In-work poverty in the EU - Products Statistical working papers

The aim of the paper is to discuss two problematic aspects of the statistical approach to the notion of "working poor": the definition of workers (including that used for the European indicator "in-work poverty risk") and the double level (worker-individual / at risk of poverty-household) of construction of the category. It argues that the approach adopted to define workers might be to narrow to take into account the variety of employment structures in EU member states, and that the double level of definition makes it difficult to analyze the links between labor market status at the individual level and the risk of poverty. This pleads for a more encompassing approach to workers, and complementary analysis in order to better understand the "labor market" and "family" dimensions of the phenomenon.