Real incomes subsequently grew strongly until 2000 but then fell back so that they stagnated in real terms over the period as a whole. With the exception of the Netherlands and the United States, income levels at the 10lh percentile (the bottom decile) in all other countries are now lower than they were at the beginning of the available data series. One explanation could be that employment gains have coincided with an increase in the number of low-paid workers and part-time workers (as has also happened in the Netherlands).