Is it possible for low-paid workers to obtain higher-paid jobs through upward mobility over time within the earnings distribution? Based on new empirical evidence from a number of European countries, the book focuses on earnings mobility, an issue that is of increasing concern to policymakers and governments throughout the world.The widening earnings dispersion which is developing in European labour markets has had the inevitable consequence of worsening the position of the poorer members of society. This book identifies those individual characteristics which affect upward mobility either by increasing or decreasing the probability of individual workers improving their chances of earning higher wages. The authors, including some of the leading labour economists in Europe, offer a comprehensive European perspective covering a total of thirteen countries. They shed new light on the way in which labour market incentives and institutions affect both the incidence and duration of low-paid employment.

This book will be of interest to both academics with an interest in labour economics and policy makers throughout Europe.