Labor markets and informal work in the global south

In the Global South, women in informal work tend to be unpaid family workers, rather than informal employees, employers and own account workers. Extensive scholarship has aimed to explain the characteristics, causes and consequences of informality in global labor markets. This chapter reviews the feminist scholarship that examines the trends in informal employment worldwide, the factors that contribute to women’s informal employment, and the impact of informal employment on women’s and men’s well-being. It provides a discussion of policies that address the decent work deficit, particularly for women. Gender income inequality increases informality through limited access to credit, since a large number of the individuals facing these restrictions will choose the informal sector as they are not able to afford the high fixed costs of credit in the formal sector. In 2016–17, a growing number of economies in the Global South have implemented employment policies and measures based on both gender equality principles and formalization of the informal economy.