The German government plans to introduce a minimum wage from 2015. This must be understood as a response to the decline in collective bargaining coverage and the marked increase in employment in the low-wage sector. The authors discuss how many workers are affected by this new regulation and...

Der Beitrag geht auf die Kabinettsfassung des Mindestlohngesetzentwurfs ein. Trotz einiger richtiger Nachjustierungen – wie zum Beispiel die Einführung einer Evaluationsklausel – bleibt der Mindestlohn ein arbeitsmarktpolitisches Großexperiment. Um die Flurschäden am Arbeitsmarkt...

Die deutsche Bundesregierung plant die Einführung eines flächendeckenden Mindestlohns. Dieser Beitrag fasst die vorliegenden nationalen und internationalen Erfahrungen mit Mindestlöhnen zusammen. Er analysiert dabei die Konsequenzen für Beschäftigung und Einkommensverteilung und legt eine...

"We are reporting from an evaluation of a municipal workfare pilot project. The program was intended to integrate young welfare recipients into employment. According to the workfare principle, participation was mandatory for those being assigned to the program. Welfare claims were denied for...

This paper focuses on the determinants of the labor market situation of young people in developed countries and the developing world, with a special emphasis on the role of vocational training and education policies. We highlight the role of demographic factors, economic growth and labor market...

With young people among the big losers of the recent financial crisis, vocational education and training (VET) is often seen as the silver bullet to the problem of youth joblessness. This paper provides a better understanding of VET around the world, dealing with three types of vocational...

Purpose – This paper aims to present the IZA Evaluation Dataset, a newly created data source allowing for the evaluation of active labor market policies in Germany. Design/methodology/approach – The paper's approach is a description of the sampling and contents of the IZA Evaluation Dataset...

"We are reporting from an evaluation of a municipal workfare pilot project. The program was intended to integrate young welfare recipients into employment. According to the workfare principle, participation was mandatory for those being assigned to the program. Welfare claims were denied for...

A common problem of welfare states consists of a high unemployment risk for low-skilled workers. This is often attributed to a lack of jobs for the low-skilled, but it may as well be caused by a lack of incentives to work. Low-skilled workers are easily substitutable and therefore have little...