ABSTRACT

Given that 60 per cent of the global workforce has their main job in the informal sector, this chapter calls for employment relations scholarship to shift beyond differentiating the ER systems of countries by the character of their formal economies. To facilitate this, a ‘degrees of informalisation’ conceptual framework is outlined that evaluates the proportion of employment in the informal sector and the nature of the permeation of informality into employment relationships. How ER systems vary cross-nationally using this ‘degrees of informalisation’ approach is then mapped out, along with the theoretical implications and empirical gaps for future research to fill.