Povertà, lavoro e famiglia: una riflessione introduttiva

In-work poverty persists as a widespread and increasingly relevant issue. This is not only due to the economic and social consequences of the pandemic: This trend has been emerging together with other aftermaths of the 2008 economic crisis. For decades, millions of households in Europe (and beyond) have lived in conditions of poverty although one or more members are active in the labor market. Clarifying whether we are talking about impoverished work or working-poor households is therefore of primary importance as the two concepts refer to two different phenomena with different implications for policy design. In this introduction to the Special Issue definitions and substantive implications of the two concepts are at focus. We argued that for designing effective policy intervention against in-work poverty, it is necessary to recognize the complexity of the phenomenon by looking at both low wages and limited participation in the labour market, but also at households needs and redistributive process among household members, but especially from the state to the households.