| This dissertation is about the relationship between work and poverty in the United States. In 1997 more than 35 million Americans had family incomes below the federal poverty threshold. Among those "officially poor" Americans who were able-bodied working age adults, more than half were employed in some capacity. I use the February 1995 and 1997 Current Population Survey Contingent Work Supplement to examine the link between the likelihood that individuals and families are poor and employment in "the secondary labor market." The term "secondary labor market" refers that segment of the job market that is comprised of jobs of extremely poor, quality. About one out of six American workers is employed in the secondary labor market.;I demonstrate the duality in American labor market by demonstrating that there is set of jobs in the labor market that, in the aggregate, have a greater than expected share of secondary labor market characteristics (low wages, no health insurance, no pensions benefits, contingent work). Minorities, women, and immigrants, have an increased risk of working in these jobs, even when controlling education, occupation, and other productive assets.;Workers employed in the secondary labor market have substantially higher rates of family poverty than other workers, even when employed in full time jobs. Moreover, within the secondary market, black workers have poverty rates about three times greater than whites. These race differences persist even when controlling for the employment and labor market structure of the family. Black workers in the secondary market do worse than whites even when they are married and even when they have spouses employed in comparable segments of the labor market.;Workers in the secondary market are younger than the workforce as whole, but only about a fourth of these workers are classified as students. Whether this group of workers will be able to transition from this market to better jobs in the future or whether they will remain in the secondary market poses a critical question for future research and public policy. |
