• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.119-142
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe of the reality of working poor in Korea. In spite of the increasing attention to the working poor, usual definitions of the working poor have some measurement questions. The definition of the working poor should focus on the key dimensions of work and poverty. This study defines working poor as all "persons who have devoted prior 6 months to working or looking for work and who lived in families with incomes below the poverty threshold". This study also defines poverty threshold based on the both concept of absolute and relative poverty. According to this definition, the working poor are almost equally divided between men and women and the majority of them are of prime working age. These characteristics of working poor are seems to be quite different from common sense. Also, serious deficiencies of human capital contribute to the employment problems of the working poor. Their education levels are much less than those of the working non-poor. The distributions of the employment status, occupation, and industry show also that the working poor are highly concentrated in a few low-wage jobs.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.147-174
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• 2007

This study examines how path dependency of working poor labor market segmented from the primary and the secondary labor market affects employment and quality of employment of working poor. It Further examines how path dependency makes working poor to remain in the labor market and makes it difficult for them to escape from a vicious poverty cycle. Data is based on the $3{\sim}7th$ Korea Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS). Markov's transition probability and discrete-time hazard analysis are used for analysis. This study finds that Korea labor market is divided into three parts; the primary labor market, the secondary labor market and the working poor labor market. The proportion of employed poor has been reduced, but the proportion of non economically-active working poor has been increased and has become the main group among the working poor. This shows that labor demand of working poor is fundamentally lacking and there are structural barriers that block working poor's employment itself. The regression analysis shows that the longer working poor labor market participation is, the lower poverty-exit rate. This is an evidence of vicious poverty cycle that the poor have little chance to exit from working poor labor market, once they step into it. Therefore, the longer their participation in poor labor market, the more likely they would move only within the closed working poor labor market. Consequently, it is necessary to fundamentally reform labor market structure and to alleviate negative perception and discrimination about the poor labor while activating labor demand.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.55-77
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• 2008

After the economic crisis of Korea, the character of Korean Poverty has changed. Most notably, many people are working but poor. Therefore it is important to understand the characteristics of the working poor, especially the unstable work experiences of the working poor since one of the causes of poverty is that. Prior research about the working poor has not fully proven this issue. This study is to examine the job sequences of the working poor. Thus I utilized the KLIPS(Korea Labor and Income Study), and analyzed it by event sequence analysis and optimal matching methods. The job sequences are divided as follows: total years of working in the labor market, the number of gaps and the length of gaps in their careers, and the characteristics of experienced jobs since they have entered the labor market from age 15. As a result, there are no statistically significant in the total years of working in the labor market. And the number of gaps and the length of gaps in their careers, and the characteristics of experienced jobs show that working poor have been experiencing more unstable than non-poor. Thus, almost all of the male working poor has unstable jobs their whole lives, and the female working poor's job sequences show distinct features according to women's life course. These results can give political implications to the anti-poverty policy in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.35-64
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• 2013

This paper explores whether or not a minimum wage increase can do much to alleviate working poor. For this purpose, I analyze transitions from working poor to working non-poor and to unemployment or non-economically active states, using KLIPS (Korea Labor and Income Panel Study). This study uses the multilevel multinomial logit model to control unobserved individual heterogenous characteristics. It finds that a minimum wage increase tends to cause a higher probability of transitions from working poor to working non-poor. It is also discovered that a minimum wage increase is not negatively related with the persistence of the working state. It is concluded that minimum wage increases are likely to be effective in improving the living standards of the 'working poor'.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.323-346
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• 2013

The main purpose of this study is to analyze job sequences according to poverty profiles that the working poor have had. For the stated purpose, this study examines characteristics and patterns of job sequences by diving the subgroups, using the 10 year data of KLIPS and the sequence analysis. Major findings are as follows. The working-transient poor have different characteristics, such as longer working term, less job change, less number of gap and length, and relatively higher monthly income, from the working-recurrent poor and the working-persistent poor. However, there are no different characteristics between the working-recurrent poor and working-persistent poor, except for monthly income. Job sequences are divided into 5 clusters and job sequences types according to the working poor subgroups are quite different. Such analysis results would contribute to planning poverty policies based on job sequences differently seen in subgroups and finding specific policy alternatives to relieve the working poor.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2021

