The Role of Law in the Development of Working Poverty: A Comparison between Chile and Spain

Within a segmented labor market, we find a group of workers in the secondary segment whose income does not allow them to support their families. This is a constant circumstance around the world, exceptionally remitted during the Fordist era in industrial capitalist economies. However, incorporation of vast contingents of workers into global chains of production, technological changes, growing circulation of financial capital with its constant crises and the implementation of labor flexibility have reconfigured inequality at work. In this way, working poverty reemerges in contexts that had already been forgotten and it’s transformed in contexts in which it had never disappeared.

This research seeks to specifically understand the role of law in the implementation of the neoliberal project and its role in the resurgence and transformation of working poverty. This research introduces the labor trajectories approach, in a comparative perspective, to understand the influences of law in the conformation of working poverty. The qualitative material gives us concrete background on how the law has allowed the implementation of neoliberal policies that have meant an intense precariousness of the working conditions of this group of workers. Findings show, for both cases, the relevance of employment conditions in the formation of a heterogeneity of labor trajectories. For the Spanish case we have identified, a previously protected trajectory, a continuous semi protected, a discontinuous semi protected and an informal trajectory. For the Chilean case we have identified a semi protected, an unprotected continuous, an unprotected discontinuous and an informal trajectory. Labor trajectories have allowed us to understand the role of law in the implementation of neoliberal politics over time and the impact of labor precariousness on workers’ wellbeing.

If posible I would like to present this proposal as a paper