). In 1994 15.9% and in 2003 18.6% of full-time employees were low-paid. In 2006, 4.6 million worked for an hourly wage below € 7.50.

In the old federal states around a third of all full-time employees worked in both low and poverty wage areas in autumn 2004, i.e. earned less than 75 or 50% of the "average effective full-time earnings" (in autumn 2004 this was around € 2,884 gross monthly) .

In 2006 there were already around 300,000 full-time employees with supplementary ALG II income who, despite their earned income, are officially considered needy. In addition, there would be several hundred thousand people who, in addition to a part-time or mini- job, receive ALG II. The number of these working poor continues to grow. In this respect, the supplementary ALG II already takes on the function of a statutory nationwide combined wage .

According to data from the 96 Microcensus , 5.5% of all employed persons in Germany were considered poor. The self-employed were particularly affected by poverty despite work . 8.7% of the self-employed were considered poor.

At the beginning of 2012, there were almost three million people in Germany who were at risk of poverty even though they had a regular job. This emerged from the response of the federal government to a request from the left group. According to this, the number of workers at risk of poverty in Germany had hardly changed for five years; it was over seven percent. According to a common definition , anyone who has less than 60 percent of the median income is at risk of poverty . For single people this figure was 929 euros per month in 2012.

At the end of 2013, the number of people in employment with less than 60% of the median income (979 euros per month) had risen to around 3.1 million.

Working poor professions

30% of all working poor are semi-skilled and unskilled workers. The self-employed without employees are also very often poor. Those in employment who do not work full-time have a particularly high risk of poverty, but many are poor despite full-time work.

Poverty rates of some population groups in the FRG
(based on data from the microcensus)
group Poverty rate
Total self-employed 8.7%
Self-employed without employees 10.0%
Self-employed with 1–4 employees 7.3%
Self-employed with 5 or more employees 4.6%
Total workers 7.5%
Semi-skilled and unskilled 10.6%
Skilled workers 5.2%
Total employees 2.9%
executing employees 6.9%
simple employees 4.3%
Employees with difficult jobs 2.1%
Source (PDF file) ( Memento from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

People from the following professions are most often poor:

For men:

For women:

Even academics are increasingly confronted with the risk of being counted among the “working poor”: The so-called freelancers , in particular, have seen considerable income losses in recent years. Whether architects, lawyers or journalists: Many people now live on the subsistence level despite working and cannot afford an office or a car. In addition to the low wages, these occupational groups are confronted with far above-average weekly working hours. The term academic precariat is often used for these occupational groups .

Switzerland

In Switzerland, working poor are defined as “gainfully employed people who live in an area below the poverty line , i. H. poor household living ”. As employed in this context are persons who are in an employment relationship, in which they refer an income for at least one hour per week, and live in a household whose members work a total of at least 36 hours per week to be paid, and between 20 and 59 Are years old (definition according to BFS ). The cumulative extent of employment of the household members means nothing other than that overall full-time employment of at least 90% exists for the household.

In Switzerland in 2003 7.4% of those 20 to 59-year-olds who lived in a household with at least one full-time job (90% or more) were poor.

Be particularly at risk of poverty groups in the labor force, the FSO called single-parent families (WP: 20.4%) and large families (WP: 20.5%), the self-employed (13.8%), including especially the " one-person " under who are 18.3% working poor. Employed persons with fixed-term employment contracts or “on call” contracts (WP: 15.9%) as well as those returning to work (WP: 10.1%) have a high risk of poverty despite being in employment. In addition, the level of education and origin correlate with the risk of poverty.

The development of the number of working poors in Switzerland is partly parallel to the development of the unemployment rate - with a time lag of 2 to 3 years. The Federal Statistical Office sees a statistical connection between the unemployment rate and the increase in precarious employment relationships, which in turn lead to an increase in the working poor. These relationships are confirmed by independent studies by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs .

United States

In the United States, the working poor often have two to three jobs at a time. Many unemployed and marginally employed people are also without health insurance.

Pulitzer Prize winner David K. Shipler , in his book The Working Poor: Invisible in America (2004) , treated the working poor in the US and the circumstances that make it difficult for them to break free from poverty .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. On the inconsistency in the formation of terms, see e.g. B.  Poor despite work , Caritas in NRW (accessed December 30, 2007)
  2. Working Poor in Switzerland (PDF; 75 kB), Office for Labor and Social Policy Studies BASS (accessed December 30, 2007)
  3. Between Welfare and Workfare - Gender-Specific Effects of European Employment and Social Policy , Susanne Schunter-Kleemann . In: European integration as a challenge - role and reform of social services in Europe , www.soziale-dienste-in-europa.de, October 2001. See page 101 (accessed on November 23, 2007)
  4. Poverty despite employment ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Downloaded December 29, 2007  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.soziologie.uni-rostock.de
  5. a b German Bundestag - printed matter 15/2462; Information from the Federal Government: Report on the subsistence level of adults and children for 2005 (fifth subsistence level report), February 5, 2004 (PDF file, approx. 87 kB)
  6. hib announcement 040/2004 of February 16, 2004: subsistence level will be 7,356 euros a year in 2005  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bundestag.de  
  7. See page 53 (or page 7 of 11 of the PDF file; Table 2: tax-exempt material subsistence levels in the previous five subsistence level reports ) and page 55 (or page 9 of 11 of the PDF file) in: Ten Years Subsistence minimum report - a balance sheet , monthly report of the BMF , October 2005 (PDF file, approx. 184 kB)
  8. Richard Albrecht: "Old poverty - new poverty: Theoretical and empirical aspects of pauperism" ( PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove it Note. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.forced-labour.de  
  9. Tagesschau.de: "Full-time work and still too little to live" [1] (tagesschau.de archive)
  10. cf. only: Ulrike Winkelmann, Hartz ombudsman wants minimum wage, taz of June 23, 2006, p. 5
  11. Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn: Possibilities and Limitations of Using the Microcensus for Poverty Research ( Memento of June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), p. 18, download on December 29, 2007
  12. Source: Ärzte-Zeitung , January 5, 2012
  13. Poor despite work: More than three million workers are at risk of poverty. Spiegel online, January 24, 2015, accessed January 24, 2015 .
  14. Berger: Handout of May 21, 2007: “Poverty despite employment” . Rostock University
  15. Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn: Working Poor: Poverty Despite Employment, was available online on March 25, 2008 ( archive link ( memento of the original from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check Original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bfs.admin.ch
  16. Global Shift: How First and Third World are changing. In: www.freiewelt.net. January 12, 2015, accessed February 13, 2019 .