Four out of ten wage earners live in a poor homewhile the figure amounts to 63% among the informalaccording to the latest report on Informal Salaried Employment and Workplace Poverty for the second quarter of 2024, prepared by the UBA. Among formal workers, a 27% is in this condition.
When the comparison is made between the monthly salary and the value of the basket of basic goods and services (individual poverty line) there is also a great discrepancy between both groups of workersaccording to the report coordinated by Roxana Maurizio and Luis Beccaria. While the 59% of informal wage earners receive a monthly salary lower than the value of this basket, that figure drops to 8% in the formal ones.
He average monthly minimum wage of the second quarter in net terms was around $190,000, while the value of the average poverty basket of a salaried worker was $238,000. While, in 2017 the values were $6,700 and $3,575, respectively, which clearly demonstrates the loss of purchasing power. In short, these figures show that the association between informality and low wages is also reflected in the phenomenon of the poor worker. So much so, that having a job in Argentina is not a reinsurance to live out of poverty.
Informality grows
The informality rate accelerated to 36.7% and a majority of those affected are young. In the interannual comparison, there is a increase of approximately 1 percentage point in informality. The authors highlight that, in a long-term look (since 2003), they place the informality rate at a value identical to that observed in the third quarter of 2008.
In the same sense, the report highlights that from 2008 until the outbreak of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020, The informality rate remained at values between 32% and 35.7%which places the value of the third quarter of 2024 above what was recorded in that period.
Beyond the fluctuations, the informality rate remained relatively constant and at a very high value for 16 years.
Informal: young people and women are the groups most affected by precarious work
The salaried informality rate total was 36.3%being 34.2% among men and rising to 38.9% among women. On average, the female informality rate in the mid-2000s 2024 was approximately 5 percentage points higher than the male rate.
However, given the greater proportion of men in total salaried employment (54%), the report indicates that 51% of women work informally, while men represent 49%.
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Young people are the ones who experience the highest informality rate than other age groupsto the point that, in the second quarter of 2024, this was almost 64%, 28 percentage points higher than the global rate. This implies that just over 6 out of every 10 young workers in a dependency relationship are not covered by labor regulations and social security.
Salaried workers between 45 and 64 years old -60 years in the case of women- are those who experience the rate of lowest informalitycalculated in the 27.5%. Next in incidence is the group between 25 and 44 years old (34.4%) and those aged 65 years (60 years in women) and over (47.9%).
Source: Ambito
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