Eurostat figures plublished on Friday show that 7.4% of employed persons aged 18 years or over in Cyprus were at risk of poverty in 2018 — below the EU 28 average of 9.5%. The highest rate was in Romania with 15.3% and the lowest in Denmark with 5.4%.
Eurostat said that EU wide, this share has risen from 8.6% in 2008 to 9.5% in 2018. For Cyprus it rose from 6.9% in 2008 to 7.4% 10 years later.
The in-work poverty risk in the EU differs slightly between women and men. In 2018, 9.9% of employed men were at risk of poverty compared to 9.1% of women. The figures for Cyprus were 7.9% for men and 6.8% for women.
Part-time and temporary workers more at risk
Part-time workers and employees on temporary contracts are more likely to be at risk of in-work poverty than those who work full-time and who have permanent contracts. In 2018, part-time workers in the EU were at twice the risk of monetary poverty (15.7%) than those employed full-time (7.8%), while employees with temporary jobs had almost a three times higher risk (16.2%) than those with permanent jobs (6.1%).
Highest in-work poverty in Romania, lowest in Finland
The in-work at-risk-of-poverty rates varied across EU Member States: the highest rates were observed in Romania (15.3%), followed by Luxemburg (13.5%), Spain (12.9%), Italy (12.2%), the United Kingdom (11.3%) and Greece (11.0%), while the lowest rates were recorded in Finland (3.1%), Czechia (3.4%), Ireland (4.9%), Belgium and Croatia (both 5.2%) as well as Denmark (5.4%).
Highest increase of in-work poverty in Luxembourg, largest decrease in Greece
Over the last decade, the share of employed persons at risk of poverty has risen in a majority of Member States. The highest increase was recorded in Luxembourg (4.1 pp), followed by Italy (3.2 pp), the United Kingdom (2.8 pp), Hungary (2.6 pp) and Bulgaria (2.4 pp), while the highest decreases were observed in Greece (-3.3 pp), Latvia and Romania (both -2.4 pp), Portugal (-2.1 pp) and Finland (-2.0 pp).
Note: 2008 data are not available for Croatia.
Source dataset: ilc_iw01
