Decent work is crucial for an individual’s career and life development. In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations, decent work was made an explicit goal. However, people perception of a decent work may vary from one context to the other. Moreover, the psychology of working theory suggests that personal resources may buffer or mediate the relationship between socio-economic constraints and decent work. For this reason, a first qualitative study aimed to describe how decent work is defined by people working in the formal and informal sectors in Burkina Faso. A second quantitative study described the links between socio-economic constraints, personal resources, decent work, and meaning and satisfaction at work in the formal and informal sectors in Burkina Faso. Fifty participants were interviewed about their ideas of what constitutes decent work and more than 500 participants completed a survey about decent work, work volition, and meaning and satisfaction at work. For most interviewees, decent work was defined as work that allows living, but also has dignity, and allows access to some social recognition. Decent work should provide a socially recognized social identity. Quantitative analyses showed that large differences exist between formal and informal workers, in terms of level of education, salary, and social class (d > 0.80). The differences were however surprisingly smaller for work volition and meaning and satisfaction at work (0.20 > d > 0.50), and even non-significant for decent work. Finally, work volition and decent work did predict meaning and satisfaction at work in both the informal and formal economy, decent work partially mediating this relationship. Overall, these results illustrate that the psychology of working theory can be applied meaningfully in a variety of cultural settings and that social recognition may be a key element when defining decent work.
