The Coverage Gap in the Egyptian Social Insurance System during a Period of Reforms and Revolts

Rania Roushdy, Population Council
Irene N. Selwaness, Cairo University

The coverage gap in terms of access to the pension or social insurance (SI) system in Egypt has been expanding over the last decades, particularly in the private sector, leaving an important portion of Egyptian workers with no social security. This paper uses recently available data from the new round of the Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey of 2012 and survival analysis techniques, to model the duration to SI coverage in the private wage sector. Findings highlights that workers who started in the private wage sector rarely acquire SI coverage at start of their jobs, but may get such coverage after some time. Furthermore, the results go in line with the international findings regarding the existence of a sort of an “informality trap” in the labor markets. Workers who start in irregular, informal or in small firm jobs, are more likely to experience a long spell with no SI coverage.