Household labor supply and in-work poverty: temporal dynamics in a country comparison

In-work poverty is widespread. About 10% of the working population in the EU-27 countries lives below the poverty line. Persistently high in-work poverty rates pose a challenge to traditional work-related poverty reduction strategies. In-work poverty changes dynamically over historical time and across individual life courses as socio-political frameworks or household composition change. This project addresses two open issues: 1) how decision-making processes about the labor supply of all household members are related to the poverty risk of workers and 2) how the labor supply of households influences poverty risks of workers across the life course in different welfare states. We pose the following research-leading question: How do adaptation strategies in the labor supply of all household members influence the poverty risk of workers over the life course? The labor supply of households will be particularly decisive for the poverty risk of workers when decommodification is declining and defamilization is underdeveloped. We compare Italy and Israel, with sharply declining decommodification and weak defamilization in the 1990s and 2000s, with Germany, where the decline in decommodification was much weaker and was accompanied by increasing defamilization. Empirically, we first conduct a survey experiment, to determine work and working time preferences of household members in different household types under different socio-political conditions. It is examined whether activating or compensatory social policy measures are more effective in reducing the risk of poverty among employed persons, given households' job offer preferences. Second, we map longer-term pathways of workers into and out of poverty that result from adaptation strategies in household labor supply. With the help of representative survey data and new methods that combine sequence and event data analysis, longitudinal dynamics of the poverty risk of employed people in different socio-political contexts are shown. This analytical approach allows an approximation to causal processes, that lead to poverty among workers. The project provides empirical evidence for the development of theories on the dynamics of social inequality over the course of life and for the formulation of socio-political recommendations for action. Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be assumed that both the poverty rate and the poverty rate among employed persons will increase as a result of rising unemployment, short-time work and marginal part-time employment. The results of the project are of particular relevance in post-COVID-19 labor markets to protect vulnerable households from long-term and extreme poverty. Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be assumed that both the poverty rate and the poverty rate among employed persons will increase as a result of rising unemployment, short-time work and marginal part-time employment. The results of the project are of particular relevance in post-COVID-19 labor markets to protect vulnerable households from long-term and extreme poverty. Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be assumed that both the poverty rate and the poverty rate among employed persons will increase as a result of rising unemployment, short-time work and marginal part-time employment. The results of the project are of particular relevance in post-COVID-19 labor markets to protect vulnerable households from long-term and extreme poverty.