Domestic worker

Other terms include domestic helper, domestic servant, manservant or menial.

ILO estimates in 2015, based on national surveys and/or censuses of 232 countries and territories, place the number of domestic workers at around 67.1 million.[3] But the ILO itself states that "experts say that due to the fact that this kind of work is often hidden and unregistered, the total number of domestic workers could be as high as 100 million".[4] The ILO also states that 83% of domestic workers are women and many are migrant workers.

In Guatemala, it is estimated that eight percent of all women work as domestic workers. They hardly have any legal protection. According to Guatemalan labor law, domestic work is "subject neither to a working time statute nor to regulations on the maximum number of working hours in a day". Legally, domestic helpers are only entitled to ten hours of free time in 24 hours, and one day off per week. But very often, these minimal employment laws are disregarded, and so are basic civil liberties.[5]

In Brazil, domestic workers must be hired under a registered contract and have many of the rights of any other workers, which includes a minimum wage, remunerated vacations and a remunerated weekly day off. It is not uncommon, however, for employers to hire servants illegally and fail to offer a work contract. Since domestic staff predominantly come from disadvantaged groups with less access to education, they are often vulnerable and uninformed of their rights, especially in rural areas. Nevertheless, domestics employed without a proper contract can successfully sue their employers and be compensated for abuse committed. It is common in Brazil for domestic staff, including childcare staff, to be required to wear uniforms, while this requirement has fallen out of use in other countries.

In the United States, domestic workers are generally excluded from many of the legal protections afforded to other classes of worker, including the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.[6] However, in recent years, advocacy groups like the National Domestic Workers' Alliance have succeeded in passing a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights into state law in New York, Hawaii, and California.[7]

Traditionally domestic workers have mostly been women and are likely to be immigrants.[8] Currently, there are 1.8 million domestic workers, and tens of thousands of people are believed to be in forced labor in the United States.[9] America's domestic home help workers, most of them female members of minority groups, earn low wages and often receive no retirement or health benefits because the lack of basic labor protections.

Domestic workers are also excluded from vacation time, sick time, and overtime, and only thirteen percent of domestic workers get health insurance provided by their employers. A report from the National Domestic Workers Alliance and affiliated groups found that nearly a quarter of nannies, caregivers, and home health workers make less than the minimum wage in the states in which they work, and nearly half – 48 percent – are paid less than needed to adequately support a family.[10][11] Many of these workers are subjected to abuse, sexual harassment, and social inequality. However, because domestic workers work in the home, their struggles are hidden in the home and out of the public spotlight. Nowadays with an increase of power, the domestic workers' community has formed many organizations, such as the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Domestic Workers United, and The South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union.[12]

Memorial valuing the work of Maria Home, the servant in Warwick Castle (1834)

A Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) Chinese ceramic figurine of a lady's maid in a standard formal pose with hands covered by long sleeve cuffs in the traditional fashion

The domestic work industry is dominated throughout the world by women.[13] While the domestic work industry is advantageous for women in that it provides them a sector that they have substantial access to, it can also prove to be disadvantageous by reinforcing gender inequality through the idea that domestic work is an industry that should be dominated by women. Within the domestic work industry, the much smaller proportion of jobs that is occupied by men are not the same jobs that are typically occupied by women. Within the childcare industry, men make up only about 3–6% of all workers.[14] Additionally, in the child care industry men, are more likely to fill roles that are not domestic in nature but administrative such as a managerial role in a daycare center.[15]

While the domestic work industry was once believed to be an industry that belonged to a past type of society and did not belong in a modern world, trends are showing that although elements of the domestic work industry have been changing the industry itself has shown no signs of fading away, but only signs of transformation.[14] There are several specific causes that are credited to continuing the cycle of the demand for domestic work. One of these causes is that with more women taking up full-time jobs, a dually employed household with children places a heavy burden on parents. It is argued however that this burden wouldn't result in the demand for outside domestic help if men and women were providing equal levels of effort in domestic work and child-rearing within their own home.[16]

The demand for domestic workers has also become primarily fulfilled by migrant domestic workers from other countries who flock to wealthier nations to fulfill the demand for help at home.[13][17] This trend of domestic workers flowing from poorer nations to richer nations creates a relationship that on some levels encourages the liberation of one group of people at the expense of the exploitation of another.[13] Although domestic work has far from begun to fade from society, the demand for it and the people who fill that demand has changed drastically over time.

