Informal Economy

Zimbabwe, informal economy, worker rights, Solidarity Center

The Solidarity Center assists workers in the informal economy, such as market vendors in Zimbabwe, come together to assert their rights and raise living standards. Credit: ZCIEA

Some 2 billion people work in the informal sector as domestic workers, taxi drivers, and street vendors, many of them women workers. Informal economy work now comprises the majority of jobs in many countries and is increasing worldwide. Although informal economy workers can create up to half of a country’s gross national product, most have no access to health care, sick leave or support when they lose their jobs, and they have little power to advocate for living wages and safe and secure work.

The Solidarity Center is part of a broad-based movement in dozens of countries to help workers in the informal economy come together to assert their rights and raise living standards. For instance, three affiliates of the Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU-K), a Solidarity Center partner, signed agreements with informal worker associations to unionize the workers, enabling them to access to the country’s legal protections for formal-sector employees.

Find out more about informal workers gaining power by joining together in unions and worker associations in this Solidarity Center-supported publication, Informal Workers and Collective Action: A Global Perspective.

UKRAINE: DOMESTIC WORKER SURVEY DOCUMENTS PERILS OF INFORMAL STATUS

A new survey—the first in Ukraine to evaluate domestic workers’ working conditions—found that working without contracts and formal recognition has left most survey respondents victim to low pay, wage theft, confusion about employment status, exclusion from the...

Driving Toward a Fair Future @ Work

While the rapid increase in app-based jobs around the world offers millions of workers additional avenues to ear money, it also creates new opportunities for employer exploitation through low wages, lack of health care and an absence of job safety–and that means...

Grab Riders in Metro Manila Strike Against Unjust Fare Decrease

In the Philippines, 200 Grab Food Delivery Riders, through the National Union of Food Delivery Riders (RIDERS-SENTRO), waged a one-day strike October 25 to protest a fare decrease scheduled to start that day. Grab’s new rate will reduce the base fare from 45 pesos to...
Africa’s Domestic Workers Demand Urgent Reform in Pandemic Crisis

Africa’s Domestic Workers Demand Urgent Reform in Pandemic Crisis

The International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) is urging more than 25 Africa-based affiliates to use the results of a new survey documenting the suffering of Africa’s domestic workers and their dependents during the pandemic to lobby their governments for urgent...

Podcast: Domestic Workers: Leading, Growing, THRIVING

Podcast: Domestic Workers: Leading, Growing, THRIVING

Domestic workers are among the most invisible workers in the world—yet in Latin America, they are joining together to champion their rights at their workplace and in their communities, says Adriana Paz Ramirez on this week’s episode of The Solidarity Center Podcast....

Podcast: LGBTQ+ Domestic Workers Win Rights with Their Union

Podcast: LGBTQ+ Domestic Workers Win Rights with Their Union

As a trans domestic worker from Nicaragua working in Guatemala, Francia Blanco says her experiences with verbal and physical abuse, discrimination, and forced labor conditions led her to take action to build a world where trans domestic workers had rights, respect and...

The Benefits of Collective Bargaining for Women: A Case Study of Morocco

The Benefits of Collective Bargaining for Women: A Case Study of Morocco

This study by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Solidarity Center finds women workers in Morocco’s fertile Meknes region are making big gains in gender equality on the job through their union, the Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT)....

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When Workers Become Targets: Nigeria

When Workers Become Targets: Nigeria

"When Workers Become Targets: Nigeria," is a collection of real-life experiences of workers, particularly women, during the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, and how unions whose members suffered the greatest toll played a crucial role in the...

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