Abstract
This article examines the methods and dynamics of packaging multiple sources of wage and nonwage income as a means of making ends meet over a 10-year period among a sample of displaced steelworkers who lost jobs as a result of plant closings in the 1980s and then experienced extensive downward mobility. The study tracked changes in the respondents' income and employment over a decade, the dynamics of their use of social services, their pooling of a variety of income sources, and the use of social assistance to supplement low wages. The study found that among this sample income packaging was a universal economic strategy and that use of social services did not affect later employment and earnings.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 291-300 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Social work |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2002 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
Keywords
- Income packaging, low-wage workers
- Services utilization
- Unemployment
- Wage supplements