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Segmentation in the Informal LabourMarket 19Available evidence suggests that there is markedsegmentation within informal labour marketsin terms of average earnings across the differentemployment statuses. Specifically, informalemployers have the highest earnings on average;followed by their employees and informal employeesof formal firms; then own account operatorsfollowed by casual wage workers, and industrialoutworkers: see Figure 1. An inverse hierarchy isobserved for the risk of being from a poor household:employers are least likely to be from poorhouseholds and, especially if they are the primarybreadwinners, industrial outworkers are the mostlikely to be from poor households.In Tunisia, for example, informal employers earnfour times the minimum wage and over two times(2.2) the formal wage. Their employees earnroughly the minimum wage, while industrial outworkers— mostly women home-workers — earnless than one-third (30 percent) of the minimumwage. In Columbia and India, informal employersearn four-to-five times the minimum wage, whileown account operators earn only one-and-a-halftimes the minimum wage. 20Research findings suggest that it is difficult tomove up these segments due to structural barriers(state, market, and social) and/or cumulativedisadvantages. Many workers, especially women,remain trapped in the lower-earning and morerisky segments.Figure 1 Segmentation of the Informal Economy: By Sex, Average Earnings and Poverty RiskPoverty RiskAverage EarningsSegmentation by SexLOWHIGHEmployersPredominantly MenInformal EmployeesOwn Account OperatorsMen and WomenCasual Day LabourersUnpaid Family WorkersPredominantlyWomenNote: The informal economy may also be segmented by race, ethnicity, caste or religion.Source: Chen et al 2004, 2005.140