After a remarkably fast recovery from the global pandemic, economic growth slowed down substantially to 0.6% in 2023. The slowdown is slowly passing through to the labour market, with the unemployment rate rising to two digits at the beginning of 2024 (10.6% for the three‑month period November 2023‑January 2024). High interest rates and policy uncertainty are weighing on domestic demand, and both consumer and business confidence remain relatively weak. Nevertheless, headline inflation has started to fall, and growth is expected to pick up again in 2025 (OECD, 2023[2]).
OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Colombia 2024
OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies
1. Labour informality and subcontracting
The economic context in Colombia
Figure 1.1. Multidimensional poverty declined over the past decade, but not extreme poverty
Monetary poverty, extreme monetary poverty, and multidimensional poverty in Colombia, 2012‑22
Note: Colombia’s Statistical Office, DANE, distinguishes between municipal capitals, populated centres in rural areas, and dispersed rural areas. “Rural areas” in the figures cover both the populated centres in rural areas and the dispersed rural areas. Monetary poverty and extreme monetary poverty represent the percentage of the Colombian population whose per capita household income is below the (extreme) poverty line. Multidimensional poverty evaluates the satisfaction (or non-deprivation) that an individual has with respect to certain characteristics that are considered vital, such as educational conditions of the household, conditions of childhood and youth, health, work, access to public services at home, and housing conditions. The five dimensions of the index include 15 indicators. Households are considered multidimensionally poor when they are deprived in at least 33% of the indicators. A weighting of each indicator is taken into account.
Source: Colombia’s Statistical Office, DANE.
Over the past decade, Colombia experienced a considerable reduction in multidimensional poverty, reaching 12.9% in 2022 in the country overall and 27.3% in rural areas (Figure 1.1, Panel A). Despite a significant policy response to cushion the economic effects of the global pandemic (OECD, 2022[1]), there was a temporary setback. In 2021, multidimensional poverty started to decrease again. For other poverty measures, like monetary and extreme monetary poverty, the impact of the pandemic has been stronger and is lasting longer. Monetary poverty in 2022 was still higher than in 2019, at 36.6% of the total population and 45.9% in populated and rural areas (Figure 1.1, Panel B). In 2022, extreme monetary poverty was even at its highest point in the past decade, affecting 13.8% of the population (Figure 1.1, Panel C).
Labour market reform proposal
One of the priorities of the Colombian Government during this presidential term (2022‑26) is to promote significant social transformations within the country. Currently, the government is advocating for three reforms in Congress, aiming to modify the healthcare and pension systems, along with major changes in labour market regulations. Focusing on the latter, the primary aim of the labour market reform is to foster decent work and strengthen guarantees of job stability and formal employment with social justice.
The labour market reform identified four main challenges to address:
Labour flexibilisation and labour precariousness. Among other measures, the reform proposal includes provisions to tackle informality and subcontracting, and limit labour intermediation. It reassesses the compensation for unjustified dismissals, night shift bonuses, and bonuses for work on Sundays and holidays. It also proposes to expand labour protection of apprenticeship contracts.
New forms of employment contracts. The reform proposes to create a legal framework for labour contracts for workers in digital platforms, remote workers, agricultural workers, professional athletes, arts and culture workers, migrant workers, and for green and blue jobs.
Historic weakening of trade unions and their collective bargaining capacity. The reform proposal contains a series of provisions to strengthen the legal framework for collective bargaining, to recognise the right to strike, and to improve social dialogue.
Inequalities. The reform proposes provisions to address gender gaps, unpaid domestic work, violence, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace, and to promote a social inclusion approach for people with disabilities.
The initial version of the labour market reform was presented by the government in March 2023 but was archived in June 2023 due to the absence of the required quorum in Congress for its discussion. Subsequently, the government submitted a second version of the reform in August 2023. The Seventh Commission of the Chamber of Representatives, responsible for labour issues, appointed a group of Congress members to review the government proposal, which delivered a favourable assessment of the labour reform in November 2023 and prepared an updated version for discussion.1 Sixteen articles were approved in the first debate in the Commission.2 However, to continue the legislative process during the second half of the year, the entire reform should be approved by the Commission before 20 June 2024. After that, three more debates are required to finalise the discussion on the labour market reform in Congress: one in the plenary session of the Chamber of Representatives, one in the Commission of the Senate, and one in the plenary session of the Senate. The most contentious issues appear to be around social dialogue and collective bargaining, such as modifications to the right to strike and the introduction of a framework for sectoral bargaining.
