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---
bibliography: 03-supplementary_data/lib.bib
csl: /home/marty/documents/library/utilities/styles/APA-7.csl
papersize: A4
linestretch: 1.5
fontfamily: lmodern
fontsize: "12"
geometry:
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toc: true
link-citations: true
link-bibliography: true
number-sections: true
lang: en
title: Inequalities and the world of work
subtitle: Conceptual Definitions and Key Terms
---
# Definitions
## Defining the world of work
Work
: "any activity performed by persons of any sex and age to produce goods or to provide services for use by others or for own use" [@ilo2013, p. 2].
: "Work is defined irrespective of its formal or informal character or the legality of the activity" [@ilo2013, p. 2].
Employment
: those in employment are "of working age who, during a reference period, were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit" [@ilo2013, 6].
: "For pay or profit refers to work done as part of a transaction in exchange for remuneration payable in the form of wages or salaries for time worked or work done, or in the form of profits derived from the goods and services produced through market transactions" [@ilo2013, 6].
| key concepts | |
| --- | --- |
| production of goods | production/processing/collection of agricultural, fishing, hunting, gathering, mining, forestry, water, household goods, effecting major repairs/building additions to dwelling,farm buildings, etc. |
| provision of services | provision of accounting, management, transport, meal preparation/serving, waste disposal/recycling, cleaning, decorating, dwelling/goods maintenance, childcare/-instruction, elderly/dependent person/pet/domestic animal care
| use by others or own-use | whether final products are destined *mainly* for final use by producer as capital formation or final consumption, or by others |
| for pay or profit | as part of transaction in exchange for remuneration (wages/salary), or in form of profits from goods/services through market transactions |
Informal economy
: "economic activities carried out by workers and economic units that are --- in law or in practice --- not covered or insufficiently covered by formal arrangements." [@ilo2002, p.14; @ilo2015, p.4,25]
: "all remunerative work [...] that is not registered, regulated or protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks, as well as non-remunerative work undertaken in an income-producing enterprise." [@ilo2003]
: "does not cover illicit activities, in particular the provision of services or the production, sale, possession or use of goods forbidden by law" [@ilo2015, p.4]
Formal economy
: sufficiently covered by formal arrangements, defined as "procedures established by the government to regulate the actions and functions of economic units and workers, as well as protecting their legal rights." [ILO, 2021, p.10]
Informal employment *outside* the informal sector
: comprises employees holding informal jobs in formal sector enterprises, as paid domestic workers employed by households, contributing family workers working in formal sector enterprises, and own-account workers producing exclusively for own final use by their household [@ilo2023]
<!--
- with access to contributory social insurance schemes via formal arrangements:
- employees of public sector
- armed forces
- employees/casual/seasonal workers of formal enterprises
- independent workers operating in formal economy
- with occasional access to non-contributory social insurance schemes via formal (legal) arrangements:
- employers/employees of informal sector enterprises
- workers hired off-the-books by formal sector enterprises
- independent workers operating in informal economy
-->
Labour underutilization
: are "mismatches between labour supply and demand which translate into an unmet need for employment among the population" [@ilo2013, 9]
: can be "*time-related underemployment*, when the working time of persons in employment is insufficient in relation to alternative employment situations in which they are willing and available to engage" [@ilo2013, 9]
: can be "*unemployment*, reflecting an active job search by persons not in employment" [@ilo2013, 9]
: can be "*potential labour force*, [those] not in employment who express an interest in this form of work but for whom existing conditions limit their active job search and/or their availability." [@ilo2013, 9]
| key concepts | |
| --- | --- |
| remuneration | see 'for pay or profit' above |
| formal arrangements | protection of legal rights, regulation of actions/functions of economic units |
| legality of activity | while concept of 'work' covers acitivities regardless of illicit status, informal economy excludes illicit activities |
| utilization of labor | described various states of labour supply and demand mismatch such as unemployment, time-related underemployment, and potential labour force |
## Defining forms of work
"five mutually exclusive forms of work are identified for separate measurement" [@ilo2013, 3]
own-use production work
: comprising production of goods and services for own final use
: "all those of working age who, during a short reference period, performed any activity to produce goods or provide services for own final use." [@ilo2013, 5]
employment work
: comprising work performed for others in exchange for pay or profit
: "all those of working age who, during a short reference period, were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit" [@ilo2013, 6]
unpaid trainee work
: comprising work performed for others without pay to acquire workplace experience or skills
: "all those of working age who, during a short reference period, performed any unpaid activity to produce goods or provide services for others, in order to acquire workplace experience or skills in a trade or profession" [@ilo2013, 7]
volunteer work
: comprising non-compulsory work performed for others without pay
: "all those of working age who, during a short reference period, performed any unpaid, non-compulsory activity to produce goods or provide services for others"
other work activities
: not defined in this resolution
| key concepts | |
| --- | --- |
| intensity of participation | how many hours/days work occupies in a certain time frame |
| own-use/other-use | see above |
| for pay or profit | see above |
| non-compulsory | undertaken without civil, legal, administrative requirement and different from fulfilment of social responsibilities of communal, cultural or religious nature |
## Defining inequality
Vertical inequality
: "income inequality between all households in a country" [@ilo2021a]
: "the debate on vertical inequalities has increasingly focused on how, in many countries, the richest 1 per cent or the top 10 per cent of income earners have improved their situation compared to the poorest 99 per cent or bottom 90 per cent." [@ilo2021]
Horizontal inequality
: "Horizontal inequalities occur when some groups within the population find themselves disadvantaged and discriminated against on the basis of their visible identity, for example their gender, colour or beliefs, among others" [@ilo2021]
: "public attention has incerasingly been devoted to racial or ethnic inequalities, and to the rifts between migrants and nationals."
: "Spatial inequalities between rural and urban areas and, more recently, between large mega-cities and smaller, more peripheral, cities have also been studied with increasing concern"
: "also refers to disparities in employment outcomes, labour rights and opportunities between groups depending on their gender, age, nationality, ethnicity, health status, disability or other characteristics"
Intersectionality
: "captures the complex way in which inequalities based on different personal characteristics overlap and accumulate [and] particular dynamics of inequality appear where people belong to multiple disadvantaged groups." [@ilo2021]
Equality of opportunities
: "seeks to level the playing field so that gender, ethnicity, birthplace, family background and other caracteristics that are beyond an individual's control do not influence or harm a person's future perspective" [@ilo2021]
: "ensuring that all people are 'equally enabled to make the best of such powers as they possess'" [@ilo2021]
Equality of outcomes
: "a focus on opportunities [...] should not distract from the importance of observed inequality of outcomes." [@ilo2021]
: "high levels of inequality make it much more difficult to ensure equal opportunities for the next generation [since] high levels of inequality today tend to reduce social mobility tomorrow." [@ilo2021]
| key concepts | |
| --- | --- |
| within-group/between-group inequality | the horizontal or vertical nature of inequality, existing as income inequality between all households in a country (vertical) or when some population groups are disadvantaged/discriminated against (horizontal) |
| overlapping characteristics | all inequalities can be intersectional through individuals' overlapping disadvantaged characteristics or situations |
| enabling of opportunity/outcome equality | two philosophies of seeking equality, by either providing a 'level playing field' (opportunity) or ensuring equality in the resulting situations (outcome) |
# Inequalities in the world of work
## Income Inequality
- main focus point of many inequality measurements (e.g. Gini Coefficient, Palma Ratio) [UN, 2023, A call to action to save SDG10, Policy Brief]
- "labour income is the main source of income for most households in the world [thus] unequal access to work and working poverty are major drivers of inequalities" [@ilo2021a]
- "Income inequality, inequality of employment outcomes more generally and inequality of opportunities are intimately related" [@ilo2022]
- "To some extent, therefore, income inequality is like a prism, which reveals many other forms of inequality, including those generated in the world of work" [@ilo2021, 13].
- "Throughout the world, earnings inequality is also determined by a set of other factors, including status in employment (whether a worker is a wage employee or self-employed), sector of activity and occupation, enterprise type, type of contract (for wage earners), and often formality" [@iloconditions2019].
## Other forms of inequality
Inequalities are always multi-faceted, complex and display intersectional qualities [@ilo2021]:
### Gender inequality
These are inequalities that arise because of an individual's gender:
- while type and extent of inequalities varies by country, "gender inequalities, despite some progress over the past decades, remain persistent and pervasive" [@ilo2021a].
