Changes in domestic service in Latin America1
Janine Rodgers
janine.rodgers@bluewin.ch
In Latin America domestic service is an overwhelmingly urban and feminine activity. In many
countries it is the main source of employment for women outside agriculture. Since female labour
force participation rates started to increase significantly in the region the sector underwent some
structural changes in both the profile of domestic workers and the forms of employment.
Nevertheless, domestic service continues to be a sector with major decent work deficits and its
workers remain stuck at the bottom of the labour and social hierarchies.
In the region domestic service is regulated by special normative frameworks that differentiate their
workers from other wage workers. Domestic workers stay at the margin of labour rights and
protective measures. It is a sector of high vulnerability linked to the economic and social
undervaluation of women's work and their role in society.
The first section of the paper will outline the nature of domestic service in Latin America; the
second will present a panorama of domestic service, its evolution over time highlighting differences
between countries; the third will focus on the situation of female domestic workers in the labour
market and the quality of work; and the last will be devoted to the regulation of domestic service.
I. The nature of domestic service
In domestic service two spheres - private and public - intersect and their interaction generates some
tensions (Carlos Zurita, 1997: 2). The activity is on the border of the mercantile and non-mercantile
economies, in a space where economic logics and social practices cross. The objectives and
conditions of production in each economy are very different. Additionally, various equations
intersect within domestic service (gender, social class, ethnicity, race, nationality, education, age,
language etc.) which makes the employment relation one of the most complex of the world of work.
Domestic service is shaped by the needs of employers as well as that of employees and therefore
covers a variety of situations ranging from tradition to modernity and from alienation to freedom. In
the last decades changes occured in both the demand for and the offer of domestic service.
I.1 The demand for domestic service
Various factors determine the demand for domestic service. Some tend to decrease the demand as
for example:
 Demographic factors: the size of households disminishes;
 Real estate speculation in urban areas especially metropolitan cities: the cost of housing
increases while the size of flats shrinks;
 Cultural changes: desire for privacy on the employers' side, or the employment of domestic
1 This paper was commissioned by the International Labour Office-Santiago de Chile. I would like to thank Maria
Elena Valenzuela and Gerry Rodgers for helpful comments and Maria Novick for providing access to studies from
the Argentina Ministry of labour. The responsibility for errors and omissions are solely mine.
considered little”modern” or no politically correct (Glantz, 2005);
 The expansion of substitute services offered in the market or by the state (kindergardens,
precooked and take-away meals, restaurants etc.)
Others tend to increase the demand for domestic service:
 The higher participation of women in the labour market. Betwen 1990 and 2002, the female
labour force participation rate in urban areas increased from 37.9% to 49.7% in Latin America
(CEPAL, 2003);
 The higher life expectancy implies that older people need more help in their home;
 The growing “leisure economy”: middle class families want more time for leisure, sports or
cultural activities;
 Recurring to domestic servants as as social status symbol.
Family structures have been evolving. The relative importance of the traditional nuclear family is
diminishing. Today only 36% of Latin-American urban households conform to the traditional
model of family (i.e. a male breadwinner head of household with a non-working wife and children).
Between 1990 and 2002 the families with two working parents with children increased from 27 to
33%; monoparental families increased from 15 to 19% and the number of households headed by a
working women increased from 8 to 10.3%. Monoparental families headed by a father have also
increased from 2.1 to 2.5%. In 2002 the highest proportion was found in Ecuador and Peru which
coincided with the increase in female migration from both countries (CEPAL, 2004).
Rich and bourgeois families always had domestic servants. It did not only free them from domestic
chores but it was also a symbol of social status. They often had several employees with specialised
duties: cook, nanny, washerwoman, driver, gardener etc. From the 1970s onwards new households
– middle and low middle class – have also resorted to domestic services as their own women
entered the labour market, Various factors contributed to the change: the already mentioned
demographic transition with a lower fertility rates but also the higher educational attainment of
women and the erosion of the patriacal family with men as only bread providers. The transition to a
model of family with two adult breadwinners has been possible thanks to the care services provided
by the market and/or the State.2 In general, those new buyers of domestic service employ only one
person who carry out all the major domestic tasks or buy a few hours of labour time from
independent female workers.
