August 2024
26Aug

UK has record 991,000 self-employed workers aged 60 or over

The number of people aged 60 and older who are self-employed has reached a record of almost 1 million, research suggests. This represents an increase of more than a third (33%) in the past decade, to reach 991,432 self-employed people aged 60 or over in 2023, according to analysis by Rest Less, which offers advice to older people. The analysis found that while the number of self-employed workers in their 50s and older has grown since 2021, it is those in...

August 26, 2024
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July 2024
31Jul

Unemployment in Informal Labor Markets in Developing Countries

By Emily Breza & Supreet Kaur Developing countries typically exhibit low rates of rural wage employment. For example, in India, male workers whose primary source of earnings is wage labor report working on only 46 percent of days per year.1 Bangladesh has a similarly low 55 percent rate of employment among landless males, and the rates are even lower in sub-Saharan Africa. What do these low employment rates mean? One possibility is that they reflect extremely high involuntary unemployment. Alternatively, the rates...

July 31, 2024
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24Jul

Breaking the Vicious Circles of Informal Employment and Low-Paying Work

By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development This report adds two perspectives on informality. First, it disassembles the mechanics of the deleterious links between informal employment, low-paying work and low skills. It shows that informal employment is highly persistent, and that the vulnerability of informal workers is passed on to their children in the absence of adequate education, skills and social protection policy. Second, the report underscores the double burden of informality and low-paying work that a large share of...

July 24, 2024
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09Jul

US. Employer group urges Congress to increase retirement plan awareness for gig workers

In response to a request for information on June 5 from Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, for ways to allow gig workers access to retirement benefits, the American Benefits Council (ABC) has responded. The employer group sent a letter, including suggestions introduced in the SECURE 2.0. legislation, as well as pooled employers plans (PEPs) established by Congress. "The vast majority of independent workers prefer alternative work arrangements to traditional...

July 9, 2024
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08Jul

Empowering India’s Gig Workers: The Need for Comprehensive Legislation

In the bustling streets of India's cities, where the hum of traffic meets the aroma of street food, a new workforce is silently shaping the future. These are the gig workers  the delivery drivers rushing through narrow lanes to bring you a warm meal, the freelance coders burning the midnight oil to meet a deadline, and the rideshare drivers ensuring you reach your destination safely. They are the backbone of a rapidly growing digital economy, offering flexibility and convenience...

July 8, 2024
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May 2024
29May

What is the gig economy and how will it be affected by Uber’s announcement?

Uber's announcement of basic employment rights for its drivers comes after a long-running court battle that could force a shake-up in the so-called gig economy. What is the gig economy? The term describes a way of working where work is assigned on a short-term or job-by-job basis via platforms such as Uber, a taxi app, Deliveroo, a takeaway food service, or courier companies such as Hermes or DPD. Other smaller platforms connect people with opportunities from office and administration work to teaching, gardening and...

May 29, 2024
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10May

Ghana. PFAG, IPTC partner to provide pensions for smallholder farmers

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and the Industrial Pensions Trust Company (IPTC) have launched a significant partnership with the goal of offering affordable, flexible, and sustainable retirement planning products through the Nkɔsoɔ Pensions and Welfare Scheme for smallholder farmers. This momentous occasion took place at the PFAG pre-season durbar and inaugural Peasant Farmers Day Celebration held in Navrongo, Ghana, on April 25, 2024. Themed ‘Deepening the Role of Smallholder Farmers in Promoting Food and Nutrition Security in the...

May 10, 2024
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April 2024
12Apr

Latent Cumulative Disadvantage: US Immigrants’ Reversed Economic Assimilation in Later Life

By Leafia Z Ye One of the most salient findings in research on immigration has been that immigrants experience substantial economic mobility as they accumulate more years in the host-society labor force and eventually approach earnings parity with their native-born counterparts. However, we do not know whether this progress is sustained in retirement. In this paper, I develop a framework of Latent Cumulative (Dis)advantage and hypothesize that even as immigrants are approaching parity with the native-born in terms of current...

April 12, 2024
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01Apr

Kenya. Treasury to spend Sh255 million on increasing pension coverage

The Treasury has lined up a series of reforms to the country’s retirement benefits policy to boost access for informal, diaspora, and short-term workers, which are set to cost up to Sh255 million by December next year. In Kenya, an estimated 3.5 million people, or 25 percent of the workforce, are covered by retirement benefit schemes, according to the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), meaning the majority of Kenyans will retire poor. The new measures outlined in the newly published National...

April 1, 2024
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March 2024
26Mar

What we must do to expand pension coverage in Kenya

By SIMON WAFUBWA   Significant progress in the pension sector has been made in the past two decades and we continue to see growth every year. According to the Retirement Benefits Authority, Kenya’s Pension Assets stood at Sh1.7 trillion by the end of June 2023. This marked an 8.1 percent growth compared to Sh1.5 trillion the previous year. However, as a country, we still have certain challenges to overcome to ensure the financial security of the entire population during their retirement years. The...

March 26, 2024
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