Moving up or moving on : who advances in the low-wage labor market?

Resource Information

The work Moving up or moving on : who advances in the low-wage labor market? represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Moving up or moving on : who advances in the low-wage labor market?

Title remainder

who advances in the low-wage labor market?

Statement of responsibility

Fredrik Andersson, Harry J. Holzer, and Julia I. Lane

Creator

• Andersson, Fredrik, 1968-

Contributor

• Holzer, Harry J., 1957-
• Lane, Julia I

Subject

• Minimum wage -- United States
• Wages -- Effect of labor mobility on -- United States
• Labor mobility -- United States
• Working poor -- United States

Language

eng

Summary

"Using new Census data, Moving Up or Moving On follows a group of low earners over a nine-year period to analyze the behaviors and characteristics of individuals and employers that lead workers to successful career outcomes. The authors find that, in general, workers who "moved on" to different employers fared better than those who tried to "move up" within the same firm. While changing employers meant losing valuable job tenure and spending more time out of work than those who stayed put, workers who left their jobs in search of better opportunity elsewhere ended up with significantly higher earnings in the long term - in large part because they were able to find employers that paid better wages and offered more possibilities for promotion. Yet moving on to better jobs is difficult for many of the working poor because they lack access to well-paying firms. Andersson, Holzer, and Lane demonstrate that low-wage workers tend to live far from well-paying employers, making an improved transportation infrastructure a vital component of any public policy to improve job prospects for the poor. Labor market intermediaries can also help improve access to good employers. The authors find that one such intermediary, temporary help agencies, improved long-term outcomes for low-wage earners by giving them exposure to better-paying firms and therefore the opportunity to obtain better jobs. Taken together, these findings suggest that public policy can best serve the working poor by expanding their access to good employers, assisting them with job training and placement, and helping them to prepare for careers that combine both mobility and job retention strategies."--Jacket

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

331.12/7/0973

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

LC call number

HD4918

LC item number

.A59 2005

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography