Still holding on? Inequality, labour market and middle-income groups in Portugal

Social convergence, development failures and industrial relations: The case of Portugal

“…This indicates some success on the part of the progressive tax system and social transfers in performing their redistributive roles, although low-income groups were penalised together with higher-income groups. However, González et al (2016) also argue that, given the high inequality in Portugal, the low absolute level of household income and the comparatively smaller size of the middle class (by income) this resilience is only partial.…”

“…As shown by González et al (2016), young skilled workers are entering the Portuguese labour market with a much higher level of education than that of those already employed. To enable this increased level of skills to contribute successfully to the needed transition to a competitiveness model led by innovation and high-skilled jobs, returns to higher education must come to be generally perceived as positive.…”

“…Three main aspects must be highlighted: (1) inequality is particularly high in Portugal in the upper tail of the income distribution; (2) inequality at the bottom, high by northern European standards, is significantly lower than in other southern European countries; and (3) the crisis had a noticeable impact on increasing inequality at the bottom but not at the top of the income distribution. Still -and followingGonzález et al (2016) -it is important to note here that middleincome groups appear to have been particularly resilient in Portugal in terms of their income share during the period of the crisis, enjoying relative success by EU standards.…”

Rattling Europe’s ordoliberal ‘iron cage’: the contestation of austerity in Southern Europe

“…The combination of austerity measures and the ensuing recession, high levels of household debt, collapse of savings rates, cuts in wages and pensions, tax increases, unemployment, under-employment and job precarity, and the deterioration of core services of the welfare state formed a ‘perfect storm’ that led to substantial income losses and accelerated insecurity in and out of the labour market (Wise, 2015; Gonzalez et al, 2016; Muñoz-De-Bustillo et al, 2016; Simonazzi and Barbieri, 2016; Papadopoulos and Roumpakis, 2017a). A political economy of generalised insecurity began to emerge in Southern Europe.…”

Középosztály(ok) Magyarországon és Európában

“…A foglalkoztatottság általános növekedése, ezen belül elsősorban a női foglalkoztatottság kiterjedése sok háztartás számára tette kiegyensúlyozottabbá és kiszámíthatóbbá a jövedelemhez jutást. Esettanulmányok sora mutatta be, hogy mennyire fontos szerepet játszott a kétkeresős háztartások számának növekedése a holland (Salverda 2016), a portugál (González et al 2016) vagy például a svéd (Anxo 2016) esetben. A leglátványosabb növekedés természetesen ott következett be, ahol néhány évtizede még nagyon alacsony volt a női foglalkoztatottság, mint például Spanyolországban, ahol az 1986os 29%-ról 2014-ig 53%-ra emelkedett arányuk (Munoz-de-Bustillo-Anton 2016).…”