The purpose of this report is not to evaluate in full the labour market reform proposal that is currently under discussion in Colombia. Instead, this report is prepared in the context of Colombia’s post-accession process, where the Secretariat monitors progress in four areas for which the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee (ELSAC) requested further efforts from the Colombian Government (OECD, 2018[3]). These four areas are: 1) labour informality and subcontracting; 2) labour law enforcement; 3) collective bargaining; and 4) crimes against trade unionists. As such, this report evaluates to what extent the labour market reform proposal contains provisions that improve alignment with Colombia’s commitments to the OECD.
Recommendations in the Formal Opinion of ELSAC
The OECD accession review of labour market, social and migration policies in Colombia (OECD, 2016[4]) noted that profound dualism in the labour market resulting from widespread informality and a strong reliance of non-regular employment contracts created large economic and social costs. The Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee of the OECD made a series of recommendations in its 2018 Formal Opinion on Colombia’s accession to the OECD to tackle labour informality and protect the labour rights of subcontracted workers; see Box 1.1.
Box 1.1. Recommendations to tackle labour informality and misuse of subcontracting
Continue tackling labour informality by:
Implementing a one‑stop-shop for the registration of companies that unifies procedures for the registration of new companies (Ventanilla Única Empresarial);
Designing and implementing a single affiliation system for the different social security systems (including health, pensions, family subsidies and accident insurance);
Improving the link between what workers and employers are required to contribute to social insurance and the benefits and services they receive in return;
Launching a citizen awareness programme, especially in rural areas, on the importance of formal employment, benefits of social insurance and workers’ rights.
Protect labour rights of subcontracted workers by:
Strengthening the legal framework, as appropriate, to prohibit all forms of abusive subcontracting, including through the use of co‑operatives, union service contracts and simplified stock companies;
Ensuring investigations of all abusive subcontracting, especially in rural areas, and publishing on an ongoing basis notifications of complaints, investigations, and outcomes;
Resolving existing investigations regarding abusive subcontracting in a timely manner, imposing fines where appropriate and publishing the results on an ongoing basis;
Collecting all outstanding fines for subcontracting violations within the legally mandated time frames;
Requiring firms to formalise employees working under abusive subcontracting through regular employment contracts that provide access to all basic labour rights.
Source: OECD (2018[3]), Accession of Colombia to the OECD: Formal Opinion of the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee, unpublished report.
Recent trends in informality
Labour informality in Colombia, when measured as the share of workers who are not contributing to the pension system, has decreased considerably over the past decade (Figure 1.2, Panel A). As a result of improved education, a reduction in non-wage labour costs, and a series of measures to facilitate the formalisation of workers and companies, informality declined from about 70% at the beginning of the 2010s to 57.8% in the last quarter of 2023.3 Informality in rural areas has also declined, though at a much slower pace, and remains very high, reaching 84.7% of rural employment at the end of 2023 (Figure 1.2, Panel A). According to the OECD Latin American Economic Outlook 2023, more than 50% of Colombia’s population lives in a household that depends solely on informal employment while 30% lives in completely formal households, the rest in mixed households (OECD et al., 2023[5]). Overall, Colombia’s informality rate remains higher than in many other large countries in the region, where on average 49.4% of workers are not contributing to the pension system, leaving only Peru behind (Figure 1.2, Panel B).
Figure 1.2. Labour informality in Colombia decreased considerably over the past decade
Labour informality in Colombia for the period 2008‑23 and latest year available for selected OECD countries
Note: Informality is defined as the percentage of workers not contributing to the pension system. Panel A: Data from April to August 2020 are missing because of the pandemic, as some questions were not asked in household surveys during this period. Panel B: LAC represents Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru.
Source: OECD calculations based on the Integrated Household Survey (Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares, GEIH) of Colombia’s Statistical Office (DANE) for Panel A and ILOSTAT for Panel B.