- "women everywhere still face high barriers in entering, remaining and progressing in the labour market, while continuing to bear most of the responsibility for unpaid care work" [@ilo2022].
- "hinders not only access to education, training and lifelong learning, but also access to quality jobs, housing, mobility, land and capital, as well as social protection" [@ilo2021a].
- more women, globally, work in underemployment, contribute disproportionally to family work, work shorter hours in employment but have longer working days when including unpaid work, are increasingly employed in services sectors, and still suffer a substantial wage gap [@ilowomen2016]
- "Domestic work is female-dominated, with women accounting for 76.2 per cent of domestic workers" and domestic work, in turn is overwhelmingly informal employment globally [@ilodomestic2023, 6].
- "Disparities in the gendered division of unpaid care work and paid work are the result of deeply rooted inequalities based on gender roles, income, age, education and place of residence" [@iloconditions2019].
### Socio-demographic inequalities
These are inequalities that, like gender inequality, are based on the innate, often visible, identification of a person.
Examples are: ethnic, racial inequalities, or those based on religion and beliefs, migrant status, age, sex, or disabilities. [@ilo2021, 11-12]
- "the incidence of temporary employment is generally higher among youths" [@iloconditions2019].
- "Women and young people fare significantly worse in labour markets, an indication of the large inequalities within the world of work in many countries." [@ilotrends2023]
- "In the EU28, some 7% of workers felt they had been discriminated against in the 12 months prior to the survey on grounds of sex, race, religion, age, nationality, disability or sexual orientation" [@iloconditions2019].
### Spatial inequality
These are inequalities that arise because of an individual's location relative to others:
- "between urban, rural and peripheral areas and richer and poorer regions [...] contribute to inequalities in the world of work, as well as to a growing sense of fractured societies" [@ilo2021a]
- due to "unequal access to economic and decent work opportunities, to finance, quality public services, quality education and relevant training, essential social services infrastructures and digital infrastructure" [@ilo2021a]
### Pre-existing inequalities
These are inequalities that exist *before* the labor market enters the picture for an individual and, while intertwined with socio-demographic inequalities, may be useful to differentiate:
- "some inequalities arise well before individuals enter the world of work and addressing them is key to reducing inequalities in the labour market and beyond" [@ilo2021]
- "inequality in household incomes [...] reflects many other correlated or underlying forms of inequality [such as] inequality of opportunity, or inequality of access to health services or education, for example." [@ilo2021, 13]
- "the world of work plays an important role in reducing inequalities, including in terms of intergenerational social mobility" [@ilo2021a]
- "they also relate to the characteristics [...] such as the level of education, poverty or productivity and, of course, their underlying factors." [@ilo2021]
- "underlying factors are numerous and include the lack of formal recognition as an individual (the lack of a birth certificate or identity card), the lack of property rights or of clear ownership of assets, or the lack of access to formal banking, all of which are both a form of inequality and increase other forms of inequality." [@ilo2021]
## The scale of inequalities
- globally, between countries (vertical)
- national inequalities, between all households in one country (vertical)
- regional, between urban/rural divides; poor/rich regions (horizontal: spatial)
- households, between households with different access to education/essential services/infrastructures (horizontal: spatial)
- individuals, between persons based on (visible/invisible) characteristics (horizontal: gender, spatial, pre-existing, ...)
