abstract: 'Thanks to the male breadwinner model with wages sufficient to support a

  family, working-class families used to be financially secure. The

  transformation towards the adult worker model (AWM) saw an accumulation

  of adverse employment characteristics-especially among manual and

  non-manual routine occupations-and a rise in poverty risks. However,

  there is a lack of research that combines these strands. I ask to what

  extent male Western German workers and their partners'' ability to secure

  labour earnings that support a family has changed, and to what degree

  this was hampered by various adverse employment characteristics.

  Focusing on service and production workers with cohabiting partners, I

  analyse whether their individual and combined labour income is

  sufficient to support a family. Performing descriptive trend analysis

  and linear probability models with German Socio-Economic Panel data for

  1985-2013, I compare class effects of four periods. I find that since

  the end of the 1990s, male service and production workers increasingly

  struggle to secure a family income-mainly driven by low wages and low

  work intensity, while partners'' labour market participation has gained

  relevance. The transformation towards the AWM coincided with a

  devaluation of the most privileged group among workers and thus the

  working class as a whole.'
affiliation: 'Gerlitz, JY (Corresponding Author), Univ Bremen, Bremen Int Grad Sch
  Social Sci BIGSSS, POB 330 440, D-28334 Bremen, Germany.

  Gerlitz, JY (Corresponding Author), Jacobs Univ Bremen, D-28759 Bremen, Germany.

  Gerlitz, Jean-Yves, Univ Bremen, Bremen Int Grad Sch Social Sci BIGSSS, POB 330
  440, D-28334 Bremen, Germany.

  Gerlitz, Jean-Yves, Jacobs Univ Bremen, D-28759 Bremen, Germany.'
author: Gerlitz, Jean-Yves
author-email: gerlitz@uni-bremen.de
author_list:
- family: Gerlitz
  given: Jean-Yves
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1093/esr/jcac039
earlyaccessdate: OCT 2022
eissn: 1468-2672
files: []
issn: 0266-7215
journal: EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
keywords-plus: 'LABOR-MARKET; POVERTY RISKS; WAGE INEQUALITY; GERMANY; EUROPE; GENDER;

  MODEL; STATE; INSTITUTIONS; EMPLOYMENT'
language: English
month: APR 13
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '79'
orcid-numbers: Gerlitz, Jean-Yves/0000-0002-1397-0474
pages: 247-261
papis_id: 651c5a8f63c932fe719a460f684a24bd
ref: Gerlitz2023endgolden
times-cited: '2'
title: 'The end of the golden age: on growing challenges for male workers and their
  partners to secure a family income'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000865277200001
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '2'
volume: '39'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2023'