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Informal employment and the earnings of home‐based home care workers in the United States
Author(s) -
Kim Jeounghee
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/irj.12299
Subject(s) - earnings , current population survey , enforcement , agency (philosophy) , labour economics , business , social security , wage , demographic economics , population , economics , political science , medicine , finance , sociology , market economy , social science , environmental health , law
Informal employment continues to exist in parallel with formal employment among the US home‐based home care workers and undermines the workers' economic security. This study examines the extent to which the earnings of the US home‐based home care workers are affected by informal employment arrangements and state labour policies designed to benefit low‐wage home care workers. Using a sample of 1,318 home‐based home care workers from the 2017 and 2018 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, this study found that (i) informally employed home‐based home care workers had a 9% reduction in annual earnings and that (ii) their earnings were not improved by generous state minimum wages and Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights while the earnings of agency employees were. The findings highlight the importance of strong enforcement of labour standards for informally employed home care workers in the United States.