Labour market reform and other proposals
A key element in the debates around the currently proposed labour market reform is its potential impact on labour informality. On the one hand, a study by the Central Bank of Colombia (2023[6]) on the first version of the reform proposal (submitted in March 2023 and archived in June 2023, see Chapter 1) argued that the labour reform would lead to an increase in labour costs by 3.2% to 10.7% through a rise in wage costs and an additional 1.2% to 1.9% due to higher severance payments.4 According to a paper by Fedesarrollo, an independent research institute in Colombia, (the first version of) the reform would raise non-wage labour costs by 4 percentage points, increasing labour informality by up to 2.1 percentage points (Mejia, 2023[7]). On the other hand, Amodio and Roux (2023[8]) provide evidence of labour market power among Colombian manufacturers, suggesting that there might be room to absorb an increase in labour costs.
Notwithstanding these discussions, some of the elements in the labour reform that would directly increase the cost of labour did not generate major controversy and have already been accepted in the first debate of the Seventh Commission of the Chamber of Representatives. One of these articles brings forward the start of the night shift from 9pm to 7pm while another article raises the extra payment for work on Sundays and public holidays from 75% to 100% by 2026. These changes overturn partially changes that were put in place during a labour reform in 2002 (Observatorio del Mercado de Trabajo y la Seguridad Social, 2004[9]). In 2022, the government also introduced a new law that will gradually reduce the weekly working hours from 48 hours in 2022 to 42 hours by 2026, a change that will bring Colombia closer to OECD standards, where three-quarter of the countries have a working week of 40 hours or less (OECD, 2021[10]).
The labour market reform proposes a series of articles to facilitate the formalisation of small businesses and certain occupations. For instance, the proposal would allow small businesses to contribute to social security on a part-time basis (which is not possible currently) and improve their access to credit. The reform also defines a new agricultural labour contract and daily salary for agricultural workers that would not only include a payment for daily work but also social benefits (e.g. a Christmas bonus and transport subsidy) and contributions to the pension system. For delivery app workers, the reform proposes, among other things, a fixed division of social security contributions between firms (60%) and workers (40%).
In addition to the labour market reform, the current government in Colombia places a strong focus on the so-called “Economía Popular”, which encompasses a diverse array of grassroot economic organisations, both individual and communal, often informal and relying on kinship and neighbourhood networks. Authorities recognise the persistence and significance of these economic structures, which have often developed over decades of violent conflict with limited state presence. The National Planning Department is working on an Action Plan that will outline the measures to be taken by Ministries and agencies to strengthen the “Economía Popular” and promote their growth and (partial) formalisation; this Plan is expected to be released by the end of 2024. Conceptually, the “Economía Popular” project is seen as an extension of the commitments agreed upon Colombia’s Peace Agreement, which aims to promote the social and solidarity economy as a tool for reintegration and peacebuilding (Government of Colombia, 2016[11]).
To better support the part of the population not covered by pension insurance, the Government of Colombia developed a pension reform proposal with the aim of extending coverage of the pension system to all workers and enabling everyone to contribute according to their capacity to pay contributions. The reform would end the dual system of the co‑existing public and private pension systems, which has been found to be inefficient and overly costly, and merge the defined-benefit system and the individual pension accounts in one system.
The new pension system would consist of four different tiers:
Solidarity pensions for low-income individuals aged 65 or older with little to no accrued pension rights. These benefits would be equal to the “extreme poverty line” (as published by the National Statistics Office), currently estimated to be around COP 223 000 per month, almost three times higher than the current solidarity pension of COP 80 000 per month (around EUR 18.79).
Semi-contributory pensions for individuals who have contributed between 300 and 1 000 weeks but who do not have the minimum 1 300 weeks’ insured employment to retire at normal retirement age (62 for men/57 for women); they would be able to claim partial contributory benefits, possibly supplemented by solidarity pension benefits.
Contributory pensions: Employees would contribute to a state pension fund on earnings up to three times the monthly minimum wage and contribute on earnings above this threshold (if any) to individual defined contribution accounts managed by private pension funds. Benefits would be combined as a single pension at retirement. Normal retirement age and most existing eligibility requirements would not change except for shorter contribution periods required for women with children. Employer and employee contribution rates on earnings up to four times the monthly minimum wage would not change from current rates (12% for employers and 4% for employees), but the employee contribution rate on earnings in excess (if any) would increase from 6% to 7% on pay up to 25 times the monthly minimum wage (the current earnings ceiling) to fund the solidarity pension.
Voluntary pensions: Optional individual or collective savings plans would be introduced to complement the public pension.
