Income Support Policies for the Working Poor

Sarah Marchal (), Ive Marx and Gerlinde Verbist ()
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Sarah Marchal: University of Antwerp
Gerlinde Verbist: University of Antwerp

No 10665, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper asks what governments in the EU Member States and some US states are doing to support workers on low wages. Using model family simulations, we assess the policy measures currently in place to guarantee an adequate disposable income to working families, taking into account minimum wages, social security contributions, taxes and cash benefits. We show that despite increased efforts over the past decade, disposable incomes of certain types of minimum wage workers still fall well below the EU at-risk-of-poverty thresholds in many countries. Single earners with dependent children are especially at risk of poverty. We discuss the options for making progress.

Keywords: direct income support; minimum wages; in-work benefits; in-work poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I38 J88 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-pbe
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Published - published in: Lohmann, H. and I. Marx (eds), Handbook on In-Work Poverty, Edward Elgar, 2019

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