Social protection for domestic workers: Key policy trends and statistics
ILO – Social Protection Policy Paper. Paper 16
10 March 2016 :: 79 pages
Pdf: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—soc_sec/documents/publication/wcms_458933.pdf

Overview
This working paper: (i) provides an overview of the global situation of social security provisions for domestic workers in 163 countries; (ii) analyses trends, policies and gaps in terms of legal and effective social security coverage for domestic workers; (iii) describes and analyses the configuration of social security schemes for domestic workers, such as their institutional organization, financing and administration; (iv) informs on challenges to extending coverage; and (v) provides a compilation and description of international practices of social security schemes for the domestic work sector, including comparative information.

This report aims to provide systematized information on the international situation of social protection in the domestic work sector. To this end, it presents recent information on the
characteristics of social security schemes that provide coverage to domestic workers. The report compiles and disseminates information on legal practices, institutional organization, financing and registration, collection and payment of contributions. This information and the corresponding analysis can provide useful inputs for policy making.

Key messages
:: Due to the atypical characteristics of domestic work, workers are considered a “difficult-to-cover” group by social security; it is estimated that globally 90 per cent of domestic workers are legally excluded from social security systems. These characteristics include the fact that work is performed in a private household which makes it difficult to control and inspect; workers frequently have more than one employer; there is a high job turnover rate; in-kind payment is common; receipt of wage income is highly irregular and labour relations are not usually established through an employment contract. These difficulties are also associated with other factors such as the lack of legal recognition of domestic work as an occupation, the existence of discriminatory social and legal practices, as well as other socio-cultural elements which engender a low social value for domestic work.

:: Information compiled by the ILO highlights an important coverage deficit. It is estimated that of the 67 million domestic workers worldwide, 60 million are excluded from coverage of social security.

:: Of the 163 countries included in this study, at least 70 (43 per cent) have laws mandating legal coverage for domestic workers of one or more of the nine branches of social security established in the ILO’s Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention (No. 102).

:: The largest gaps in social security coverage for the domestic work sector are concentrated in developing countries, where few nations provide legal coverage for this sector. Moreover, developing regions have the largest share of domestic workers worldwide, Asia and Latin America regroup 68 per cent of domestic workers worldwide.

:: Social security coverage deficits for domestic workers also exist in industrialized countries. For example, in Italy approximately 60 per cent of domestic workers are not registered with or contributing to social security systems. In Spain and France, 30 per cent of domestic workers are excluded from social security coverage.

:: The information presented in this report demonstrates that coverage of domestic workers by social security schemes is feasible, including in lower middle and low income countries, such as evidence shows for Mali, Senegal and Viet Nam.

:: There is no single social protection model for the sector. Most countries have opted to provide social protection to domestic workers through general social security schemes, guaranteeing legally the same conditions of coverage as those established for other employees, or with minor variations.

:: Eight countries report having voluntary social security coverage for domestic workers. The low rate of effective coverage existing in those countries indicates that voluntary coverage is a practice that hinders efforts to extend social security to domestic workers, for a variety of reasons. However, effective coverage continues to be low in other countries with mandatory systems, which points to the existence of other barriers and national practices that likewise impede effective coverage.

:: Women comprise the majority of domestic workers, accounting for 80 per cent of all workers in the sector globally; which means that approximately 55 million women participate in this activity. Given that it is predominantly a female workforce subject to conditions of discrimination and social and economic vulnerability, policies to extend social protection to domestic workers are a key component of efforts to fight poverty and promote gender equality.

:: Migrant domestic workers, estimated at approximately 11.5 million persons worldwide, face even greater discrimination than that experienced by domestic workers in general. Approximately 14 per cent of countries whose social security systems provide some type of coverage for domestic workers do not extend the same rights to migrant domestic workers.

:: The main barriers for extending social security coverage to the domestic work sector are associated with the following: legal exclusion; voluntary rather than mandatory coverage; lack of provisions or strategies to cover workers who have more than one employer (multi-employer) or who work part-time; narrow legal definition of domestic work; restrictions on legally protected contingencies; lack of contributory incentives, including the absence of contributory conditions adapted to the low contributory capacity of the sector; complexity or inadequacy of administrative procedures for registration and contribution collection; difficulty in ensuring inspection, lack of information on rights and responsibilities; and low level of organization of domestic workers, among others.

:: Mandatory coverage is identified as a crucial element and a necessary, but insufficient, condition for achieving adequate rates of effective coverage of domestic workers. Mandatory enrolment should be complemented by strategies associated amongst others with institutional organization, financing, registration and promotion of coverage, collection and recovery of contributions, and coverage of migrant domestic workers.

:: Countries with high levels of social protection coverage for the domestic work sector have implemented a combination of strategies that include: the application of mandatory rather than voluntary coverage; differentiated contributory schemes in relation to those applied to other employees; government subsidies; fiscal incentives; registration plans for workers who have more than one employer (multi-employer) or who work part-time; education and awareness-raising programmes targeting domestic workers and their employers; intensive use of information technologies; and implementation of service voucher mechanisms and presumptive schemes.

:: It is important to bear in mind that policies and strategies to extend social security coverage in the domestic work sector form part of a broader set of interventions guided by formalization policies in general. These policies are part of the labour protection system, which includes the domestic work sector. At the same time, this system has a variety of components that go beyond the specific configuration and strategies of social security systems or their institutions.

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Press Release
Discrimination at work
ILO: 90 per cent of domestic workers excluded from social protection
New ILO study highlights huge decent work deficits for domestic workers throughout the world.
News | 14 March 2016
GENEVA (ILO News) – 60 million of the world’s 67 million domestic workers still do not have access to any kind of social security coverage, says a new ILO study.

“The vast majority of domestic workers are women, accounting for 80 per cent of all workers in the sector globally,” explained Isabel Ortiz, Director of the ILO Social Protection Department. “Most of their work is undervalued and unprotected, when domestic workers become old or injured, they are fired, without a pension or adequate income support. This can and must be redressed.”

Domestic work is considered as a sector that is difficult to cover, partly because work is performed in private households and frequently for more than one employer. The occupation is also characterized by high job turnover, frequent in-kind payments, irregular wages and a lack of formal work contracts.

“Given that it is predominantly a female workforce highly subject to discrimination as well as social and economic vulnerability, policies to extend social protection to domestic workers are key elements in the fight against poverty and the promotion of gender equality,” said Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the ILO’s Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch…