• 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.

• 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.

• 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
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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 Social Welfare
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.5-29
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of job characteristics of working poor on poverty status, focused on sex differences. The results are as follows. First, there are sex differences in career year, job position and industry for determining poverty entry. And second, career year, job regularity and occupy are different variables for men and women in determining poverty exit. This result says that job characteristics partially affects on poverty status of sex differently. Thus we need to sensitive policy that considers different experiences of men and women working poor as to poverty status mobility.

• 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 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.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.31-50
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• 2015

This study attempted to empirically investigate the determinants of poverty transition of the working poor with disabilities from a dynamic perspective. Analyses were conducted on the data from Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled(PSED, Year 1-6), included the households with a disabled head of household. The working poor were defined as the household of which income fell below 120% of the absolute poverty line among the households just described. As results, The 6-year mean poverty rate for the working poor with disabilities included in the analysis was 31.4%, approximately three times of the poverty rate of the total population and the working poor with disabilities were found to have greater difficulty with poverty exit once having fell into poverty than all households living in poverty. And it was found that the economic activity factor was the key determinant of in-work poverty. In addition, employment of the working poor with disabilities did not lead straight to poverty exit, and the quality, rather than the status of, employment was the key determinant of poverty exit. The implications of the findings of this study are that it is essential to increase decent jobs, expand the social safety net of the working poor with disabilities and establish poverty reduction measures for each class of the working poor with disabilities to exit from poverty.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.119-141
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• 2006

This study aims to explore the status and characteristics of the working poor and to identify the major determinants of their statistic status. For this, longitudinal panel data (from 2nd wave(1999) data to 7th wave(2004) data) from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), is used. The data is analyzed by adopting Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM), which is known as an app.opriate data analysis method for the hierarchically structured data, to look at the factors that affect on the poverty status of the working people. The results show that 1) it is estimated that about 1 out of 10 working people (about 10.0%) are poor, and 2) sex, education level, marital status, region where they lives, employment status, occupation type, and industry type that they are working at are significant predictors in determining their poverty status. Unlike the results of the previous studies, however, the number of the household member, age are not influenced on their poverty status. Based on these results, several policy implications are presented at the end of this paper.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.19-29
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• 2016

This study analyzes life experiences and prospects of poverty/welfare exit of the poor with work ability utilizing Mixed methodology. Based on Sequential Exploratory Design, it qualitatively analyzes 3 waves of qualitative panel data linked to Korea Welfare Panel Study(KWPS) and presents life changes of 14 poor in the context of their prospects of welfare/poverty exit. Then it proposes hypotheses on the role of education, household economy expectation, self-esteem in the prospects of poverty/welfare exit following the sequential exploratory design to quantitatively test qualitative findings utilizing KWPS(7th). The outcomes of the Structural Equation Model(SEM) suggest that household economy expectation plays mediating role between education and the prospects of welfare/poverty exit. This implies that anti-poverty policy needs to consider a psychological approach to enhance household economy expectations of the poor as well as other material support.