An ILO report refers to the huge existence of informal labour in Latin America and its consequences Around 241 ...
An ILO report refers to the huge existence of informal labour in Latin America and its consequences
Around 241 million Latin Americans (39% of the regional population), lack social security, including pensions and unemployment allowances, stated the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the “World Social Protection Report 2017-2019”.
The huge incidence of informal labour in the region causes rural, autonomous and domestic workers to be excluded from social protection, or have a poor coverage, states the report presented in Mexico.
There are 624 million people living in Latin America and the Caribbean. ILO estimates that 61% of them have access to at least one form of social security, while the remaining 39% are completely vulnerable.
Latin America and the Caribbean use 16% of its GDP to social services, without including healthcare expenses. Brazil (18 %), Cuba (18 %) and Uruguay (17 %) are the countries that invest the most, while Guatemala (4 %), Granada (4 %) and Haiti (3 %) invest the lowest percentages.
ILO encourages governments in the region to increase the formalization of the economy in order to provide social security to a larger number of workers and expand the coverage to vulnerable groups, such as children.
The services analyzed in the report include retirement pensions, which are provided to 70% of elder Latin Americans.
Nevertheless, there are certain exceptions in which less than have of old age people have retirement pensions, such as Mexico (25 %), Peru (19 %) or Haiti (1 %).
The lowest social protection rate can be found in the area of child protection, as only 34% of children under 14 years old have some sort of service in the region.
The only countries that surpass 90% of child protection rate are Brazil (97 %) and Chile (93 %). Costa Rica (18 %) and Ecuador (7 %) are at the bottom of the regional ranking.
According to ILO estimations, 68% of working women received maternity support, which places Latin America above the global average (41%). However, there are major differences among countries. While in Uruguay the total number of women who work are protected, in Paraguay only 3% are in that situation. The same disparity can be found in the social protection towards disabled people: in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay coverage is over 90 %, while in Colombia, Guatemala and Peru it does not reach 6%.
As regards unemployment allowances, Barbados is the clear leader, with 88%, while Bolivia is at the bottom as only 3% of unemployed people receive some sort of economic support.
Formalization of labour in the 21st century must include different forms of formal labour. The modernization of regulatory frameworks is an urging matter in the region to tackle exclusion and inequality.
