Objective:

To examine the psychometric properties of a measure of Employment Precariousness (EP) in six Spanish-speaking Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) consisting of items from in the Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) included in the 2018 II Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health (II ECCTS).

Methods:

The study sample consisted of 3782 salaried persons, age 18 years and older, both formal and informal, who participated in the II ECCTS. We constructed a 10-item EP measure was constructed, grouped into three dimensions (temporality, labor rights, and exercise of these rights), in addition to salary as an observed variable.

Results:

The sample was composed mostly of men, with a permanent contract, a working age of between 2 to 5 years, a salary between $301 and $500, who have labor rights and who exercise them. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis corroborated the structure of the scale (RMSEA 0.07, SRMR = 0.05, CFI = 0.96 and TLI = 0.94). The EP measure had high acceptability, and the Cronbach alpha coefficients of the dimensions were between 0.59 and 0.72, except for temporality (0.30). The reliability of the full scale was 0.68, was sensitive and the EP profiles in women, youth, temporary workers and lower income countries were as expected.

Conclusions:

The EP measure constructed from the items available in the EPRES scale used in the II ECCTS questionnaire shows acceptable psychometric properties for epidemiological quantification of precarious employment in Central America.

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