Closing the Social Protection Gap in Egypt: Extending Social Insurance to Informal Workers

Informal and irregular employment accounts for nearly two thirds of the Egyptian labour force, with millions of workers without effective access to social insurance despite recent legal reforms. While the Social Insurance and Pensions Law No. 148 (2019) established a unified and more inclusive legal framework, coverage rates have stagnated due to structural, administrative and financial barriers. Complex enrolment procedures, fragmented data systems and low trust continue to limit uptake among workers with irregular incomes, particularly women, young people and seasonal workers.

The present technical paper examines the disconnect between formal legal provisions and coverage outcomes in practice, analysing the key drivers of exclusion. It highlights two complementary pathways for expanding effective coverage: sector-based simplified contribution models tailored to irregular work patterns, and automatic identification and pre-registration enabled by interoperable administrative databases. Together, these approaches can reduce administrative burdens, strengthen enforcement, and shift social insurance from a voluntary opt-in model towards default inclusion, supporting more efficient and sustainable social protection.

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