I.2 The supply of domestic service
The size and caracteristics of the sector is also determined by the profile of domestic servants. The
sex, origin, nationality, poverty and age are important parameters. The main characteristics of the
supply of domestic service are:
An occupation overwhelmingly feminine
The activity provides a significant source of employment for women. Women constitute 94% of all
domestic workers3. Between 1990 and 1998 of 100 new jobs created for women, 22 were created in
domestic service (Abramo y Valenzuela, 2001). In the 1990s it was estimated than between 20%
(Abramo y Valenzuela, 2001) and 25% (Pollack, 1997) of the female labour force worked in
domestic service. It is often the first job for young girls from rural or poor households and it enables
women with family responsibilities to reconcile work and family.
2
3
For a detailed analysis see Giullari & Lewis, 2005.
Labour Overview 2001.
The predominance of women among domestic workers is linked on the one hand to the inequality in
education and access to employment (in particular to formal sector jobs) between men and women
within the same social strata and on the other hand to the inequality between women of different
social classes. The purchase of domestic service time has freed women with education or from
better-off families from domestic tasks and the “double workday”. It has enabled them to take
advantage of new employment opportunities and have a career. In contrast, domestic workers can
only alliviate their domestic and family responsibilties through networks of informal help or
services provided by the State.
Overrepresentation of indigenous and african-descent populations
In Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Chile the insertion of indigenous populations into the labour
market is very precarious. They are essentially found in specific jobs and sectors of activity such as
informal petty trade, self-employment, and, in the case of women, domestic service. Africandescent populations also suffer from labour segregation. In the metropolitan region of Rio de
Janeiro about 40 % of black or mixed race women work as domestic servants while only 15 % of
white women (Rangel cited in Bello and Rangel, 2002).
The importance of migration
The majority of female migrants find employment in domestic service. At the end of the 1990s,
domestic servants represented around 60% of all internal and international migrants in Latin
America4.
Until the 1980s the main source of domestic workers in Latin America countries was internal
migration. The dominant flow of migration was rural-urban and characterized by a female and
youth selectivity and signs of disadvantages in terms of education, qualification and labour market
insertion. Nowadays the major internal migration pattern is urban-urban and more diversified
(Rodríguez Vignoli, 2004: 100).
There is a growing absorption of international migrants into domestic service activities. Economic
crises and differences in level of income between neighbouring countries have stimulated
international migration within the region (women from Bolivia and Paraguay to Argentina, from
Peru to Chile, from Colombia to Venezuela and from Nicaragua and El Salvador to Costa Rica) and
also outside the region. This new phenomenon of intraregional migration has been facilitated by the
geographical proximity, the same language as well as lower transport and communication costs. But
other factors influence the demand for foreign labour. In Chile, for example, national domestic
workers have been less willing to accept “living-in” employment contracts after alternative sources
of employment for poorly qualified women opened up in export sectors (Hernández González,
2000; Mujica-Petit, 2004).
One must also mention here the attraction of the North American labour market for workers from
Mexico and Central America while it which remains out of reach for poor populations from further
South of the continent due to distance and transport costs.
Poverty and domestic service
There is a growing absorption of non- migrant urban women into domestic service. For poor urban
househods domestic work constitutes an easy insertion into the labour market. In the 1980s and
1990s as a result of structural adjustment policies and recurrent economic crises the incidence of
poverty increased in several Latin-American countries. As we have seen the model of households
4
According to the ILO, quoted by Inter Press Service, 19 August 2005. See
http://www.ipsenespanol.net/nota.asp?idnews=34850
with two working adults spread to poor families (Abramo and Valenzuela, 2005) and, at the same
time, the number of female heads of household increased.
Children and domestic service
Poverty generates child labour. It is estimated that around two million children work as domestic
servants, of whom over half a million live in Brazil. The majority are girls (ILO, 2002 y 2004b).
They are the less visible and vulnerable segment of domestic servants, away from their family,
isolated and under the full control of their employers. There is a gap between patriacal social
wisdom that presents domestic service as a suitable alternative to poor girls' education but the
reality is often different and becomes a means to get cheap labour and strengthen subordination
(ILO, 2004b).
To sum up: the main source of domestic workers used to be young women from rural households
looking for work in the cities. Motives of the youth to migrate to town were diverse: support to the
family income, educational and work opportunities, attraction to city entertainment, independencia
from the family etc. but the main reason was the lack of employment opportunities for women in
rural settings. When opportunities are created the migration to urban areas slow down. This is what
happened in Chile where the migration flow of rural women to the capital city fell drastically with
the development of agricultural exports. Rural women were offered employment picking and
conditioning fruit (Hojman, 1989).
