Despite efforts to extend the reach of ILO Conventions to women in precarious employment, many women still do not have the basic rights set out above. The informal economy, on which overwhelming numbers of women depend for their livelihood, remains beyond the reach of labour regulation and maternity rights. The extension of paid maternity leave to women entrepreneurs or self-employed women is a good practice found in some countries. Under European Union Directives, there is a requirement to provide paid maternity leave for self-employed women, calculated on the basis of average loss of income or profit (subject to ceiling) or a national allowances level such as minimum wage. Leave is not compulsory, however, and the conditions on which is it paid often differ from those for women in formal employment. The Working Group welcomes in that regard a decision by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Communication No. 36/2012) in which it considered that the abolition of an initially existing public maternity leave scheme, without establishing an adequate alternative maternity leave scheme to cover loss of income during maternity immediately available to self-employed women, constituted a breach of article 11 (2) (b) of the Convention.