Cook (1855)

The United Kingdom's Master and Servant Act 1823 was the first of its kind; the terms referred generally to employers and employees. The Act influenced the creation of domestic service laws in other nations, although legislation tended to favour employers. However, before the passing of such Acts servants, and workers in general, had no protection in law. The only real advantage that domestic service provided was the provision of meals, accommodation, and sometimes clothes, in addition to a modest wage. Service was normally an apprentice system with room for advancement through the ranks.

The conditions faced by domestic workers have varied considerably throughout history and in the contemporary world. In the course of twentieth-century movements for labour rights, women's rights and immigrant rights, the conditions faced by domestic workers and the problems specific to their class of employment have come to the fore.

In 2011, the International Labour Organization adopted the Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Previously, at its 301st Session (March 2008), the International Labour Organization (ILO) Governing Body agreed to place an item on decent work for domestic workers on the agenda of the 99th Session of the International Labour Conference (2010) with a view to the setting of labour standards.[18] In July 2011, at the annual International Labour Conference, held by the ILO, conference delegates adopted the Convention on Domestic Workers by a vote of 396 to 16, with 63 abstentions. The Convention recognized domestic workers as workers with the same rights as other workers. On 26 April 2012, Uruguay was the first country to ratify the convention.[19][20]

Parisian maid (1906) (Image by Constant Puyo)

A domestic servant ironing a lace doily with GE electric iron, ca. 1908

Many domestic workers are live-in domestics. Though they often have their own quarters, their accommodations are not usually as comfortable as those reserved for the family members. In some cases, they sleep in the kitchen or small rooms, such as a box room, sometimes located in the basement or attic. Domestic workers may live in their own home, though more often they are "live-in" domestics, meaning that they receive their room and board as part of their salaries. In some countries, because of the large gap between urban and rural incomes, and the lack of employment opportunities in the countryside, even an ordinary middle class urban family can afford to employ a full-time live-in servant. The majority of domestic workers in China, Mexico, India, and other populous developing countries, are people from the rural areas who are employed by urban families.

Employers may require their domestic workers to wear a uniform, livery or other "domestic workers' clothes" when in their employers' residence. The uniform is usually simple, though aristocratic employers sometimes provided elaborate decorative liveries, especially for use on formal occasions. Female servants wore long, plain, dark-coloured dresses or black skirts with white belts and white blouses, and black shoes, and male servants and butlers would wear something from a simple suit, or a white dress shirt, often with tie, and knickers. In traditional portrayals, the attire of domestic workers especially was typically more formal and conservative than that of those whom they serve. For example, in films of the early 20th century, a butler might appear in a tailcoat, while male family members and guests appeared in lounge suits or sports jackets and trousers depending on the occasion. In later portrayals, the employer and guests might wear casual slacks or even jeans, while a male domestic worker wore a jacket and tie or a white dress shirt with black trousers, necktie or bowtie, maybe even waistcoat, or a female domestic worker either a blouse and skirt (or trousers) or a uniform.

On 30 March 2009, Peru adopted a law banning employers from requiring domestic workers to wear a uniform at public places. However, it's not explained which punishments will be given to employers violating the law.[21] Chile adopted a similar law in 2014, also banning employers to require domestic workers to wear uniform at public places.[22][23]

Child maid servant in India. Child domestic workers are common in India, with the children often being sent by their parents to earn extra money, although it is banned by the government.

More girls under 16 work as domestic workers than any other category of child labor.[24] Usually, in a practice often called "confiage" or entrusting, such as for restaveks in Haiti, parents in the rural poverty make an agreement with someone in the cities who would house and send their child to school in return for domestic work.[25]

Such children are very vulnerable to exploitation: often they are not allowed to take breaks or are required to work long hours; many suffer from a lack of access to education, which can contribute to social isolation and a lack of future opportunity. UNICEF considers domestic work to be among the lowest status, and reports that most child domestic workers are live-in workers and are under the round-the-clock control of their employers.[26] Child domestic work is common in countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan.[27][28] In Pakistan, since January 2010 to December 2013, 52 cases of tortures on child domestic workers are reported including 24 deaths.[29] It has been estimated that globally, at least 10 million children work in domestic labor jobs.[28]

Children face a number of risks that are common in domestic work service. The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour identified that these risks include: long and tiring working days; use of toxic chemicals; carrying heavy loads; handling dangerous items such as knives, axes and hot pans; insufficient or inadequate food and accommodation, and humiliating or degrading treatment including physical and verbal violence, and sexual abuse.[30]

