Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the Labour Rights Index?

The Labour Rights Index is a de jure index that measures the major aspects of employment regulation affecting a worker during the employment life cycle in 135 countries. It limits itself to the presence or absence of relevant labour legislation only.

Q: What is new in the 2022 edition of the Labour Rights Index?

It has 20 new countries, thus raising the number of countries to 135;It now includes more contextual indicators to help understand the scores in a country;It gives a complete legal basis for each component score, adding to the transparency on how each country was scored and rated;It shares relevant legislative trends since 2020, whether there has been a reform or if the legislation has remained the same;It showcases the covid-19 and labour market reforms with regard to paid sick leave, prohibition on dismissals, reduction or waiving off the social security contributions, etcIt illustrates the ratings in the form of regional maps as well.

Q: How is Labour Rights Index data collected?

The Labour Rights Index has 10 indicators and 46 components or evaluation criteria. The scoring is based on an analysis of thousands of pages of labour legislation. Instead of engaging outside experts, the work is done solely by the WageIndicator Labour Law Office, i.e., the Centre for Labour Research (Pakistan) with support from WageIndicator country teams.

Q: How are the Labour Rights Index questions chosen?

The Index looks at every aspect of the working lifespan of a worker and identifies the presence of labour rights, or the lack of it, in national legal systems worldwide. It covers 10 topics/indicators and 46 components/evaluation criteria. All of these are based on substantive elements of the Decent Work Agenda. All these are grounded in UDHR, five UN Conventions, five ILO Declarations, 35 ILO Conventions, and four ILO Recommendations.

Q: How are the questions scored?

The Labour Rights Index measures major aspects of employment regulation that affect a worker during the employment life cycle. The Index provides an overall score for each of the 135 countries covered. 46 data points are obtained across 10 indicators of four to five binary questions, where each indicator represents an aspect of work which is considered important for achieving decent work.The scores for each indicator are acquired by computing the unweighted average of the components under that indicator and measuring the result to 100. The final scores for the countries are then determined by taking each indicator's average, where 100 is the maximum score to achieve.Certain assumptions for scoring exist in the methodology. The following assumptions are used by the Labour Rights Index. The worker in question:Is skilled;Is a minimum wage worker;Resides in the economy's most populous province/state/area;Is a lawful citizen or a legal immigrant of the economy;Is a full-time employee with a permanent contract in a medium-sized enterprise with 60 employees;Has work experience of one year or more;Is assumed to be registered with the relevant social security institution and for a long enough time to accrue various monetary benefits (maternity, sickness, work injury, old age pension, survivors', and invalidity benefit); andIs assumed to have been working long enough to access leaves (maternity, paternity, paternal, sick, and annual leave) and various social benefits, including unemployment benefits

Q: How can Labour Rights Index findings be used?

The Labour Rights Index is essentially directed at governments and international organisations, targeting trade union federations, multilateral organisations and national level organisations like government agencies. It is aimed to be a tool for policymakers. However, most of all, the Index can be used by workers.National scores can be used as starting points of negotiations and reforms by the civil society organisations. Ratings can be made prerequisites for international socio-economic agreements to ensure compliance with labour standards, similar to EU's GSP+ and USA’s GSP which require compliance in law and practice with certain labour standards in order to avail certain trade benefits through reduced tariffs.The Labour Rights Index is also a useful benchmarking tool that can be used in stimulating policy debate as it can help in exposing challenges and identifying best practices. The Index provides meaningful input into policy discussions to improve labour market protections at the country level.The Labour Rights Index is a repository of 'objective and actionable' data on labour market regulation along with the best practices which can be used by the countries worldwide to initiate necessary reforms. The comparative tool can also be used by Labour Ministries for finding the best practices within their own regions and around the world.

Q: Does the study measure implementation?

Labour Rights Index is a de jure index and it measures presence or absence of relevant legislation only. While recognizing the existence of implementation gaps in legislative provisions, well-drafted and inclusive laws are still a precondition for attaining decent work. There is not a single country where workers have attained decent work without legislation. Implementation is critical; however, it is difficult to take a de facto approach and measure the labour rights situation across 135 economies and 46 evaluation criteria in a comparable and cost-effective way. The detailed country profiles provide a list of contextual indicators including but not limited to labour force, GDP per capita, share of informal employment in the country, trade union density, work injuries, etc. to contextualise the scores given to a country. The scores must be interpreted and seen together with this contextual information.

Q: Does the Labour Rights Index include information affecting workers in the informal sector?

The Index is based on labour legislation which applies to the formal economy in the private sector. Despite the fact that more than 60 percent of the global workforce is in need of transitioning from informal to the formal economy, focusing on the labour laws affecting the formal sector retains attention on the sector since the labour laws in the formal economy are more applicable and that is the ultimate goal. Focusing on the formal economy and its applicable legislation also indicates the kind of rights that will be available to the informal economy workers on successful transition to the formal economy. However, to recognise the new forms of work, legislation affecting gig economy workers has been made part of the Index.

Q: How frequently are the scores updated?

The Labour Rights Index is biennial and updated every two years. The first version of the Index was launched in September 2020. The second edition of the Index in 2022 takes into account labour legislation, in effect on 1 January 2022. The Index is updated every two years. It is also planned to extend the coverage to 145 countries in the coming years. These mainly include countries from Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and some South American countries. Any future legal updates which lead to changes in the scores will also be included.

Q: What when you work in the informal sector? How useful is the Index?

The Labour Rights Index shows the statutory labour rights for the workers in formal employment relationships because this is where the labour law applies. The informal economy, as defined by ILO Recommendation 204 on Transition from Informal to Formal Economy, refers to all economic activities by workers and economic units that are – in law or in practice – not covered or insufficiently covered by formal arrangements. A country's labour law, based on minimum employee threshold, is not applicable to the informal sector. However, people in the informal sector can use the country profiles in the Index to know about basic labour rights that are available in the country and launch advocacy campaigns through their representative organisations to have access to the same or similar labour rights. The first step for the informal sector workers should be to get all those rights which have been guaranteed to the formal sector workers. The next step could be striving towards the rights set in the international labour standards.

What is the Labour Rights Index?

What is new in the 2022 edition of the Labour Rights Index?

How is Labour Rights Index data collected?

How are the Labour Rights Index questions chosen?

How are the questions scored?

How can Labour Rights Index findings be used?

Does the study measure implementation?

Does the Labour Rights Index include information affecting workers in the informal sector?

How frequently are the scores updated?

What when you work in the informal sector? How useful is the Index?

What when you work part-time? How useful is the Index and what can you learn from it?

Being unemployed due to COVID-19, how can the Index help you?

Does the Labour Rights Index cover both public and private sector labour legislation?

One of the assumptions in the Index is that the “worker is a full-time employee with a permanent contract in a medium-sized enterprise with 60 employees”. Does it mean that the Index does not cover small enterprises?

Does the Index cover only labour law or rules and regulations as well?

In case of doubt about scores, where can one check the law?