The labor market and poverty in Colombia

EL MERCADO DE TRABAJO Y LA POBREZA EN COLOMBIA

The Colombian labor market will always be questioned for different reasons. Despite continuous flexibilization with different labor reforms, there are groups that demand even more flexibilization. They question minimum wage payments and social security, even though flexibilization is the cause of widespread labor precariousness and the increase in informal labor. The objective of this paper is multiple: first, it shows that the prevailing labor market view ascribes to mainstream economics; second, it shows that the target of further flexibilization is the formal workers who persist in the economy; third, it shows that a threemember household with only one income earner who is formalized and earns a minimum wage, leaves all members of that household below the poverty line.
This is a type of explanatory, correlational and comparative study with qualitative and quantitative methods, which obtained information through the technique of documentary review of secondary sources; for this purpose, the average minimum wages in China were compared with those in Colombia, finding that there is no relationship between growth and the increase in wages, and that when an economy develops, wages move in the same direction. It is concluded that: a) the objective of labor reforms are workers who still enjoy some degree of formality; b) any employment policy aimed at further flexibilizing the labor market is focused
on modifying the working conditions of employed people who earn a minimum wage or more, undermining income and making work precarious; c) the working conditions of informal workers cannot be further worsened.

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