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Minding The Gap Between BRAZILIAN EMPLOYEES & BRAZILIAN EMPLOYERS
by Luisa de Azevedo & Adriana Fontes | by Danielle Carusi Machado & Cecilia Moreira Borges

December 2010—For Brazil’s labor force, the Brazilian economy is a mixture of security and insecurity. While employers across sectors provide security in the form of salary supplements, nearly a third of Brazilian workers still experience wage discrimination as well as great insecurity from the country’s informal, unregulated economy.

BRAZILIAN EMPLOYEES BRAZILIAN EMPLOYERS
As risky as the informal economy may be, low-educated Brazilians may see it as the only means of overcoming widespread wage differences.  Inequalities in wage include:
  • Earnings of employees without any formal instruction are 13% below the minimum wage;
  • Even employees that have completed secondary education still earn less than the Brazilian minimum wage, on average;
Supplements from employers across industry sectors provide security for Brazilian workers.  Supplements include:
  • Employers in Domestic Services and Public Services offer the most housing supplements—8.4% and 4.9% respectively;
  • Employers in Transport, Storage, and Communications offer the most food supplements—57%—followed by Accommodations and Foodservices—54.6%.
Currently Brazilian youth are the most vulnerable to the informal economy, with rates of unemployment much higher compared to the entire population--21% for those between the ages of 15-24, compared to 7.2% for adults aged 25-49, and 3.9% for adults aged 50+. Over the past decade the Brazilian government has created policies focused on the employment of youth, particularly those whose family income is less than half the minimum wage per capita.

Read more findings from Mind the Gap: Brazil Employers

Read more findings from Mind the Gap: Brazil Employees

Read more findings from Brazil: Public Policy

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