About 50% of apprenticeship training graduates start their working life with a low pay job. The empirical study shows that just a minority of these well qualified job starters manages to find a better-paid job within the first few years after graduation. In contrast, labor market entrants whose first salary is above the low pay threshold have low risk of ending up in the low paid sector, in non-standard employment or in unemployment. Thus, the structure of the German labor market seems to be strongly characterized by segmentation. The results furthermore indicate that low pay risk as well as ability of earnings mobility are determined by individual characteristics such as level of education and sex as well as by characteristics of the employer and occupation. Supporting weak apprentices with better education and a change in young women’s occupational choice could help to avoid low pay experience. © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2014.
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