Individuals with 1 000 or more weeks of insured employment would continue to receive a pension based on the existing dual pension system. Death and long-term disability pensions would be largely unchanged in terms of eligibility and benefits provided. The government is also developing legislation in response to a recent Constitutional Court ruling that the requirement for women to have 1 300 of weeks of insured employment (the same as men) in order to claim a defined-benefit pension is a form of indirect discrimination.
Other measures to strengthen the formalisation of workers that had already been initiated by previous governments remain in place, some of which have been further strengthened:
The one‑stop-shop called “Ventanilla Única Empresarial” (VUE) (Decree 1875 of 2017) has been operational since 2018. The VUE integrates tax, commercial and social security administrative procedures to facilitate company openings. Currently, it integrates 35 procedures, including the insurance of workers in health and occupational risks, and the affiliation and registration in Family Compensation Funds and Pensions. By January 2024, the VUE reached its goal to link with 57 chambers of commerce in 72 cities and municipalities. Since the introduction of the one‑stop-shop, nearly 245 000 new companies have been created through the VUE platform.
The single Transactional Affiliation System (SAT) (Decree 780 of 2016) aims to digitalise and integrate all social security subsystems. The SAT system was launched in March 2020 and will eventually connect with the VUE. Currently, the social security procedures related to health, labour risks and family subsidies are available through the platform, as well as the procedure to change pension administrator. By January 2022, the SAT system had around 4.9 million users, which is over half the 9 million workers who are actively affiliated to Social Security. While the SAT system is a key tool to facilitate administrative procedures, it has not increased social security affiliation overall.
A National Network for Labour Formalisation (RNFL) was established to promote the advantages of formalisation. In line with the commitments made in the Final Peace Agreement, the Ministry of Labour also implemented a Rural Progressive Plan to train agricultural workers and companies in matters of fundamental labour rights and obligations in 171 municipalities prioritised by the national government under the PDET (Programas de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial).5 By the end of 2021, training had been organised in three‑quarters of all priority municipalities (131 out of 171 municipalities).
Despite the apparent effectiveness of the Labour Formalisation Agreement programme in formalising workers, the agreements have been less used in recent years. While close to 10 000 workers were formalised through the Labour Formalisation Agreement programme in the mid‑2010s, the numbers decreased to an average of 2 800 workers per year between 2017 and 2021, and barely 1 290 workers in 2023. The number of compliance visits remained stable, however, at 224 visits in 2023, similar to the number of visits during the period 2017‑21 (200 visits on average).
Finally, hiring subsidies to promote formal employment creation introduced during the pandemic have been extended, though careful attention should be paid to possible deadweight losses. Companies can receive monthly subsidies for maximum 12 months equal to 25% of the minimum wage for the creation of a new job for young workers between 18 and 28 years; 15% for female workers over 28 years old earning less than three times the minimum wage; and 10% for male workers over 28 years old earning less than three times the minimum wage. Only new contracts of minimum six months qualify for subsidies. However, international evidence has shown that general hiring subsidies can generate considerable deadweight losses, which arise when subsidies support the hiring of workers that would have been hired even without the subsidy (OECD, 2021[10]). To minimise costs, hiring subsidies should therefore only be used in the case of temporary weak demand (like during the pandemic) or targeted at more disadvantaged groups (for instance, for people with disabilities, as the Colombian Government is currently considering). Evidence from Chile and Türkiye shows that targeted employment subsidies (e.g. women of the 40% most vulnerable population, young people, or small companies) have been successful in reducing informality (Aşık et al., 2022[12]; SENCE, 2022[13]; SENCE, 2022[14]).
Recent trends in subcontracting
As discussed in OECD reports, there is a tendency among employers in Colombia to rely on contracts regulated under civil-law provisions for their employment relations, such as dependent self-employment and third-party contracting through associated work co‑operatives, simplified joint stock companies and union service contracts. These different forms of contracts have in common that the workers involved do not benefit from the rights stipulated in the labour code (such as minimum wage, hiring and firing rules, affiliation to trade union, and collective bargaining rights and social security rights), even though working conditions are often similar to those of regular employees.
Thanks to an improved legal framework and clear guidelines for labour inspectors, the number of associated work co‑operatives has been brought down successfully in the past decade. However, the persistent misuse of other types of civil law contracts remains problematic in Colombia (OECD, 2022[15]). Also in the public sector, service contracts are frequently used for regular labour relations, in particular in the health sector. In contrast, temporary agency work in Colombia is strictly regulated.
