Labor informality in Mexico has a woman’s face

It’s not just the street people

Far from the stereotype, an informal worker is not limited to the person who sells clothing or food at a street stall, or the place where cell phone cases or makeup accessories are sold, explains Ytzel Maya, Data Coordinator at Oxfam Mexico.

In reality, labor informality is diverse: it includes workers from multiple sectors, from agriculture to government. Also to professionals who are remunerated via fees, which implies that many of them pay, among other taxes, an Income Tax that does not guarantee them access to social security.

Four types of informality

The report The labyrinth of informalitypresented by Oxfam and México ¿Como Vamos?, exposes the different faces of this phenomenon in Mexico. Contrary to the belief that people in the informal sector are dedicated to illicit activities or that they all do the same thing or that they do not pay taxes, the investigation found that the 27.8% of people in this situation work in the informal sectorhe 13.5% in companies, government and institutions9% in the agricultural field and 3.9% in paid domestic work.

On average, men have earned more than women in three of the four types of labor informality and this trend has not changed in almost twenty years, the study indicates.

It is not advisable to be an informal worker

This means that people who work informally do not do so out of their own desire but for structural reasons. Because, furthermore, it is not convenient to be an informal worker: while in a formal job the average monthly labor income is 13,011.20 pesos, in an informal one it is reduced by almost half (6,924.5 pesos).

This means that the average labor income of a person in informal employment is only enough to acquire 1.5 basic baskets.

Women bear the brunt

The diversity of the problem also covers sociocultural and economic issues. For example, the report highlights that labor informality most affects married women with children, from rural areas in the east or south, with little or no schooling.

“Workplace informality disproportionately affects women, since they are much more likely to fall into informal working conditions when they get married or take on caring roles. It is crucial to implement a comprehensive care system that ensures that care is not an obstacle to women’s personal and professional development. Caring should not expel them from formal employment, but rather be a guaranteed right without prejudice to their access to work,” said the Oxfam Mexico Data Coordinator.

By delving deeper into the relationship between informal employment and care work, we found a positive relationship between the number of daughters and sons and the percentage of women employed in informal employment. That is, the greater the number of daughters or sons, the greater the percentage of women employed in informal employment.

Therefore, one of the study’s proposals to alleviate the effects of informality is the creation of a comprehensive care system that allows women and the population in general to access quality jobs.