The Role of Informal Economies in the Post-Soviet World

8    Formal and informal unpaid employment

Introduction

A widespread assumption has been that when one engages in formal labour, it is paid. However, it takes but a moment’s reflection to realise that some formal employment is not paid. To see this, one has only to think about unpaid internships in the private, public and third sectors of the economy, which many people now undertake in order to gain work experience and improve their employability. It is also the case that potential employees of an organisation sometimes undertake one-week or one-month trials on an unpaid basis so that employers can judge their suitability for the post. In these instances, the unpaid worker usually expects an offer of paid formal employment at the end of the unpaid ...