Migrant domestic workers are, according to the International Labour Organization’s Convention No. 189 and the International Organization for Migration, any persons “moving to another country or region to better their material or social conditions and improve the prospect for themselves or their family,”[31] engaged in a work relationship performing “in or for a household or households.”[32] Domestic work itself can cover a "wide range of tasks and services that vary from country to country and that can be different depending on the age, gender, ethnic background and migration status of the workers concerned."[33] These particular workers have been identified by some academics as situated within "the rapid growth of paid domestic labor, the feminization of transnational migration, and the development of new public spheres.”[34]

Male servants carrying a palanquin and female maid with a traditional fan (Korea c.1904)

As women currently dominate the domestic labor market throughout the world, they have learned to navigate the system of domestic work both in their own countries and abroad in order to maximize the benefits of entering the domestic labor market.

Among the disadvantages of working as a domestic worker is the fact that women working in this sector are working in an area often regarded as a private sphere.[16] Feminist critics of women working in the domestic sphere argue that this woman dominated market is reinforcing gender inequalities by potentially creating mistress-servant relationships between domestic workers and their employers and continuing to put women in a position of lesser power.[16] Other critics point out that working in a privatized sphere robs domestic workers of the advantages of more socialized work in the public sphere.[35]

Additionally, domestic laborers face other disadvantages. Their isolation is increased by their invisibility in the public sphere and the repetitive, intangible nature of their work decreases its value, making the workers themselves more dispensable.[36] The level of isolation women face also depends on the type of domestic work they are involved with. Live-in nannies for example may sacrifice much of their own independence and sometimes become increasingly isolated when they live with a family of which they are not part and away from their own.[37]

While working in a dominantly female privatized world can prove disadvantageous for domestic workers, many women have learned how to help one other move upward economically. Women find that informal networks of friends and families are among the most successful and commonly used means of finding and securing jobs.[38]

Without the security of legal protection, many women who work without the requisite identity or citizenship papers are vulnerable to abuse. Some have to perform tasks considered degrading showing a manifestation of employer power over worker powerlessness. Employing domestic work from foreign countries can perpetuate the idea that domestic or service work is reserved for other social or racial groups and plays into the stereotype that it is work for inferior groups of people.[39]

Gaining employment in the domestic labor market can prove to be difficult for immigrant women. Many subcontract their services to more established women workers, creating an important apprenticeship type of learning experience that can produce better, more independent opportunities in the future.[35] Women who work as domestic workers also gain some employment mobility. Once established they have the option of accepting jobs from multiple employers increasing their income and their experience and most importantly their ability to negotiate prices with their employers.[36]

A valet in India, c. 1870

The servants at Stonehouse Hill, the estate of F. Lothrop Ames, Massachusetts, 1914

A terracotta statue of a washerwoman (18th century)

A French wet nurse

The following is a list of known domestic workers:

• Au pair – A foreign-national domestic assistant working for and living as part of, a host family.
• Amanuensis – A person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.
• Ayah – A job that is similar to a nanny's.
• Babysitter – A worker who minds the children of someone else.
• Bedder / bedmaker – A worker who makes the beds.
• Between maid – An in-between maid whose duties are half in the reception rooms and half in the kitchen.
• Bodyguard – A worker who protects his employer.
• Boot boy – A young male servant, employed mostly to perform footwear maintenance and minor auxiliary tasks.
• Butler – A senior employee usually found in larger households, almost invariably a man, whose duties traditionally include overseeing the wine cellar, the silverware and some oversight of the other, usually male, servants.
• Chambermaid – A maid whose chief focus is on cleaning and maintaining bedrooms, ensuring fires are lit in fireplaces when needed, and supplying hot water.
• Charwoman (AKA Char) – A female house or office cleaner, usually part-time.
• Chauffeur – A personal driver (for motor vehicles).
• Cleaner – A worker who cleans homes, institutions or commercial premises.
• Cook – This is either a cook who works alone or the head of a team of cooks who work for their employer.
• Dog walker – A worker who walks dogs.
• Footman – A lower-ranking manservant.
• Gardener – A worker who tends to the garden.
• Governess – A woman teacher for children.
• Groundskeeper – A worker who tends to the person's large property.
• Hall boy – The lowest ranking male servant who is usually found only in large households.
• Handyman – A worker who handles household repairs.
• Horse trainer – A worker who trains the horses for those who own them.
• Houseboy – A worker who does personal chores.
• Housekeeper – A housekeeper usually denotes a female senior employee.
• Kitchen maid – A worker who works for the cook.
• Lackey – A runner who may be overworked and underpaid.
• Lady's maid – A woman's personal attendant, helping her with her clothes, shoes, accessories, hair, and cosmetics.
• Laundress – A laundry servant.
• Maid (AKA Housemaid) – Female servants who do the typical duties.
• Majordomo – The senior-most staff member of a very large household or stately home. See also Seneschal.
• Masseur/Masseuse – A servant who performs massages.
• Nanny (AKA nurse) – A woman who takes care of infants and children.
• Nursemaid (AKA Nursery maid) – A maid who oversees the nursery.
• Personal shopper – A person who does the shopping.
• Personal trainer – A worker who trains their employer in fitness, swimming, and sports.
• Pool person – A worker who works by the swimming pool.
• Retainer – A servant, especially one who has been with one family for a long time (chiefly British English).[58]
• Scullery maid – The lowest-ranking of the domestic workers who act as assistants to the kitchen maid.
• Stable boy – A worker who handles the management of the horses and the stables.
• Valet – Known as the "gentleman's gentleman", a valet is responsible for the master's wardrobe and assisting him in dressing, shaving, etc. In the armed forces, some officers have a soldier (in the British army called a batman) for such duties.
• Wet nurse – A nurse who provides suckling for infants if mothers cannot or do not wish to do so themselves.

