Trabajadores pobres en Argentina y en España: un análisis comparativo centrado en las desigualdades ocupacionales

Abstract

Working poor in Argentina and Spain: A Comparative Analysis Focused on Labour Market Inequalities The article tackles the relationship between labour market stratification and in-work poverty, through a comparative analysis of Argentina and Spain. Although it is usual to refer to its multiple determinants, the main hypothesis is that the labour market's stratification plays a fundamental explanatory role on in-work poverty and that, even in different countries, a similar pattern, linked to labour market inequalities, can be identified. The paper draws on the construction of a typology of economic-occupational positions, performs a descriptive analysis of the labour market stratification and carry out binomial logistic regression models, using two different definitions of in-work poverty, both at the individual and the household's level. The research relies on the Permanent Household Survey (Argentina) and the Survey of Living Conditions (Spain) microdata. The results show important differences in labour market's stratification in Argentina and Spain. However, as the hypotheses states, the economic-occupational position is a fundamental determinant of in-work poverty in both countries-ceteris paribus individual or households' characteristics-and that the same groups of workers (precarious and microenterprises' wage earners and lowskilled self-employed workers) concentrate the greatest odds ratios of poverty, whatever the definition adopted.

In-work poverty dynamics: trigger events and short-term trajectories in Argentina

“…The first refers to the characteristics of the workers' occupations: workers in low-productivity occupations, in temporary or part-time positions, are more prone to IWP (Maître et al 2012;Salverda 2018). In Latin America IWP is closely linked to 'informal employment' , employment in microenterprises and to domestic work (Maurizio 2018;Poy 2020). It is also well-known In-work poverty dynamics: trigger events and short-term trajectories in Argentina that there is not a simple overlap between IWP and low pay employments.…”

“…In Latin America, little attention has been paid to IWP. The available research is restricted to cross-section data (Maurizio 2018;Poy 2020). Even if this information is relevant to give an order of magnitude of the phenomenon, evidence from developed countries points to the importance of incorporating the longitudinal perspective.…”

“…As in other Latin American countries, the literature highlights the segmented nature of the Argentine labor market (Paz 2013). There is a fraction of the labor market -which includes around 40% of the workforce-operating under informal conditions, also including low-skilled self-employed activities (Poy 2020). On the other hand, Argentina has been characterized by the existence of a 'stratified universalistic welfare-regime' (Martinez-Franzoni and Sanchez-Ancochea 2016).…”