This study investigates the difference in income trajectories of the working poor and the non-working poor and explains the effects of socio-demographic (marriage, education) and regional (living in large cities) factors on intergroup differences. We use Seoul Survey data collected between 2009-2018 and the latent growth modeling approach. It was found that the trajectory difference between groups was statistically significant. Since 2016, the income gap widened as the income of the working poor stagnated. The three variables included in this model better explained the income trajectory of the working poor compared to the working non-poor. In particular, the change in income growth rate was positively related to whether they live in large cities. This suggests the possibility that living in a large city would act as an economic premium for the working poor. It is necessary to conduct follow-up studies on urban premiums for the working poor.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-73
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• 2006

Using 1998~2003 data of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey, we analyze the scale, characteristics, and dynamic transition of working poors. The result shows that more than half of the poor families are working poors and that a considerable portion of economically active households is in poverty. However, compare to other kinds of poor families, working poors can easily escape from poverty once after they entered into poverty. When household head is elderly and less educated, the risk of working poor is relatively high. Also, self-employed households have high risk of working poor compare to households having wage worker(s). To ease the problem of working poor, creation of decent jobs and human resource development for vulnerable groups are important. Especially, the creation of decent jobs will do critical roles not only in solving employment issues but also in moderating income inequality among families. Policy development for self-employed in the brink of poverty and establishment of a solid social security system for working poors are also recommended.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.671-692
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• 2006

In recent years, it seems that a considerable stratum of working poor as a new urban poverty among labor population within large cities has been generated, deepening socio-spatial conflicts. This paper is to bring focus on the working poor which can be seen as a newly emerged special problem intermingling labor and poverty. It first begins with a consideration of definitions on the working poor, then discusses on the internal relationship between labor and poverty problems by analyzing causes of the generation of the working poor and looking into actual conditions of working poor from both static and dynamic perspectives, and finally considers existing policies for supporting the working poor, suggesting some alternative policy tasks for resolving the problem of the working poor.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.149-179
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• 2009

Purpose of this study is to know what is the factors affecting in working poor household's residential ascend mobility. As a result, Working poor household residential ascend mobility is affecting from age, education, work ability, household type, child, asset, public assistance, region, house position, minimum housing facilities, housing environment, education facilities, lastingness rental apartment, nation rental apartment, the lease of a house on a deposit basis, monthly rent, loaning delay times, debt. Main implication is as following Analysis. First, When housing policies establish, Working poor household's characteristics and individual characteristics should be considered enough by welfare policies aspect. For this, Rent assistance system have to be enforced for working poor household's house loan. Second, Working poor household's guarantee of financial Accessibility for house loan. Finally, Working poor household's residential problem may be solved though efforts that can heighten enough public information and the utilization rate about various in government's house policies.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.87-101
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to identify the current status of the working poor and the factors that are influential to the working poor among echo boomers. This study is a secondary analysis using the data from the 7th analysis of the 2012 Korea Welfare Panel Survey, conducted by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. This analysis considered Korean echo boomers born between 1979 and 1985. In our final analysis, we used 1,226 echo boomers who had the ability to work. For the analysis, the SAS/PC statistical program ver. 9.3 was utilized. The research findings are as follows; Firstly, of the working poor among the echo boomers, only 22% were in the state of poverty. Secondly, more echo boomers living in a metropolitan city, city, gun/urban-rural area and district than those in the Seoul were categorized as among the working poor; the same was true for those who lived in a free house than in a leased room or a room that was rented by the month. Thirdly, more echo boomers whose education level was high school graduate or less rather than college graduate or less or university graduate or more were categorized as among the working poor; this was also true for echo boomers whose employment type was temporary employment, self-employment, or unemployment rather than a full-time job.