Illegitimate Wage Practices in Central and Eastern Europe: A Study of the Prevalence and Impacts of “Envelope Wages”

Colin Williams

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2009, vol. 17, issue 1, 65-83

Abstract: Most studies of illegitimate wage practices focus upon informal employees who are unregistered workers and paid on a wholly off-the-books basis. In this article, however, the aim is to evaluate the prevalence in Central and Eastern Europe in particular, and the European Union (EU) more generally, of a so far little discussed illegitimate practice whereby formal employees are paid by their formal employer an additional undeclared (“envelope”) wage. Reporting the findings of 26,659 face-to-face interviews conducted during 2007 in twenty-seven European countries, one in twenty (5%) formal employees in the EU, and one in eight (13%) in Central and Eastern Europe, report receiving an additional “envelope” wage from their formal employer. The article then reviews the impacts of this common but overlooked wage arrangement and how it might be tackled.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1080/09651560902778386

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