Temporary employment and its impact on wages in Latin America

espanolAmerica Latina ha experimentado un proceso de mejora significativa en el mercado laboral durante el nuevo milenio. A pesar de tales avances, dichos paises continuan sufriendo importantes deficits en sus mercados laborales. La alta incidencia de la informalidad se convierte en una fuente de bajos salarios y falta de beneficios de Seguridad Social. Incluso dentro del empleo formal, la prevalencia significativa de los contratos no permanentes a menudo conduce a consecuencias similares a las de las ocupaciones informales. En este documento se analizan los contratos de duracion determinada en ocho paises de America Latina: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay y Peru. Nuestro objetivo estriba en estimar la incidencia, evolucion y caracteristicas de dicho fenomeno y evaluar en que medida el empleo temporal genera brechas salariales. Las tecnicas econometricas se utilizan para estimar no solo la brecha salarial promedio entre estos dos grupos de trabajadores sino tambien la penalidad experimentada por los trabajadores temporales ubicados en diferentes puntos de la distribucion salarial. EnglishLatin America has experienced a process of significant improvement in the labour market during the new millennium. In spite of these advances, these countries continue to suffer from remarkable deficits in their labour markets. The high incidence of informality becomes a source of low wages and lack of social security benefits. Even within formal employment, the significant prevalence of non-permanent contracts frequently leads to consequences similar to those of informal occupations. This paper analyses fixed-term contracts in eight Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. We aim at estimating the incidence, evolution and characteristics of this phenomenon and assessing to what extent temporary employment generates wage gaps. Econometric techniques are used in order to estimate not only the average wage gap between these two groups of workers but also the penalty suffered by temporary workers located at different points of the wage distribution.