Over the last two decades two new sources of domestic workers have grown significantly: poor
urban families and international migrants.
I.3 Domestic service and economic crises
The demand for domestic service is very sensitive to the aggregate activity level of an economy.
With economic growth the demand for domestic service increases and when the economy slows
down the demand decreases. During an economic crisis households adopt adaptation strategies that
consist in substituting products and services bought in the market - including domestic services - by
home produced goods and services. Women are the most affected since they bear the brunt of
family care inside the household. Unpaid domestic work acts as a shock absorber for economic
fluctuations. A case in point is the 2001 Argentinian crisis that saw middle class households
stopped employing domestic servants (World Bank, 2003).
On the other hand domestic service supply tends to be negatively correlated to economic growth.
While at a time of crisis poor women are ready to take up any type of employment, including
domestic service, when the economy picks up alternative employment opportunities are created and
preferred.
II. Overview of domestic service in Latin America
The definition and measurement of “domestic service” present various ambiguities and difficulties.
Furthermore, the sector is very heterogenous with a diversity of employment relations and working
conditions.
II.1 Difficulties of measurement
This paper relies primarily on ILO statistics. The ILO analyses domestic service as an ocupational
category within the informal sector. Labour Overview defines employed persons in the informal
sector "as employed individuals whose main employment activities are classified into one of the
following categories: (1) independent workers (which include family workers and self-employed
workers,
except those performing administrative, professional and technical jobs), (2) domestic service
workers, and (3) workers employed in establishments with a
maximum of five workers" (2004 Labour Overview: 85).
Such categorization tends to underestimate the magnitud of domestic service as sector of activity.
The main reason is that only wage workers are considered as domestic service workers, independent
workers are left out. The second cause of underestimation is that only workers' main activity is
taken into account and therefore secondary activities and part time employment below a certain
treshhold of hours are ignored. In some countries the discrepency can be important. For example,
using the ILO classification, ECLAC had estimated that in 1998 10% of women in the labour force
in Argentina were working in domestic service (ECLAC, 2001, quoted in Cortes, 2004). This
estimate exluded women who had more than one employer who, in the Household Permanent
Survey were counted among independent workers. When those women are included, the proportion
of female workers in domestic service rose to 17%. This means an underestimation of 7% of total
female employment (Cortes, 2004).
Apart from metodological problems there are other sources of underestimation:
- The high incidence of unregistered working relations,
- The clandestine work of illegal foreign migrant workers
- Child domestic workers that household surveys do not capture since children are not recorded as
workers.
So all along the paper it is necessary to bear in mind that: i) the weight of domestic service is higher
than that shown in the statistics; ii) a decrease in the category “domestic service” can hide a change
of status (moving from wage workers to independent worker) rather than a change in the volume of
activity (this is important for the discussion of the modernization of the sector); and iii) the
domestic workers that are left out of the statistics are, in general, the most vulnerables segments.
II.2 Domestic service in figures, 1990-2003
Table 1 – Domestic service as % of urban employment in Latin America and the
Caribbean
Total
Men
Women
1990
5.8
0.5
13.8
1995
7.4
0.8
17.0
Source: Panorama Laboral 2004, Table 6-A, ILO
2000
6.7
0.6
15.4
2002
6.8
0.7
15.2
2003
7.0
0.7
15.5
Table 2 - Domestic service as % of urban employment in Latin America (selected
countries) - 1990 and 2003
Latin America
South Cone
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay*
Andean Region
Bolivia
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru*
Venezuela
Central America
y Mexico
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Honduras
Mexico
Panama
Caribbean
Dominican Rep.
