Unpaid work and undeclared work in Spain

Abstract

Undeclared and unpaid work have considerable importance in Spain and so it is impossible to leave them out of any discussion of the structure and evolution of employment in Spain. This article provides an overview of both practices based on a number of studies undertaken in recent years. Almost the whole of unpaid work is to be found located in the family. It has been estimated that almost two thirds of the total work upon which the Spanish economy is based consists of unpaid domestic work, most of which is carried out by women. Nevertheless, voluntary unpaid work outside the family has been estimated as being equivalent to a quarter of a million full jobs. Finally, more than one in five in the working population in Spain are located in the ‘black’economy. The most common irregularity is for workers not to be declared to or covered by the social security system.