Earnings mobility, family income and low pay

Abstract

For policy purposes it is important to establish both the nature of the low-paid workforce at any point in time and ability to obtain better paid jobs through mobility within the earnings distribution over time. In particular, two important issues are the extent to which low pay is a transient phenomenon for any particular worker and the extent to which low pay is associated with low family incomes and therefore poverty. We attempt to examine both aspects making use of the first three waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).