Social representations of labor for informal workers

The objective was to identify the social representations of work for informal workers. Twenty workers from the south of Santa Catarina, Brazil participated in the study, all over 18 years old and who had been working informally for at least one year. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were used. Results emanate from Content Analysis, comprising 5 categories, covering 17 thematic elements, being the categories: "work as a means to an end"; "difficulties of informal work", "work as a means to an end", "working conditions", "devaluation of the worker" and "reasons for the exercise of informal work". Part of the workers point out advantages of informal work, but the majority report difficulties such as the absence of labor rights, financial difficulties and social devaluation. The content is marked by the flexibility of informal work, financial insecurity and the romanticization of excessive work.