Total
5.8
1990*
Men
0.5
Total
7.0
2003**
Men
0.7
Women
13.8
Women
15.5
5.7
6.9
5.4
0.5
0.5
0.2
14.3
16.7
14.7
16.2
7.3
9.3
6.8
11.8
9.9
0.2
0.9
0.2
1.9
1.7
16.7
20.1
16.8
24.1
20.4
6.8
0.2
2.0
5.0
4.9
3.9
0.1
0.7
0.6
0.4
5.0
12.1
11.6
10.4
4.3
6.3
5.2
5.7
3.1
0.2
0.5
0.4
0.5
0.2
8.9
12.9
11.2
12.4
7.0
5.8
0.3
15.8
7.1
4.6
7.9
0.5
0.7
1.0
14.6
12.0
17.8
5.3
5.7
4.8
4.4
7.1
0.6
1.3
1.0
0.9
1.4
12.6
10.3
8.8
10.5
15.4
5.3
0.8
12.4
Source: Labour Overview 2004, table 6-A, ILO
*1991 instead of 1990 for Argentina, Panama, Peru Uruguay;
**2002 instead of 2003 for Bolivia
At the level of the whole Latin American region the incidence of domestic service increased
between 1990 and 2003, but it evolved differently at the country level (Table 2). Among the
countries for which data is available, it increased in 8 countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay) and decreased in five (Costa Rica, Honduras, México,
Panamá y Venezuela). Additionally, the incidence among men and women did not evolve in the
same direction in all countries. In Argentina and Peru it increased among both men and and women
while in Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and Panama it increased among men and decreased among
women. In Chile it stayed stable among men and increased among women.
A marked difference can be observed between subregions. The incidence of domestic service
increased in the South Cone countries, it decreased in Mexico and Central America while in the
Andean region changes were smaller. The proportion of female labour force working in domestic
service is now highest in the South Cone.
II.3 Domestic service and the macro-socio-economic context
Section II.2 showed that the incidence of domestic service varied between countries. This section
will attempt to check whether correlations can be identified between the incidence of domestic
service and a series of national macro-socio-economic variables: level of development, degree of
inequality, poverty incidence and employment opportunities outside domestic service. The selected
reference variable is the proportion of employed female labour force in domestic service since the
number of men employed in domestic service is very, very low.
Table 4 - Summary of correlations (see annexe for details)
Variable X
Level of
development
Inequality
Poverty 1
Poverty 2
Alternative
employment
opportunities
Variable Y
% female labour
force in domestic
service
Per capita income
(PPP)
% female labour
force in domestic
service
% female labour
force in domestic
service
Gini coefficient
% female labour
force in domestic
service
% female labour
force in domestic
service
% of poor among
urban domestic
servants
% females
employed in
manufacturing
% of households
below national
poverty line
R
R2
0.406
0.165
0.145
0.020
-0.390
0.152
-0.421
0.168
-0.467
0.218
Comment
Low level of
correlation.
(16% explained)
quasi no
correlation
(2% explained)
Low negative
relation
(15%
explained)
Low negative
relation
(16% explained)
Moderate and
negative
relation
(21% explained)
a) Domestic service and level of development
Several authors have related the evolution of domestic service with the level of economic
development (Jiménez Tostón, 2001). For some, the incidence of domestic service is higher in less
developed regions and for others, its incidence withers away with development. This is what
happened in North America and Europe.
In Latin America development levels are mixed. In 2004 per capita income (Purchasing Power
Parity) varied from 4'870 and 12'460 dollars in the South Cone, from 2'590 and 6'820 in the Andean
region and from 2'710 and 9'540 in Central America and Mexico. At the regional level the
correlation between the proportion of employed female labour force in domestic service and income
per capita is weak. The two variables move in the same direction which means that an income
recovery, especially among the middle class, can generate an increase in domestic service. This
explains more specifically the increase of domestic service in the South Cone.
b) Domestic service and inequality
A main determinant of the demand for domestic service is the net income level of urban employers
i.e. the middle and upper classes while domestic employees belong to the bottom rungs of the social
hierarchy. Hence domestic service is meshed into the power structures (gender, class, race and
ethnicity, age etc.) and the inequality dynamics of Latin American societies.
Latin America suffers from high income inequality. Its main characteristic is a high concentration in
the very top of the income scale. In 2003, in the sample of countries considered, the wealthiest
decile received between 32 and 46.7% of national income while the two poorest deciles taken
together received only between 2.8 and 6.6% (De Ferranti & al, 2003). Such inequality has
historical and institutional roots5 but in various countries, the economic crises of the 1980s and
1990s and the regressive neoliberal policies implemented worsened even more the income
distribution.
