The use of the digital employment card has allowed tax authorities to track the employment of more than 2 million in the private sector and uncover cases of illicit, uninsured or undeclared work.
But it has not stopped manipulation on the part of the employers, who keep underreporting employment hours. The most widely used methods are either requiring employees to do additional work after officially checking out, such as shutting the store, cleaning up, counting register receipts or servicing clients remaining on the premises after the store has officially closed.
The second method is bestowing titles of responsibility on employees, requiring them to stay longer but not paying the extra hours. Despite all the manipulation, use of the digital card has also led to a significant increase in overtime (37.5% in the first five months of 2026 compared to the same period last year), filling Social Security coffers with employer and employee contributions.
