The Impact of Theory of Planned Behavior toward the Intention to Join the Informal Workers Social Security: A Lesson from Indonesia and Taiwan
Date
2022-11-25Author
Adisty, Mohamad Rhesa
Munandar, Jono Mintarto
Sumertajaya, I Made
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Show full item recordAbstract
The problem that is currently happening, especially in various developing
countries, is the dominance of the number of informal workers in these countries
and this number is growing from time to time. However, along with the increasing
number of informal workers, protection for them from various social risks is still
very limited. The majority of workers in the informal sector are often ignored by
the social security system, and the existing social security programs only focus and
target workers in the formal sector. Only 56% of Indonesia's 93 million eligible
employees are covered by social security, while only 3.7% of informal workers are
covered (LIPI, 2020). Due to the low social security participation for informal
workers, especially in Indonesia, there needs to be analysis and research to increase
the number of this participation.
Currently, the social security system for informal workers in Indonesia is
included in the Non-Wage Recipient (BPU) program. This program has several
products, such as death insurance (mandatory), work accident insurance
(mandatory), and old age insurance as a voluntary program. The contribution
required in this system is still cheap, starting from Rp. 16.800 (for the two
mandatory programs) and increases according to the workers' monthly income.
According to the BPJS Law number 24 of 2011, social security in Indonesia is
universal, meaning that everyone is required to follow the health program, and
every worker, even informal workers, is required to follow the social security
system for workers. However, in its implementation, due to inadequate law
enforcement, it seems that this system is optional and voluntary. Therefore, it is
necessary to conduct further research on the intention of informal workers to
register for social security. The measurement of this intention is important to extend
social security participation to informal workers because the voluntary participation
and control of enrolling in social security is entirely within the control of each of
these workers.
In Taiwan, the nature is almost the same, participation is voluntary.
Taiwan's social security law allows independent contractors, employers with fewer
than five employees who are not union members, and self-employed persons who
also employ others to voluntarily enroll in social security insurance. This is done
because managing workers working in the informal economy is very difficult. The
ability to calculate the contribution to be made is one of the biggest challenges
because the income earned may fluctuate frequently. Despite these challenges,
Taiwan has managed to provide all its workers with social security coverage. So
Indonesia needs to learn a lot from this to expand the coverage of social security
for informal workers.
Then, the study aims to identify the driving forces behind informal workers'
desire to enroll in social security programs. To find the factors, the Theory of
Planned Behavior will serve as tools to unearth those. The purpose of this study is
to determine which factors have the greatest effect on the intention to participate in
the social security system for informal workers. This study also compares the results
of this study with the policies that have been taken by Indonesia and Taiwan as a
comparison country with broad social security coverage and analyzing the success
strategy that is taken by Taiwan to broaden its coverage on social security for
workers.
The study uses primary data obtained from respondents. There are 100
respondents used in this study. The respondents must meet the following criteria:
a) they must be "the missing middle" of informal workers, b) informal workers who
are neither government or other private institution recipients of social assistance,
and c) who do not have any other form of social insurance except public social
insurance. Data are examined by using structural equation model - partial least
square (SEM-PLS).
The results show that attitude toward behavior and perceived behavioral
control have a significant impact on the intention to join the informal workers' social
security, while subjective norms have not been proven to have a significant impact.
In terms of policy comparison, Indonesia is currently still focusing on the subjective
norms aspect compared to Taiwan which does not focus on this aspect. In fact, if
we look at this study, subjective norms are not significant to the intention of
informal workers to register for social security for informal workers.
The lesson that can be taken by Taiwan is to transform from the informal
economy to the formal economy. This is the key to Taiwan's success in realizing
universal coverage in the country. Several ways to achieve this transformation are
through various strategies such as education for informal workers, a more practical
tax system (Simpler with no or minimal exemptions and loopholes, and lower
rates), providing access to banks to make loans, easier business licensing processes,
and support informal workers to build a union in order to share with each other to
help reduce informality.
The managerial implication that can be obtained from this research is to
focus on the strategy on the aspect of attitude toward behavior by increasing the
positive opinion of informal workers on social security by improving services from
social security and aspects of perceived behavioral control by adding additional
benefits for informal workers who comply to contribute to social security. The
strategy on the subjective norms aspect needs to be evaluated and reviewed on its
effectiveness and efficiency with respect to the budget used in implementing the
strategy in this aspect.
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- MT - Economic and Management [2962]