The Colombian government is developing a billion dollar pension subsidy plan for the country’s millions of informal workers, said financial publication Portfolio Monday.
The announcement follows a government study reporting that an average of 51.3% of workers in Colombia’s 13 largest cities were informal laborers, meaning they work unofficially without paying taxes or having access to benefits or pensions. The study found younger workers and very old workers were the most likely to become informal workers.
Last November the country’s Labor Minister Rafael Pardo said there were 17 million people working informally in the country, promising to give them decent, dignified work. He later ordered government institutions to stop using informal labor, demanding all public workers be given proper contracts and a full range of rights.
According to the report, the subsidy will be less than a normal pension and paid monthly.
Speaking with Portfolio, Labor Analyst Juan Carlso Guataqui said, “if jobs continue to be created in the current conditions, informal labor will not go down.”