title: Six employment conditions and health inequalities: a descriptive overview.
abstract: Standard full-time permanent employment-providing a minimal degree of stability, income sustainability, workers' empowerment, and social protection-has declined in the high-income countries, while it was never the norm in the rest of the world. Consequently, work is increasingly affecting population health and health inequalities, not only as a consequence of harmful working conditions, but also because of employment conditions. Nevertheless, the health consequences of employment conditions are largely neglected in research. The authors describe five types of employment conditions that deviate from standard full-time permanent employment--precarious employment, unemployment, informal employment, forced employment or slavery, and child labor--and their health consequences, from a worldwide perspective. Despite obvious problems of measurement and international comparability, the findings show that, certainly in the low-income countries, these conditions are largely situated in informality, denying any possible standard of safety, protection, sustainability, and workers' rights. Considerable numbers of the world's working people are affected in geographically and socioeconomically unequal ways. This clearly relates nonstandard employment conditions to health equity consequences. In the future, governments and health agencies should establish more adequate surveillance systems, research programs, and policy awareness regarding the health effects of these nonstandard employment conditions.
authors.affiliation: Health Inequalities Research Group, Employment Conditions Network, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. joan.benach@upf.edu
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benach
authors.forename: Orielle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Solar
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vergara
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vanroelen
authors.forename: Vilma
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.forename: Antía
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Castedo
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Muntaner
mesh_terms: D004651:Employment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014943:Global Health; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D016272:Occupational Health; D011640:Public Policy; D012931:Social Environment; D012940:Social Problems; D017132:Workplace / Q000458:organization & administration*