Changes in wage employment

Abstract

The recent recovery of employment levels has meant a significant increase in wage employment (to represent 68.5% of urban jobs in 2005), although with the same characteristics of flexibility and insecurity that prevailed at the end of the 1990s. Although the proportion of wage workers in low–productivity sectors declined, there remained a tendency to use contracting procedures that are both informal (one in two wage workers had signed some kind of contract) and temporary (only one in eight workers had a permanent contract). Although two in every three wage workers were covered by social security (four percentage points less than in 1990), the small proportion of jobs with contractual obligations to contribute suggests that the number of workers actually making contributions is much lower. This is reinforced by the limited increase in real wages, which grew by 10% between 1990 and 2005 to stand at a monthly average of 371 dollars (a low level for encouraging voluntary contributions). It is therefore predictable that, in the future, it will not be possible to support the financial burden of social protection and welfare systems with employment–based contribution schemes alone.