Consumer Awareness, Intention to Buy and Willingness to Pay for Employment Social Security among Informal Sector Workers (Research on Ten Branch Offices of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan).

Abstract

Not just for regular employees but also non-standard employees, participation in the Employment and Social Security Administration (BPJS) is required. It is stated in Article 14 of Law Concerning Social Insurance Institutions No. 24 from 2011, which states that everyone, even foreigners, who has worked in Indonesia for at least a few months, will participate in social insurance programs if such participation is required. Indonesian workers reached 139,810,313 million people in December 2020, with details of informal workers reaching 84,543,296 million people or about 60.47%, and 55,267,016 million people or around 39.53% of formal workers (Statistics, 2020). Every employee has a right to social security, according to Article 3 (2) of Labor Social Security Law No. 32 of 1992. Workplace dangers are the same for both formal and informal employees. The danger is undoubtedly more significant than for individuals who work in businesses, organizations, or government agencies since one of the areas where unorganized employees are exposed is the absence of proper safety equipment (News, 2017). As a result, social security offers equal protection to informal employees. However, this is not in line, as evidenced by the low participation rate of informal workers or 6.8% of informal sector workers, which was realized with a total of 5,759,477 BPJS Ketenagakerjaan participants in December 2020 (Ketenagakerjaan, 2020) with an achievement target of reaching 100%. The low ratio between the workforce and the number of people involved in BPJS Ketenagakerjaan is caused by the reluctance of all individuals to transfer the risks they pose to social security organizations. This is due to the low and precarious income that forces informal workers to work only to meet their daily needs, rarely wanting to become social security participants. In addition, informal workers are near the poverty line. According to Prawoto (2009), informal workers cannot allocate their monthly income to employment social security, which means they cannot contribute because employment social security is their last resort if they have more money. Based on the preceding context, this research seeks to investigate numerous challenges that BPJS Ketenagakerjaan frequently encounters in Indonesia while implementing employment social security. The objectives of this research were to analyze the awareness of informal workers about BPJS Ketenagakerjaan program participation, to analyze the intention of informal workers to buy social security for the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan program, and to analyze the willingness of informal workers to pay contributions for the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan program. Quantitative research was the methodology employed to achieve the research goals. Primary and secondary data were the two types of data that are employed. Participants gathered first-hand information from the 10 (ten) BPJS Ketenagakerjaan branches that served as research sites. The BPJS Ketenagakerjaan data and supplementary data from each branch served as the research location and source of secondary data for this research. The findings demonstrated that changes in consumer awareness of informal workers influenced employment social security participation by 0.761% or 76.1%. Meanwhile, just 36% of unregistered workers in BPJS Ketenagakerjaan's 10 branches responded to a questionnaire on their knowledge of employment social security. According to the respondents' response rates for 10 BPJS Ketenagakerjaan branches from 100% total, the degree of intention to buy social security programs for informal workers is still relatively low. Then, by 0.772%, or 77.2%, of the total, the intention to buy variable also impacts social security participation. The variable of willingness to pay also has an influence on employment social security participation by 0.758 or 75.8%. Meanwhile, based on the analysis of respondents' answers, informal workers are not willing or able to pay the specified amount of employment social security program contributions, as indicated by a percentage of 35% of the total 100%. This is due to various other factors that make informal workers need further consideration before buying an employment social security program or becoming active participants. Then the influence of the variable awareness of informal workers is 0.404 or 40.4%, the intention to buy from informal workers is 0.330 or 33%, and the willingness to pay is 0.148 or 14.8%. Based on the findings of this research, it may be suggested that various initiatives be undertaken to raise local employees' knowledge of the need for social security for workers in Indonesia, as well as their informality and desire to create new informal employment social security. The program provides extras above and above the current curriculum, making it simple for participants to obtain their needs. Meanwhile, the government must create a strategy to make it simpler for informal employees to register as active BPJS Ketenagakerjaan participants with indications of economic status or kind of work as informal workers to be prepared to pay for the employee social security program.