Employer Perspectives on the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Low-pay, Low-status Employees

Low skill, low status jobs in the UK can constitute a first step on a ladder to rising lifetime earnings, in which experience, tacit skills, contacts and know-how can be acquired and used to promote a pay off later.

However, in practice, they provide little or no basis for substantial advancement through the labour market: the evidence suggests that short-term mobility in the wage distribution is limited, and that individuals who do progress, do not generally progress very far.