Non-standard forms of employment in Latin America: Prevalence, characteristics and impacts on wages

Abstract

During the 2000s and early 2010s, Latin America experienced a process of significantimprovement in the labour market. The countries of the region, however, still suffer fromremarkable deficits in their labour markets and in their generation and distribution ofincome. In addition to informality, non-standard forms of employment affect a large numberof wage-earners. This paper analyses three of such kinds of employment: part-time,temporary and triangular employment. The analysis is carried out for Argentina, Brazil,Chile, Ecuador and Peru. We estimate its incidence among total wage-earners and indifferent subgroups of workers, we analyse its evolution during the last decade and weassess the extent to which these non-standard forms of employment are a source of wagegaps and precarious labour conditions.