Havana, March 4, 2011 - More than 113,000 permits for non-state employment, known as self-employment, have been granted in Cuba, now with the advantage of receiving social security benefits to raise the standard of living of those workers.
As of January, 113,618 self-employment permits had been granted, and 68 percent of applicants were not working in jobs at the time they applied, according to Idalmys Alvarez, employment director for the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, in remarks to Prensa Latina.
Twenty percent of the permits granted were for making and selling food, making it the most popular of the self-employment permits requested, Alvarez said.
Permits to work as employees for private individuals were the second most-requested, followed by those for freight and passenger transport; sales of household items, guest house renting, homebuilding and messenger service, she said.
Workers in 83 self-employment categories may hire other workers, Alvarez noted.
The provinces with the highest number of self-employed citizens are Havana, Matanzas and Camaguey, Alvarez said. She noted that these workers now may carry out their activities in any municipality in the country, as long as they observe local regulations.
Income and social security taxes paid by these workers are a form of redistribution of income to maintain existing free and subsidized services in the country, including in health care, education and social security, Alvarez emphasized.
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