The correlation coefficient between the female labour force employed in domestic service and the
Gini coefficient, taken as inequality indicator, does reveal a extremely weak relation (R2 explains
only 2% of the variation between countries). The result is a surprise and should be investigated
further. One can speculate that the relation between inequality and the incidence of domestic service
is the aggregate result of two sub-relations with opposite effects. On the one hand, more inequality
could generate a higher demand for domestic service and, on the other hand, an increase in the
demand for domestic service could contribute to lower poverty (see next section) which may result
in less inequality.
c) Domestic service and poverty
Poor households are a main source of domestic workers in urban area. Between 1990 and 2002 the
incidence of urban poverty decreased in Latin America (from 41.4% to 38.4%) but the fate of the
sub-regions is not uniform. It decreased in Central America and Mexico while other sub-regions
present a mixed picture. It worsened in Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
The correlations between domestic service and the two poverty indicators (the pecentge of
households below national poverty line and the percentage of poor among urban domestic servants)
explain only 15.2% and 16.8% respectively of the variation between countries. However what is
interesting is the negative sign of the correlation coefficients. It means that domestic service and
poverty do not vary in the same direction. Though a correlation is not a causal relation, one can
speculate that when poverty increases, the demand for domestic service decreases (as was the case
during the Argentina crisis) and that when domestic service increases poverty would tend to
decrease due to the impact on poor households' income.
d) Domestic service and alternative employment opportunities for women without qualification
Employment opportunities for women with little education can be created in manufacturing and in
services others that domestic service. When new opportunities appear domestic service become less
attractive due to low wages, long working hours, dependency and paternalistic relations, abuses,
precarity etc. In the 1990s the spread of assembly plants (maquiladoras) was the most dynamic
segment of manufaring in Latin America6. A majority was located in Mexico and Central America.
To check the hypothesis that the incidence of domestic service is less in countries where poor
women with little education have other employment opportunities we corrolated the proportion of
employed female labour force working in domestic service with the proportion of women working
in manufacturing7. The relationship is significant and explains 21% of the variation between
countries. Furthermore the relation is inversa which means that when manufacturing increases
domestic service decreases.
5
In countries with indigenous and afro-descent populations differences are considerables. The incomes of those
populations are half that of their “white” counterparts in Bolivia, Brazil and Guatemala (de Ferranti & al.).
6 But employment in Mexican and Central American maquiladoras is very dependent on the North American
economy y on the competition from China. At the beginning of the years 2000 The North American economy
experienced a deceleration. It picked up in 2003 and in 2004 employment in the maquiladoras increased by 4.7%.
(ECLAC, 2005).
7 The branch of activity is “Manufacturing, mining, electricity, gas and water” but women are concentrated in
manufacturing.
e) To sum up
In Latin America women work in a limited number of feminine activities, among them domestic
service (Abramo and Valenzuela, 2001). The vast majority of domestic service wage earners are
women. The incidence of domestic service increased between 1990 and 2003. In 2004 the sector
contributed to 10% to the growth of total employment (ECLAC, 2005: 127). The incidence of
domestic service did not evolve the same way in all countries. Three subregions can be identified:
In Mexico and Central America the follow features coincide:
 decrease of the incidence of domestic service
 alternative employment opportunities for women without much education
 emigration to North America (where the majority of migrant women find employment in
domestic service)
 decrease in poverty
In the South Cone the following features coincide
 increase in the incidence of domestic service
 higher average per capita income
 the incidence of domestic service highest of Latin America
In the Andean region presetns the follwoing features:
 the incidence of domestic service stay more or less at the same level
 the proportion of population below poverty line highest
 emigration of women who go to neighbouring countries to work in domestic service
The relations between the incidence of domestic service and socio-economic variables are not very
strong. The strongest is the existence of alternative employment opportunities for women with poor
education and qualitfications. Culture and tradition may have as much importance than socioeconomic factors in determining the importance of domestic service in female employment8.
III. Situation of domestic workers in the labour market
Domestic service provides an easy access to employment for women who have labour market
disadvantages, little education and qualification or work experience. Domestic service allows youth
from rural areas to have integrate urban life, allows indigena women who do not speak Spanish to
learn the language and allows international migrants to get use to the codes and customs of the host
country. It provides an easy reintegration to women with family obligations. But while it is an
entrance door to the world of work what prospects does it offer in terms of quality of work and
occupational and social mobility?
III.1
Domestic service is a very heterogeneous sector
There is a diversity of employment statuses: living-in employee, non-resident employee with only
one employer, independent domestic worker with several employers etc. Some work full time,
others part time, some are registrered and pay social security and pension contributions, others do
not. This diversity is due as much to the demand for as to the supply of domestic service. However,
despite the diversity of status, domestic workers constitute a labour segment that distinguishes them
from other wage workers due to the informality and easy access to the activity, the working
8 In his book on occupational segregation by sex Richard Anker (1998) pointed to the importance of cultural factors
to explain sub)regional level convergence.
conditions and the degree of protection.
