Amman – Sunday, September 6, 2026

A new policy brief issued by the Jordan Labor Watch at the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies stressed that expanding social security coverage should be the cornerstone of any genuine and sustainable reform of Jordan’s social security system. It called for moving beyond temporary and limited coverage-expansion programs toward permanent institutional reform that responds to the transformations taking place in the labor market and changing patterns of employment and income.

The policy brief, titled “Expanding Social Security Coverage in Jordan: Towards a More Flexible, Equitable and Sustainable Social Insurance System”, noted that Jordan has a relatively advanced legislative and institutional framework for social security.

However, a significant coverage gap remains. The number of active insured persons reached approximately 1.633 million in July 2026, while around 54 percent of workers in Jordan remain outside social security coverage, and approximately 23 percent of workers are affected by social insurance evasion.

The brief pointed out that addressing the coverage gap requires distinguishing between two different problems. The first concerns non-compliance and social insurance evasion in sectors that are already supposed to be covered by law. The second relates to the inadequacy of the traditional contribution model for large groups of workers, including self-employed workers, daily and seasonal workers, and digital platform workers who do not have a regular monthly income or a single employer.

The Labor Watch called for introducing a “flexible social security” track within the Social Security Corporation, allowing workers to maintain a single insurance account in which contribution periods and entitlements accumulate regardless of changes in their employment status, whether they move between wage employment, self-employment, seasonal work, or platform-based work. It also called for linking contributions for self-employed workers to their actual income or to flexible income brackets that correspond to their ability to pay.

The brief further proposed developing a dedicated system for daily and seasonal workers based on calculating contributions according to actual days or periods of work. It also called for requiring digital platforms to share data on workers and income with the Social Security Corporation and to collect contributions at the source of income. In addition, it proposed allowing workers to temporarily suspend their contributions during periods of no income without accumulating debt, while preserving their previously acquired insurance rights.

The policy brief stressed that expanding coverage cannot be achieved by placing the full cost of contributions on low-income workers. It therefore called for establishing a permanent national contribution-support program, under which public contributions would be higher for lower-income groups and gradually decline as workers’ ability to pay improves. In this regard, it cited the Istidama++ (Sustainability++) program, which contributed to bringing approximately 46,000 male and female workers under social security coverage and benefited more than 10,000 establishments and employers.

The Labor Watch recommended setting a national target to raise social security coverage to 90 percent of all workers in Jordan within five years, supported by annual targets and publicly disclosed indicators. It also called for an implementation program to combat social insurance evasion and strengthen electronic integration and data exchange among government institutions.

It emphasized that the success of reform should not be measured solely by the number of newly registered workers, but also by their ability to remain enrolled and by the adequacy of the protection provided to them. Expanding coverage, it concluded, represents an investment not only in social justice and stability, but also in the financial sustainability of the social security system.