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Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work

Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work

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by IDWFED published Nov 29, 2012 12:00 AM
Contributors: National Domestic Workers Alliance
Domestic workers care for the things we value most — our homes, children and elderly — but Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work reveals that the United States does not care for our domestic workers. It is the first national survey of domestic workers in the USA conducted by The National Domestic Workers Alliance. This report is a call to action.

Resource Type

Research reports, working paper

Details

It is the first report on the state of domestic workers in the United States, conducted by The National Domestic Workers Alliance in collaboration with the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois in Chicago and Data Center. 

It surveyed 2,086 nannies, caregivers, and house cleaners in 14 metropolitan areas. The survey was conducted in nine languages. Domestic workers from 71 countries were interviewed. The study employed a participatory methodology in which 190 domestic workers and organizers from 34 community organizations collaborated in survey design, the fielding of the survey, and the preliminary analysis of the data.

Read the full report HERE.

Every day domestic workers leave their own homes and head to work, where they clean the homes of millions of Americans and care for our nation’s children, elders, and people with disabilities.  Their work allows millions of families across America to stay healthy and well cared for.  Yet decades ago when federal minimum wage and overtime laws were passed, domestic workers were excluded from even those basic labor protections. At the time, domestic work wasn’t considered real work, and some seventy years later, though much else has changed, our nation’s labor laws still have not caught up.

Today, in every state except New York, domestic workers have little protection and work under highly vulnerable conditions. Among other sobering findings, the report reveals that:

  • 23 percent of workers surveyed are paid below the state minimum wage.
  • Domestic workers earn a median hourly wage of $10 an hour.

As journalist Barbara Ehrenreich writes in her introduction, the report’s findings are a call to action, not only for domestic workers and employers, but for our nation as whole:
The best way to bring an end to the abuses documented in this report is to go beyond appeals to individual conscience and codify the rights of domestic workers in contracts and law. As a start, we must insist on the inclusion of domestic workers under the coverage of existing labor laws.

The challenge posed by Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work goes beyond the immediate community of employers. Anyone who reads this report will be forced to reflect on the larger consequences of extreme inequality, which are moral as well as economic. As we should have learned from the crisis that brought on a global downturn, inequality threatens economic stability......Home Economics offers a way out of this shameful situation, a clear course of action toward a society in which everyone’s work is respected and valued.

Contents

URL

http://www.domesticworkers.org/homeeconomics/
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