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	Stalled COVID-19 recovery leaves workers in Informal Employment struggling with lower earnings by Dr. Sally Roever, Dr. Mike Rogan Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)   Dec. 2021   A global study tracking informal workers’ lives during the COVID-19 crisis has found their economic recovery has stalled, with households experiencing high levels of hunger amidst waning government support.   The WIEGO-led COVID-19 and the Informal Economy study examines how workers in informal employment from 11 cities in nine countries are faring now compared to their pre-COVID economic conditions in February 2020.   The latest research paints a picture of a stalled recovery: most respondents have not fully returned to work, their earnings are far below pre-pandemic levels, and few have received a vaccine. WIEGO’s data aligns with ILO predictions of a “great divergence” in recovery paths of higher and lower income countries.   It also showed how governments, despite their goal for economic recovery post-COVID, have failed to help the majority of the world’s workers get back to work and re-establish their livelihoods.   WIEGO’s International Coordinator, Dr. Sally Roever, says the severe and sustained disruptions to work and earnings create challenges in meeting basic food needs.   “Across the sample in mid-2021, 29% of respondents reported an adult in their household had gone hungry over the last month, 27% reported that a child had gone hungry and the majority, just under 60%, reported a decrease in dietary diversity or less-frequent meals,” she says.   “Households in Lima, Durban and Dakar were the hardest hit on this front. These findings are a stark and sobering reminder of how the slow recovery unfolding in the global South has a very real human cost. Informal workers and their families are still living this crisis, and the longer they live without policy support, the wider the gulf between developed and developing countries will be.”   Dr. Mike Rogan, Lead Researcher for the COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy Study, mentions this is combined with access to government relief dropping off.   “Access to government cash support stagnated during the course of the study, and the percentage of respondents who received food support declined since the first three months of the pandemic. The percentages of workers who received forgiveness of rent, utilities and/or school tuition were in the single digits. This lack of support forced many workers to take on new loans, draw down on their savings, and reduce their food intake.”   “Beyond relief measures, the study showed government interventions did more harm than good, particularly in regards to workers getting back to work. Our research found almost 50% of respondents needed money to get back to work, and only 7% received government loans, while governments also prevented people from working in public spaces”, says Dr. Rogan. The study found that by contrast, over one quarter of street vendors and market traders, as well as 15% of waste pickers, reported harassment by law enforcement officials.   Workers in informal employment interviewed in the study highlighted the following needs for recovery:   Providing immediate material needs, notably food aid and cash grants to replace savings, pay off debt and restore assets.   Providing working capital for livelihoods and businesses, through grants or low-interest loans.   Supporting employment and/or livelihood recovery and transition, by creating and/or facilitating new employment, skills training and widespread vaccination for reopening.   Expanding social protection, including access to social insurance, health care and basic income support on terms equal to those of formal workers.   Promoting an enabling policy and legal framework, including inclusive urban planning for the self-employed, minimum wages or piece rates, fair working hours, and health and safety requirements for employees and dependent contractors.   Following the principle of “Do no harm”, by allowing workers to pursue their livelihoods, protecting their workplaces, and ending punitive practices of harassment, confiscation, fines and evictions.   * Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global network focused on empowering the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy to secure their livelihoods. We believe all workers should have equal economic opportunities, rights, protection and voice. WIEGO promotes change by expanding knowledge on the informal economy, building networks and capacity among informal worker organizations and, jointly with the networks and organizations, influencing local, national and international policies. There are over 2,000 million informal workers, predominantly in economically developing countries.   The COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy study is a collaboration between Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) and partner organizations representing informal workers in 12 cities: Accra, Ghana; Ahmedabad, India; Bangkok, Thailand; Dakar, Senegal; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Delhi, India; Durban, South Africa; Lima, Peru; Mexico City, Mexico; Pleven, Bulgaria; New York City, USA; and Tiruppur, India; with support from the International Development Research Centre, Canada.   http://www.wiego.org/resources/press-release-study-shows-stalled-covid-19-recovery-leaves-workers-informal-employment http://www.wiego.org/resources/executive-summary-crisis-far-over-informal-workers http://www.wiego.org/extending-social-protection-informal-workers http://www.wiego.org/informal-economy/poverty-growth-linkages/links-poverty http://www.wiego.org/blog Visit the related web page
	Jobs with a decent minimum wage are the basis for recovery in an increasingly unequal world by Evelyn Astor, Sharan Burrow ITUC, Equal Times   Nov. 2021   This year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to US-based economists David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for real-world research in the 1990s that empirically demonstrated that the idea touted by conservative economists, that higher minimum wages mean fewer jobs, is not based on fact.   The researchers used a ‘natural experiment’ to study the effects of a minimum wage increase in New Jersey, which raised it to the highest minimum wage rate in the country at the time – a move that received strong opposition from business leaders.   The researchers studied the effects of minimum wage increases in the fast-food industry in New Jersey, comparing it to a control group of fast-food restaurants in eastern Pennsylvania, right across the border where the minimum wage did not increase. The researchers found that relative to the fast-food restaurants in Pennsylvania, restaurants in New Jersey increased employment by 13 per cent after the minimum wage was increased. This was despite the fact that the minimum wage was increased during a recession.   The findings shook the economic establishment at the time. However, since then, numerous other empirical studies have further challenged the theory that minimum wage increases cost jobs.   In Brazil, minimum wages increased in real terms by upwards of 60 per cent from 2003 through 2012, with no noticeable employment impacts.   An increase in minimum wages in Indonesia in the 1990s was met with an increase in formal employment as well as a decrease in informality, with local demand also increasing.   The introduction of the minimum wage in Germany in 2015 was not met with the massive job losses that were initially predicted by many economists; the employment effects were negligible, while income security for low-income earners was significantly boosted.   However, despite the mounting evidence, the unproven yet influential theory that raising minimum wages directly leads to job loss has continued to persist – a myth peddled by conservative economists, major industry organisations such as the American Chamber of Commerce and some international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.   “Raise minimum wages as a matter of urgency”   The Nobel Prize is a serious indictment against those who have argued against decent minimum wages for workers, representing an international rejection of the now debunked economic narrative that wage increases are bad for workers and the economy. It has taken some 30 years for the facts to be given prominence over a damaging and groundless theory, with millions of workers kept in poverty as a result.   According to the International Trade Union Confederation Global Poll, 76 per cent of the world’s people find the minimum wage is not enough to live on. In-work poverty remains rampant globally according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), with 300 million workers in emerging and developing countries earning less than US$1.90 per day, and a further 430 million workers in emerging and developing countries earning between US$1.90 and US$3.10 per day.   Some 266 million workers are paid less than the minimum wage, either because they are not legally protected or because of non-compliance.   And global real wage growth has stagnated compared to productivity and economic growth in recent decades, which has contributed to widening income inequality.   The economic desperation experienced by workers is compounded by the fact that half of the world’s population lacks any form of social protection, and an additional 22 per cent lack comprehensive protection in line with ILO standards.   With the award of this prize, ensuring workers’ adequate incomes through raising minimum wages and enhancing social protection should now be seen by governments as a matter of urgency.   Such measures are not only vital in order to provide workers and their families a floor of income security, but should also be seen as investments. Raising minimum wages has been shown to reduce poverty and inequality, support increased consumption and demand for local goods and services, contribute to productive economic activity, and support inclusive growth.   ITUC research has shown how investing an additional 1 per cent of GDP on social protection can lead to significantly increased employment, tax revenue, and nearly double the returns in GDP terms.   Governments must ensure minimum living wages, taking into account the cost of living for workers and their families, and developing them together with social partners. They must have the force of law, and non-compliance must be met with strong and dissuasive sanctions.   Social protection systems, likewise, must be strengthened and extended to cover workers in all forms of work as well as those in the informal economy. Such measures will not destroy jobs, but rather help build the basis for a new social contract, allowing for a robust, fair and inclusive economic recovery, with jobs, decent work and resilience.   http://www.equaltimes.org/jobs-with-a-decent-minimum-wage http://www.equaltimes.org/wages http://bit.ly/3ollcTH http://www.equaltimes.org/the-ilo-s-global-social-protection http://www.ituc-csi.org/a-new-social-contract http://www.ituc-csi.org/investments-in-social-protection http://www.globalrightsindex.org/en/2021 Visit the related web page
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