Employmentweb_low

eMployMent relations and health inequalities: pathways and MechanisMs
pressure and job autonomy. furthermore, in a study conducted in
london, no differences in physical and mental health, assessed through
depression, anxiety and visits to a general practitioner over a one year
period, were found for self-employed workers (Parslow, Jorm,
christensen, Jacomb, & rogers, 2004). other reported psychosocial
stressors in informal workplaces are violence, sexual abuse (oliveira,
2006) and discrimination (iriart et al., 2006), which have been reported
for female domestic workers (oliveira, 2006; sales & santana, 2003)
and construction workers (iriart et al., 2006). Most women engaged in
weaving with informal jobs in Thailand reported stress as a result of
pressures to maintain the quality of products, the tight time schedule
and monetary debts related to their jobs (nilvarangkul et al., 2006). in
south africa, approximately 25 per cent of women street vendors
reported an experience of abuse, either physical or verbal, and 29 per
cent reported having been robbed at work (Pick, ross, & dada, 2002).
one explanation for these inconsistencies is that the category of “selfemployed”
is very heterogeneous in wealthy countries such as the us,
where it captures both professionals and low-skilled workers
(Muntaner, hadden, & Kravets, 2004). however, it must be reiterated
that, even in wealthy countries, self-employment status implies selfresponsibility
for safety precautions, which in the context of manual
jobs can result in lower compliance and higher risk of occupational
injuries and diseases (Mirabelli et al., 2007). currently, in the us the
injury rate among self-employed workers is double the national
average (cummings & Kreiss, 2008).
informal jobs have also been examined in terms of nutritionrelated
outcomes. Though poverty is correlated with poor nutrition,
the relationship becomes more complex when employment status is
taken into account. for instance, data from the cebu longitudinal
study from the Philippines showed that low-income women in
informal jobs consumed more calories, protein and iron through
commercial sources than those in the informal economy’s upper
income group. also, lactating women were more often engaged in
breastfeeding when in the informal economy (Bisgrove & Popkin,
1996). however, hernández et al. (1996) analysed street vendor
mothers from Mexico city to identify health outcomes related to
child care practices. Because access to child care was limited,
women left their children at home, usually under the supervision of
other older children, or they brought them to their workplaces.
Without adequate supervision, children who stayed in their mothers’
workplaces had an increased proportion of gastrointestinal diseases
and injuries than the corresponding prevalence estimated for the
overall population.
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