Title page
Contents
Acknowledgements 5
1. Introduction 6
2. Domestic work: Where do we stand now? 8
2.1. Domestic workers across the world and recent trends 9
2.2. Forms of employment in domestic work 12
2.3. Decent work for domestic workers 13
3. Decent work for domestic workers today? 14
3.1. Informality in domestic work 15
3.1.1. Extent and level of labour law coverage 16
3.1.2. Extent of social security law coverage, including maternity protection 17
3.2. Actual working conditions 20
3.2.1. Wages 20
3.2.2. Working time 23
3.2.3. Poor working conditions as both cause and consequence of informality 23
3.3. Occupational safety and health 25
3.4. Violence and harassment 26
4. Formalization of domestic work 27
4.1. Assessing sources of informality 28
4.1.1. Informality due to legal gaps 29
4.1.2. Informality due to implementation gaps 29
4.2. Closing the gaps: Examples of best practice from around the world 31
4.2.1. Closing legal gaps 31
4.2.2. Closing implementation gaps 34
5. The way forward: The Five Steps to Decent Work 42
References 50
Figure 1. Domestic workers as a percentage of total employment and as a percentage of employees 9
Figure 2. Distribution of domestic workers by subregion, as % of global domestic workers, 2019 10
Figure 3. Share of informal employment among domestic workers and non-domestic workers by region, 2019 15
Figure 4. Coverage of domestic workers by national labour legislation by region, 2020 16
Figure 5. Percentages of domestic workers with entitlements related to key working conditions as compared to other workers, 2020 18
Figure 6. Percentage of domestic workers with legal social security coverage, 2020 19
Figure 7. Average monthly wage of domestic workers as a percentage of the average monthly wage of other employees, by region and sex, 2019 22
Figure 8. Working time patterns among formal and informal domestic workers compared to other employees, by sex and region, 2019 24
Figure 9. Global growth in domestic workers covered by labour laws and policies on equal footing with other workers (in percentage points), 2010-2020 32
Figure 10. The Five Steps to Decent Work intervention model 44
Boxes
Box 1. The components of decent work 13
Box 2. Social security is a fundamental human right 16
Box 3. The potential of full, effective minimum wage coverage for domestic workers 20
Box 4. The potential for the law to be effective in practice: Minimum thresholds and other eligibility conditions 23
Box 5. The impact of COVID-19 25
Box 6. Systematically addressing violence and harassment 26
Box 7. Progress in legal coverage since 2010 32
Box 8. Fair from the start: Making decent work a reality 38
Box 9. Encouraging professionalization in the domestic work sector 40