Informality is considered to result from the heterogeneity of the productive structure, which can be seen schematically as two sectors: one which is formal, has a medium to high production level, greater levels of investment, relatively high growth potential and effective social protection; and the other informal, with low levels of productivity, growth potential and social protection. Consequently, unskilled own-account workers, unpaid family workers or apprentices, owners and employees of micro-enterprises and domestic workers are all considered informal. This is related to the introduction of the concept of decent work. In order to focus the discussion on the job rather than the company, the new conceptual framework of the “informal economy" has been proposed in order to complement that of the informal sector, given that informal activities are found in both low- and high-productivity sectors.