Working paper: Atypical Employment and In-Work Poverty: A Different Story for Part- Timers and Temporary Workers?

In this working paper, Jeroen Horemans explores the differences in poverty risks for part-time workers and temporary workers. EU-SILC data is used to make a revealing international comparison: both types of workers pose different poverty risks in different countries. In Belgium, temporary workers have are most at risk. The risk gap with full-time and permanent workers is then decomposed. Again various patterns appear, but working hours, wage, replacement incomes and the household work intensity are the main channels through which non-standard work translates into in-work poverty.

The paper can be downloaded here.

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Discussion Paper: The effect of minimum wage spillovers on wage dispersion in a strongly institutionalized wage bargaining system.

In this (revised) discussion paper, preceding the analysis of minimum wage effects on employment, it is demonstrated that minimum wages correlate positively with wage compression. The paper points to the endogeneity of minimum wages: between-sector effects are very large, implying that minimum wages at the sector level allow fine-tuning of the institutional wage setting mechanisms. This results in decreases of wage inequality which is not artificially created by disemployment of low-wage workers.

The paper can be consulted here.

BSMWI: Belgian Sectoral Minimum Wage Index

In order to examine the effect of minimum wages on wage inequality and the incidence of low pay, the researchers from KU Leuven have composed a data set with minimum wage floors (index 2000) from CBA’s filed at FOD WASO (Department of Work) for 43 joint committees from 2000 onwards. The data can be downloaded here.