Work-family trajectories and poverty duration and severity in German working-age households

This study examines how work-family trajectories of households with poverty experience relate to poverty persistence across their working-age life course, using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel from 2007 to 2020 (N=1,518). Work-family trajectories are conceptualised by considering individual- and household-level explanations of poverty. Taking a life course perspective, the study explores sequences of labour market attachment, the extent of low-wage receipt and the needs-to-resource ratio in households across eight years. Methods combine multichannel sequence analysis to identify four clusters of work-family trajectories, and linear regressions to link these clusters to the cumulated length of poverty experiences and the average distance from the at-risk-of-poverty threshold across eight years. Findings reveal that most work-family trajectories among working-age households with poverty experience are dominated by low household work intensity and the presence of children, with trajectories of low-wage receipt forming less prominent patterns. Household histories of low work intensity are linked to increased poverty duration and severity. This relation is even stronger for households that simultaneously experience a high needs-to-resource ratio or frequent low-wage receipt, emphasising the interplay between these two factors and household work intensity. High household work intensity reduces poverty persistence the most, with education identified as an important contextual factor mitigating poverty persistence. Findings suggest to reduce poverty persistence by supporting higher work intensity and regular employment in households with poverty experiences by addressing what prevents individual employment, such as upskilling or reskilling along individual strengths. Such initiatives are particularly important to decrease poverty persistence in families with children.