Mațcu-Zaharia, M. orcid.org/0000-0002-7656-0886, Horodnic, I.A., Williams, C.C. orcid.org/0000-0002-3610-1933 et al. (1 more author) (2024) Self-employed workers and the achievement of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development: an overview of their social benefit entitlements across 31 European countries. Sustainability, 16 (7). 2625. ISSN 2071-1050
Abstract
One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8). While the actions suggested to reach this goal target numerous actors in the labor market, such as entrepreneurs running small and medium-sized enterprises, unemployed people, students and young people, persons with disabilities, children and adults forced to work, and migrant workers, these are not the only important groups to focus on. This paper discusses a group receiving less attention: self-employed workers. Through a review of literature and the legislative framework on the social benefits of self-employment across 31 European countries, challenges to the self-employed achieving decent work are identified. The most prominent challenges are that, in many countries, these workers lack social protection against unemployment or accidents at work and that the conditions for their entitlement to social benefits are more demanding than for employees. These constitute impediments to achieving SDG 8‘s goal of “decent work for all”, and SDG 10′s aim to “reduce inequalities”.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | SDG 8; SDG 10; self-employment; self-employed workers; social benefits of self-employed workers; social protection of self-employed workers; workers equality |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 Apr 2024 14:26 |
Last Modified: | 08 Apr 2024 14:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI AG |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su16072625 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:211279 |