Sue Richardson examines the extent to which low wage jobs provide access to and progression in employment for low skill workers. Do people in low wage jobs stay there for a long period, or simply transit them on their way to better paid work? In the first case, low pay can cause continuing poverty and lifetime (indeed, intergenerational) inequality. In the second case, any poverty will be short term and scarcely impact on lifetime well-being. If there is little mobility out of such jobs, then there is a real risk that their relative growth will generate an underclass of people and families who have to deal for long periods with poverty and insecurity.