Civil-law contracts for labour relations
The number of associated work co‑operatives drastically declined over the past decade, as a result of an improved legal framework and clear guidelines for labour inspectors (OECD, 2022[15]). From over 2000 new associated work co‑operatives per year in 2010, the number of registrations declined to 200‑300 per year over the last five years (Figure 1.3). Estimates provided by the Ministry of Labour suggest that the total number of workers covered by such contracts dropped from more than 600 000 in 2010 to 36 000 in the first half of 2023.
A recent OECD paper discusses how associated work co‑operatives could potentially offer a model for informal workers to transit towards formalisation, on the condition that co‑operatives are used for their main purpose, i.e. non-profit ventures owned and managed by workers who united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise (OECD, 2022[15]). Building on the experience of other developing countries, co‑operatives could provide an opportunity for informal workers to organise and formalise their activity and integrate into formal value chains. To unleash the full potential of co‑operatives, the sector could benefit from a stronger focus on capacity building and provide access to training and education for groups in vulnerable situations in particular. However, the misuse of this legal entity in the past in Colombia calls for very close attention to compliance with the legal framework and a better collection of data, including on their registration in the social security system and/or contribution to the pension system.
Union service contracts (contratos sindicales) are another type of civil-law contracts that are frequently used in Colombia. Under these contracts, trade unions agree to supply their members’ labour to employers for certain activities. While in theory these contracts allow unions to ensure good working conditions for their members, they are misused to circumvent the labour law (OECD, 2016[4]). Nearly non-existent in 2010, an average of 2 600 new union service contracts per year were signed over the period 2021‑23 (Figure 1.3). According to data provided by the Ministry of Labour, 332 000 workers were covered by such contracts in 2021, with 99% of the contracts signed in the health sector.
The labour market reform proposed by the current government includes a provision to ban the union service contracts, in line with the recommendations in the Formal Opinion of ELSAC (OECD, 2018[3]), as well as those of other international stakeholders, including the Government of Canada (Employment and Social Development Canada, 2018[16]) and the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2021[17]). Existing union contracts can remain in place, but their members are encouraged to switch to regular employment contracts.
Figure 1.3. The use of union service contracts has seen rapid growth over the past decade
Number of newly registered associated work co‑operatives and new union service contracts, and number of workers in temporary work agencies, 2010‑23
Note: Data for 2023 in Panel B represent the average of the first three trimesters of the year.
Source: Data provided by the Ministry of Labour based on data from the Superintendency of the Solidarity Economy and the Ministry’s Directorate of Inspection, Surveillance and Control (Panel A) and ACOSET, the Colombian Association of Temporary Work Agencies, taken from www.acoset.org/informe-estadistico (Panel B).
Administrative law contracts in the public sector
The first OECD post-accession review of Colombia noted a persistent misuse of administrative law contracts (contrato de prestación de servicios) for regular labour relations in the public sector (OECD, 2022[15]). Over the years, the issue has been recognised and there have been many promises to limit the use of such contracts. However, little has changed so far. For instance, all collective agreements signed with the public sector since 2013 include a commitment to reduce the misuse of this type of contracts and the Council of State established rules in 2021 to identify when the contracts for the provision of services are covering real labour relations (Council of State, 2021[18]). However, the number of off-payroll staff in national and local governments increased from 190 000 in the mid‑2010s to 393 000 by the early 2020s, representing 31% of the total number of public sector workers (Procuraduría General de la Nación, 2021[19]).
The current government issued additional decisions and guidelines to limit the use of such contracts in public entities to cases where the workload exceeds the capacity of the institution’s staff, with a requirement for justification of the need. However, these are only administrative regulations, and their effectiveness in reducing the use of administrative law contracts in the public sector remains to be seen.
The role of temporary work agencies
Temporary work agencies (TWA) in Colombia are heavily regulated since the 1990s, stricter than in any OECD country except for Türkiye (OECD, 2016[4]). Employment through TWA is a specific type of contractual relationship in which workers are hired by an agency and temporarily assigned for work into a user firm, typically to perform temporary tasks outside the core business of the user firm or to enable the user firm to cope with short-term increases in the workload.
