GUS figures show employment shrinks on the black market, but wages are up

In 1998 1.4 million worked on the black market, while last year the number decreased to 1.3 million or 9.6% of the labour force. The most often cited reasons for working on the black market include the failure to find legal employment, insufficient income, large social insurance contributions and excessive taxes. Almost two thirds of people working on the black market worked for small, often one-man companies, while around 20% for a private company or a cooperative enterprise. Most of those working on the black market do so sporadically - around 25% work up to five days a month and a half of them worked less than 20 days a month. But for 63% of them working on the black market constitutes their main source of employment. The average monthly income from such work amounted to zł.392 last year as compared to zł.276 in 1998. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B6; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 24) E.B.