Review article: Low-wage work in high-income countries: Labor-market institutions and business strategy in the US and Europe

• Published in: Human Relations Vol. 62; no. 12; pp. 1907 - 1934
• Main Authors: Appelbaum, Eileen, Schmitt, John
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.12.2009; Sage Publications; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Call centers; Cleaning services; Deterioration; Economic sociology; Hospitals; Hotels & motels; Human relations; Meat; Meat processing; Occupations; Operators; Sales; Sociology; Sociology of economy and development; Standard of living. Income; Denmark; United Kingdom; Netherlands; United States Of America; France; Germany; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; collective bargaining systems; low-wage work; labour-market institutions; liberal and coordinated market economies; Profession; Low income; Increase; Crossnational Comparisons; Differences
• ISSN: 0018-7267; 1741-282X
• DOI: 10.1177/0018726709349200

This article provides an overview of low-wage occupations in five industries (nursing assistants and cleaners in hospitals, cashiers and stock/sales clerks in food and electronics retail trade, process operatives in meat processing and confectionary, housekeepers in hotels, and in-coming sales/service operators in call centers) in six countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States), based on a large-scale, multi-year research project funded and coordinated by the Russell Sage Foundation in New York. Low-wage work varies substantially both across and within countries, with large increases in the 1980s and 1990s in the Netherlands and the UK and, since the mid-1990s, in Germany. The US has the highest incidence of low-wage work, with Germany close behind. Denmark and France have much less low-wage work. Institutions (and their deterioration) play a large role in explaining these and other differences.