### Between-country comparisons
- "[Post COVID-19] recovery patterns vary significantly across regions, countries and sectors [and] the impact has been particularly serious for developing nations that experienced higher levels of inequality, more divergent working conditions and weaker social protection systems even before the pandemic." [@ilotrends2022]
- "The pandemic is deepening various forms of inequality, from exacerbating gender inequity to widening the digital divide." [@ilotrends2022]
# Outcomes of inequalities
- "[inequalities] slow economic growth and poverty reduction, undermine social mobility and increase the risk of social unrest and political instability [as well as] contribute to the intergenerational transmission of poverty and social exclusion" [@ilo2022]
- "forms of inequality can be also among the root causes of child labour and forced or compulsory labour in all its forms." [@ilo2021a]
## Inequalities' impact on employment outcomes
- **unemployment**: forecloses income prospects
- **underemployment**:
- low wages make meeting basic needs impossible (esp. food, healthcare, education, decent housing)
- split into 'time-related underemployment' (wanting more hourly paid work) and 'potential labour force' (not actively looking or not able to work)
- **inequality of job quality** (achievement of decent work)
- "concerns first and foremost those working in the informal economy", who may experience reduced social protection, productivity, job security, wages and earnings [@ilo2021]
- "many are in forms of work, such as part-time work, fixed-term contracts and working through private employment agencies, that can offer a stepping stone to employment [but] may give rise to decent work deficits when, among other reasons, they are not regulated well" or used to circumvent legal obligations or without adequate labour/social protection [@ilo2021a]
- "Job quality features are also positively associated with enterprise performance, productivity and innovation, [...] reducing sickness absence and the loss of productivity due to working while sick. In addition, job quality contributes to developing organisational commitment and motivation among workers, as well as shaping a climate that is supportive of creativity and the development of the workforce" [@iloconditions2019].
- other employment outcomes affected:
- overall labor force participation: exclusion from labour market or the ability towards full utilization of labour market opportunities [@ilo2021; @iloconditions2019]
- ultimately resulting in income inequalities, in turn becoming driver of subsequent inequal outcomes and barriers in the labour market (as well as outside the labour market), reducing inter-generational social mobility [@ilo2021a]
# Guiding principles
identified in @ilo2021a and @ilo2022:
- attention to root causes
- addressing both distribution and redistribution
- original distribution highly affected by inequalities on labour market
- preventing both vertical/horizontal inequalities requires redistribution through taxes and transfers
- fundamental principles and rights and international labour standards
- social dialogue and tripartism
- interconnectedness, integration and monitoring
- country-specific approaches
# Policy areas
<!--
generally, [from UN, 2023, A call to action to save SDG10, Policy Brief], separated into:
- fiscal policies
- labour policies
- other policies
- both from distributive and redistributive levers of action
-->
guiding principles
main policy areas identified [@ilo2022]:
## Employment creation
- pro-employment, gender-transformative macroeconomic framework
- enabling business environment promoting sustainable enterprise,productivity increases, reductions in productivity gaps
- digital infrastructure investments for potential of technology for decent work and tackling digital divide
- just transition minimizing impacts of environmental changes on employment
- effective active labour market policies enabling employment for vulnerable and disadvantaged
## Equal access to education/training/quality public services from early childhood
- improvements to quality and relevance of education, training, skills development
- responsive to labour market needs, changing WoW demands, green/digital transitions, demographic changes
- gender-transformative career guidance on e.g. STEM
- improvements to quality of public services, social protection to juggle paid work & family care
- targeted support for disadvantaged groups
## Adequate protection of all workers and a fair share of the fruits of growth
- promotion of fundamental principles and rights at work for all workers
- adequate minimum wage (Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970, No 131)
- implementation of collective bargaining systems
- equal pay for work of equal value, wage transparency
- effective/inclusive labour market institutions, e.g. relevant inspectorates
## Transition to the formal economy
- comprehensive, country-tailored, gender-responsive, non-discriminatory strategies tackling drivers of informality
- combination of interventions increasing ability of formal economy to provide decent work opportunities, absorption of current informal workers&economic units
- strengthening ability of people/enterprises to enter formal economy through incentives and elimination of barriers
## Gender equality and non-discrimination, equality for all, diversity and inclusion
- removal of stereotypes, discriminatory laws and practices, including at workplace
- promotion of positive/transformative measures ensuring equality of treatment&opportunities
- more available data disaggregated by gender,age,disability,race,ethnicity,migrant status to monitor policy impacts
- combined policy responses within/-out labour market against: occupational gender segregation, unequal pay for work of equal value, gender-based violence/harassment, gender unequal division of unpaid care work
## Trade and development for a fair globalization and shared prosperity
- full cooperation with relevant international bodies to avoid severe economic fluctuations, ensure price stability
- promotion of high and steady volume of intl. trade
- promotion/application of fundamental principles and rights at work through trade agreements/in supply chains, alongside responsible business practices
## Universal and adequate social protection
- extension of reach of national social protection systems
- reach those not adequately protected
- ensure access for everyone to comprehensive, adequate, sustainable social protection over life cycle
\pagebreak
# Relevant references