Alonzo Fields, butler at the White House

Some domestic workers have become notable, including: Abdul Karim (the Munshi), servant of Queen Victoria of Great Britain; Paul Burrell, butler to Diana, Princess of Wales; Moa Martinson, author of proletarian literature, kitchen maid; and Charles Spence, Scottish poet, stonemason and footman.

• Ancillae
• Convention on Domestic Workers
• Domestic Worker's Bill of Rights
• Homemaking
• Hooch maid
• Housekeeping
• Isabella Beeton ("Mrs Beeton") and The Book of Household Management
• Nanny tax
• National Union of Domestic Employees
• Reproductive labor
• Servant
• French Maid

• The Duties of Servants; by a member of the aristocracy, author of 'Manners and Rules of Good Society'. London: F. Warne & Co., 1894
• A Few Rules for the Manners of Servants in Good Families. Ladies' Sanitary Association, 1901
• The Servants' Practical Guide: a handbook of duties and rules; by the author of 'Manners and Tone of Good Society'. London: Frederick Warne & Co., [1880]
  • The Management of Servants: a practical guide to the routine of domestic service; by the author of "Manners and Tone of Good Society." (the same work under a different title)
• Dawes, Frank (1973) Not in Front of the Servants: domestic service in England 1850–1939. London: Wayland ISBN 0-85340-287-6
• Evans, Siân (2011) Life below Stairs in the Victorian and Edwardian Country House. National Trust Books
  • --do.--"Yells, Bells and Smells ... from royal visits ... to the case of the cook and the freezer", in: National Trust Magazine; Autumn 2011, pp. 70–73
• Musson, Jeremy (2009) Up and Down Stairs: the history of the country house servant. London: John Murray ISBN 978-0-7195-9730-5
• Ray; Qayum (2009). Cultures of Servitude: Modernity, Domesticity, and Class in India. Stanford University Press, Stanford. ISBN 9780804771092.
• Steedman, Carolyn (2009). Labours Lost: Domestic Service and the Making of Modern England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 9780521736237.
• Sinha; Varma; Jha (2019) Servants' Pasts: Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century, South Asia, Vol. 1. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan ISBN 978-9-3528-7664-8
• Sinha; Varma (2019). Servants’ Pasts: Late-Eighteenth to Twentieth-Century South Asia, Vol. 2. Orient Blackswan New Delhi. ISBN 978-9352876945.

Look up domestic worker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Domestic workers.

• International Domestic Workers Network
• List of digitized books on domestic workers in German, English, and other languages at de.wikisource
• ILO resources on domestic workers:

  Resource guide on domestic workers, Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers (June 16, 2011) (PDF), Decent work for domestic workers, Report IV(1) (2010)

• Amnesty International paper on the abuse of domestic workers in the Middle East
• A Global Justice Center paper about domestic workers worldwide
• Domestic Workers, Maids Services
• An international campaign for domestic workers' labour rights
• A Research Project entitled "Servants Pasts" which traces domestic service historically
• Human Rights Watch article about migrant domestic workers
• Interview with an Indonesian domestic worker in Singapore Clip from documentary film 'At Your Service' (2010, director Jorge Leon)