Poverty and material deprivation among European workers in times of crisis

Abstract

Many EU countries are faced with abysmal public debts and high unemployment, and may have to reduce their social expenditure and deregulate their labour market, which should lead to an increase in ‘working poverty’ (i.e., an increase in the number of working men and women who live in a low‐income household, or in a household that cannot afford certain goods and services considered essential for a decent life, respectively). However, working poverty remains an under‐analysed phenomenon in Europe. Moreover, the vast majority of existing definitions used in Europe are based on a relative income poverty line and the EU's official definition of ‘in‐work’, which raises concerns about the robustness of existing findings. This article first examines how the socioeconomic situation has evolved in seven EU Member States that have fared differently. In addition, the article examines whether the use of non‐monetary poverty indicators and of an encompassing definition of ‘working’ has an impact on the conclusions drawn. An attempt is made to identify the main macro‐level determinants of changes in ‘working poverty’ and to better understand their impact at the micro‐level.

Families with young children in times of economic downturn: Implications for social work practice

“…This corresponds with earlier research on unemployment in general (Crettaz, ; Elder, Conger, Foster, & Ardelt, ; Engbergsen & Van der Veen, ; Leinonen, Solantaus, & Punamäki, ).…”

“…The global financial crisis that erupted in 2008 had, and still has, serious consequences for economic growth and unemployment levels worldwide (Crettaz, ; Hanan, ; Hujo & Gaia, ; Karanikolos et al, ; OECD, ). Together with other previous and ongoing profound demographic, social and economic changes since the 1980s, scholars have observed the emergence of a neoliberal social investment paradigm in several European welfare states (Anthony, King, & Austin, ; Cantillon, ; Dwyer, ; Gray, ; Hujo & Gaia, ; Lorenz, ; Schiettecat, Roets, & Vandenbroeck, ).…”

The working poor in Western Europe: Labour, poverty and global capitalism

“…In IWP literature there is broad agreement that low earnings, the degree of labourforce attachment at the household level and household composition are main factors leading to poverty among workers, and their influence varies according to different welfare regimes (Frazer and Marlier, 2010, p. 8;Fraser et al, 2011, p. 306;Crettaz, 2014). Missing from this literature is an integrated analysis of IPE transformations, labour market trends and the nature of work.…”

“…These changes in relative monetary poverty refer to the current median disposable income, which fell considerably in Italy and the United Kingdom, along with the poverty threshold (European Commission, 2014, p. 130). Data on severe material deprivation are a better indicator of the social effects of the crisis in countries in which the poverty threshold is falling (Crettaz, 2014). In 2013 severe material deprivation affected 4.2 per cent of employed persons in the EU-15 (2.3 percentage points more than in 2007); while in Germany it slightly declined (3.4-2.5 per cent), it doubled or more than doubled in Italy (4.3-8.6 per cent) and Britain (1.9-4.3 per cent).…”

“…Despite this trend, there has been relatively little policy and academic debate on IWP, with a few notable exceptions (Jenkins et al, 2012;Maître et al, 2012;Crettaz, 2013Crettaz, , 2014European Commission, 2014). The increasing number of people in work but living in poverty contradicts a fundamental premise of the 'European social model' -that employment protects individuals from povertyand epitomises one of the main consequences of neo-liberalism for workers.…”