To limit potential misuse of subcontracting through TWA, the Colombian law determines: 1) the type of work for which TWA employment is legal is severely restricted; 2) the maximum cumulated duration of assignments is limited to only 30 days for occasional services and six months renewable once for production increases; 3) temporary work agencies have authorisation, registration and reporting obligations to the Ministry of Labour; and 4) the law requires equal treatment, including remuneration, of agency workers and regular workers at the user firm. The labour market reform proposes to restrict the use of TWA employment in Colombia even further, which would affect the sector greatly.
The number of workers hired by TWAs in Colombia fluctuates over the years but reached around 450 000 workers in 2023 (Figure 1.3, Panel B), accounting for about 2% of the total workforce. While no recent estimates are available, half of all TWA employees in Colombia had a permanent contract with a temporary work agency in the early 2010s (OECD, 2016[4]), in line with the situation in many European OECD countries at the time. Sectors using TWA employment most frequently in Colombia are the industrial and commercial sector, accounting together for more than half of all TWA employment in Colombia.
Conclusion
Colombia has made major progress over the past decade in lowering labour informality thanks to improved education, a reduction in non-wage labour costs, and a series of measures to facilitate the formalisation of workers and companies. However, informality remains high compared with other large countries in the region and additional efforts are needed to improve social security coverage among workers. As discussed in the 2022 OECD Economic Survey on Colombia (OECD, 2022[1]), a significant re‑design of Colombia’s social protection system could facilitate a reduction in the cost of formal employment and strengthen social protection for all.
The impact of the labour market reform proposal on informality is uncertain: while some stakeholders argue that informality will increase due to higher labour costs, others suggest that there might be room for employers to absorb an increase in costs. In the second version of the reform proposal, several provisions were therefore added to facilitate the formalisation of small businesses and certain occupations. In line with Colombia’s commitments to the OECD, the government included in the reform proposal a ban on new union service contracts (which undermine labour rights and access to social security of the workers involved) and continues strengthening the one‑stop shops that facilitate the registration of companies and workers. Generous hiring subsidies that were introduced during the pandemic to promote the creation of formal jobs were also extended. Nevertheless, careful attention should be paid to potential deadweight losses (which arise when subsidies support the hiring of workers that would have been hired even without the subsidy) and a more targeted use of subsidies for vulnerable groups should be considered.
Finally, the persistent misuse of administrative law contracts for regular labour relations remains problematic in Colombia, not only in the private sector but also in the public sector. While the number of associated work co‑operatives drastically declined over the past decade as a result of an improved legal framework and clear guidelines for labour inspectors, the number of union service contracts exploded and nearly a third of public sector workers have a service contract. As recommended in the Formal Opinion of ELSAC, a strengthening of the legal framework is necessary, to prohibit all forms of abusive subcontracting.
Notes
← 1. Available here: www.camara.gov.co/reforma-laboral-1
← 2. Art. 2 Relationships regulated by the Substantive Labour Code, Art. 3 Restriction of inapplicability, Art. 11 Publication of work regulations, Art. 15 Daytime and nighttime work, Art. 19 Remuneration for overtime work, Art. 21 Limits of subordination, Art. 23 Measures for the elimination of violence, harassment, and discrimination in the workplace, Art. 30 Social security and occupational hazards in digital delivery platforms, Art. 33 Quotas for apprentices in companies, Art. 37 Training programme for rural employment, Art. 42 Migrant workers, Art. 45 Participation for decent work in ethnic communities, Art. 56 Labour agreement programme for victims of armed conflict, Art. 57 Guidelines for Public Policy on Decent Work for a just transition and green and blue employment, Art. 58 Incentives for Green and Blue Employment, and Art. 59 Training for the promotion of green and blue jobs.
← 3. Colombia’s National Department of Statistics (DANE) reports a slightly lower rate, at 55.5% in the last quarter of 2023. DANE defines informally employed people as follows: all wage earners or domestic workers who do not contribute to the health or pension system. DANE’s definition includes own-account workers and employers who have been classified in the informal sector, as well as all unpaid family workers and other persons for whom there is insufficient information on their occupational status to be classified in the above categories. Government workers and employees are excluded.
← 4. The large range in the estimates is related to the uncertainty (at the time the report was published) about the start of the night shift and the additional remuneration that would be imposed on night work.
← 5. These municipalities are the territories most affected by the armed conflict, poverty, illicit economies, and institutional weakness.