Low wages and family needs: In-work poverty in Europe [Bassi salari e bisogni familiari: L'in-work poverty in Europa]

The article discusses the presence of in-work poverty (IWP) in European countries, showing its main characteristics from a comparative point of view. We firstly present the different approaches to the definition of the problem in the USA and in Europe, disentangling the interaction among family, labour market and welfare policies. In the third section, the rates of IWP and of low wage workers are analysed, while in the fourth section we present the main characteristics of IWP comparing European countries. The main result of our analysis is that the classic clusters of welfare regimes may explain only partially the share and the characteristics of IWP in the EU.