Overview
- President Javier Milei is elevating labor 'modernization' as the first step toward formalization before tackling pension changes.
- New analyses say the draft, reportedly around 80 articles revising core labor, bargaining and union laws, mostly targets larger formal workplaces.
- Roughly half of urban workers remain outside full formality, with about 80% of informal salaried jobs concentrated in firms with fewer than 10 employees.
- Policy proposals now center on microfirm-specific incentives such as exempting sub‑10‑worker businesses from collective bargaining and creating a non‑taxable payroll threshold for ANSES and PAMI contributions.
- Experts warn that formalization alone will not stabilize pensions without broader tax, training and participation policies, and they note Argentina’s history of cyclical flexibilizations that failed to dent informality.