Economics

Pay Cuts of 36% Show Latin America’s Economies Faltering

  • Millions of informal jobs threaten to swamp regional recovery
  • Work ‘in the black,’ without unions, stability and dignity
Informal workers took a pay cut four times the average of Argentines in the formal economy.Photographer: Erica Canepa/Bloomberg
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Of all the numbers that lay bare the pandemic plight of blue-collar workers, few are as jarring as the pay cut suffered by the millions of Argentines who toil in off-the-book jobs.

The decline for people like waiters, construction workers and candy-vendors was 36% on average last year, considering inflation. That staggering number is almost four times the average pay cut that Argentines in the formal economy had to absorb.