IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aia/ginidp/56.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

GINI DP 56: Mind the Gap: Net Incomes of Minimum Wage Workers in the EU and the US

Author

Listed:
  • Ive Marx

    (Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp)

  • Sarah Marchal

    (CSB , University of Antwerp)

  • Brian Nolan

    (School of Applied Social Science, University College Dublin)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of minimum wages, in conjunction with tax and benefit policies, in protecting workers against financial poverty. It covers 20 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 certain countries do net income packages at minimum wage level reach or exceed the EU’s at-risk-of poverty threshold, which is 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 remains 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Ive Marx & Sarah Marchal & Brian Nolan, 2012. "GINI DP 56: Mind the Gap: Net Incomes of Minimum Wage Workers in the EU and the US," GINI Discussion Papers 56, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
  • Handle: RePEc:aia:ginidp:56
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www1.feb.uva.nl/aias/DP56-Marx,Marchal,Nolan.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Crettaz, 2011. "Fighting Working Poverty in Post-industrial Economies," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14491.
    2. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    3. Juan J. Dolado & Florentino Felgueroso & Juan F. Jimeno, 2000. "The Role of the Minimum Wage in the Welfare State: An Appraisal," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 136(III), pages 223-245, September.
    4. Olivier Bargain & Kristian Orsini, 2006. "Beans for Breakfast? How Exportable is the British Workfare Model?," Research in Labor Economics, in: Micro-Simulation in Action, pages 165-198, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    5. Miles Corak & Christine Lietz & Holly Sutherland, 2005. "The Impact of Tax and Transfer Systems on Children in the European Union," Papers inwopa05/30, Innocenti Working Papers.
    6. Denis Anne & Yannick L’Horty, 2009. "Les effets du revenu de Solidarité active sur les gains du retour à l'emploi," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 60(3), pages 767-776.
    7. Hans-Jürgen Andreß & Henning Lohmann (ed.), 2008. "The Working Poor in Europe," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13060.
    8. Boeri, Tito, 2012. "Setting the minimum wage," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 281-290.
    9. Bea Cantillon, 2011. "The Paradox of the Social Investment State. Growth, Employment and Poverty in the Lisbon Era," Working Papers 1103, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    10. Eissa, Nada & Hoynes, Hilary Williamson, 2004. "Taxes and the labor market participation of married couples: the earned income tax credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1931-1958, August.
    11. Brewer, Mike & Duncan, Alan & Shephard, Andrew & Suarez, Maria Jose, 2006. "Did working families' tax credit work? The impact of in-work support on labour supply in Great Britain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 699-720, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Jinxian & Van Vliet, Olaf, 2014. "Social assistance and minimum income benefits: Benefit levels, replacement rates and policies across 33 countries, 1990-2009," MPRA Paper 66464, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mechelen, N. (Natascha) van & Bradshaw, J. (Jonathan), 2012. "GINI DP 50: Child Poverty as a Government Priority: Child Benefit Packages for Working Families, 1992-2009," GINI Discussion Papers 50, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    3. repec:aia:ginidp:dp50 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Rense Nieuwenhuis & Laurie C. Maldonado, 2017. "Single-Parent Families and In-Work Poverty," LIS Working papers 687, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Mueller, Kai-Uwe & Steiner, Viktor, 2013. "Behavioral effects of a federal minimum wage and income inequality in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79784, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Mechelen, N. (Natascha) van & Sarah Marchal, 2012. "GINI DP 55: Struggle for Life: Social Assistance Benefits, 1992-2009," GINI Discussion Papers 55, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marx, Ive & Marchal, Sarah & Nolan, Brian, 2012. "Mind the Gap: Net Incomes of Minimum Wage Workers in the EU and the US," IZA Discussion Papers 6510, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Marx, Ive & Nolan, Brian & Olivera, Javier, 2014. "The Welfare State and Anti-Poverty Policy in Rich Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 8154, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Marx, Ive & Vanhille, Josefine & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2011. "Combating In-Work Poverty in Continental Europe: An Investigation Using the Belgian Case," IZA Discussion Papers 6067, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. repec:aia:ginidp:dp51 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Jeroen Horemans & Ive Marx, 2013. "In-work poverty in times of crisis: do part-timers fare worse?," ImPRovE Working Papers 13/14, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    6. Ive Marx & Brian Nolan, 2012. "GINI DP 51: In-Work Poverty," GINI Discussion Papers 51, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    7. Salverda, Wiemer & Checchi, Daniele, 2014. "Labour-Market Institutions and the Dispersion of Wage Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Koichi Fukumura & Atsushi Yamagishi, 2020. "Minimum wage competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1557-1581, December.
    9. Olivier Bargain & Kristian Orsini & Andreas Peichl, 2014. "Comparing Labor Supply Elasticities in Europe and the United States: New Results," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(3), pages 723-838.
    10. Philippe Askenazy & Eve Caroli & Jérôme Gautié, 2009. "Un panorama des bas salaires et de la qualité de l'emploi peu qualifié en France," Working Papers halshs-00567693, HAL.
    11. Anton Michálek & Zuzana Veselovská, 2015. "Poverty Risk in Districts of the Slovak Republic," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 67-83, October.
    12. Benjamin Schünemann & Michael Lechner & Conny Wunsch, 2015. "Do Long-Term Unemployed Workers Benefit from Targeted Wage Subsidies?," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 16(1), pages 43-64, February.
    13. Olivier Bargain & Andreas Peichl, 2013. "Steady-State Labor Supply Elasticities: An International Comparison," AMSE Working Papers 1322, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    14. Mike Brewer & Anita Ratcliffe & Sarah dSmith, 2012. "Does welfare reform affect fertility? Evidence from the UK," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 245-266, January.
    15. Olivier Bargain & Kristian Orsini & Andreas Peichl, 2012. "Comparing Labor Supply Elasticities in Europe and the US: New Results," Working Papers halshs-00805736, HAL.
    16. Tibor Paul Hanappi & Sandra Müllbacher, 2016. "Tax incentives and family labor supply in Austria," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 961-987, December.
    17. Claudia Olivetti & Barbara Petrongolo, 2017. "The Economic Consequences of Family Policies: Lessons from a Century of Legislation in High-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 205-230, Winter.
    18. Olivier Bargain & Kristian Orsini, 2006. "Beans for Breakfast? How Exportable is the British Workfare Model?," Research in Labor Economics, in: Micro-Simulation in Action, pages 165-198, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    19. Elena Bárcena-Martín & M. Carmen Blanco-Arana & Salvador Pérez-Moreno, 2016. "Assessing the impact of social transfer income packages on child poverty in European countries: Pro-child targeting vs pro-poor targeting," Working Papers 410, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    20. Marc K. Chan & Robert Moffitt, 2018. "Welfare Reform and the Labor Market," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 347-381, August.
    21. Cuong Viet Nguyen, 2017. "Do minimum wages affect firms’ labor and capital? Evidence from Vietnam," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 291-308, April.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aia:ginidp:56. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiemer Salverda (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aiuvanl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.