According to the survey Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica 19989 on domestic service,
5.9% of Latin American households had one or more living-in domestic employee and 9% had one
or more non-resident domestic employee (table 6). The probability to have a domestic employee
increased with the social-economic level of the household: 22% of the better-off decile had living-in
domestic employees while only 1.2% of the four bottom deciles had some. The corresponding
figures for non-resident employees were 24.7% and 2.,2% respectively.
But the level of income is not sufficient to explain the demand for different types of domestic
service. Other factors influence employers' strategies:
 Cultural changes and the degree of “modernization” of a country contribute to the differences
between countries. For example, Argentina and Chile seem to have a marked “preference” for
non-resident employees (the two countries show the highest difference between the proportion
of households with living-in employees and that off non-resident employees) while Brazil,
Colombia and Mexico show high proportions of both categories.
 The structure of the household: households where both man and woman adults are working and
households with children have a higher propensity to have living-in employees.
 The relative cost of domestic employees (comparing the average wage of domestic employees
to average earnings of women employers.10
In the Latin American region the proportion of non-resident domestic employees is increasing11.
This trend results from changes in both the demand for and supply of domestic service that we
listed in the first section of the paper. The progress made in the education of women led to an
increase in the labour force participation of women from upper and middle classes that, in turn,
generated a new demand for domestic service to which responded a growth in the labour market
participation of women from poor households (Abramo y Valenzuela, 2005). However, a number
of these new employers of domestic service cannot afford or cannot accommodate living-in
employees. Real estate speculation in metropolitan cities tend to reduce the size of flats and rooms
originally planned as servant quarters tend to disappear. Furthermore, some middle class families do
not have a level of income sufficient to allow them to have a full time employee.
On the other hand as seen above the perfil of domestic workers has changed. A higher proportion of
them originate from the town in which they are employed, this means that they preferr to go back to
their family home every day. The demographic profile of workers also tends to change: in
Argentina, Rosalia Cortes (2004) noted that between 1994 and 2003 the relative importance of
women between 40 and 59 years of age and that of youth decreased while that of married women or
9
The survey Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica (Audits & Surveys Worldwide) target people between
12 and 64 years of age in 18 Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Dominican republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Uruguay and Venezuela) and Puerto Rico. For a methodological description of the sample see
http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata25.htm
10
In the north of brazil, income of professional women employers (lawyers, doctors, engineers etc.) were 10
times higher than the earnings of the domestic workers (quotes in Los Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica 1998), In
Argentina, in 2004, average monthly salary of professional working women were 4.3 times higher than the unskilled
salary earners (Argentina, 2005b: 27).
11
In Argentina, lthe proportion of domestic employees with living-in arrangement decreased from 28.8% en
1974 to 3.2% en 2003 while the proportion of households with living-in domestic employee decreased from 2.4 to
0.3% during the same period (Cortés, 2004).
women heads of household increased. Hence, domestic workers' strategies have diversified: some
need a full time job, others want a part-time job that enables them to reconcile work and famiy
responsibilities, others again want only a complement the household income while others choose to
work independently and have the possiblity to change employer in case of conflict or of finding
better working conditions.
To understand the new sectoral dynamics it is important to take into account the diversified
behaviours of both tthe domestic workers and their employers. Over the last two decades the nature
of domestic service has evolved. It has become less a long term personal relationship and more a
commercial transaction (Howell,2002). The paternalism that characterized the economic and social
links between employees and employers is disappearing. Domestic workers have acquire more
autonomy. All countries and all regions inside a country are evolving in the same direccion, but not
all at the same pace and different forms of domestic service employment continue to co-exist.
III.2 Working conditions
Domestic service may lend itself to exploitation. The degree of exploitation is prone to vary with
the type of employment contract and the profile of the workers. Two groups are particularly
vulnerable: migrants and children (Ramírez-Machado, 2003).
The living-in (puerta adentro) domestic workers work exclusively for one employer. This is the
privileged employment status for youth and women who migrate to a city on their own. The
advantages are food and lodging security and the protection of a household. The disadvantages are a
higher risk of exploitation: long hours of work, extra work load, limited breaks and rest periods,
substandard accommodation, substandard food, lack of independence, social and emotional
isolation, and may go to abuses, insults and sexual harassment. Since employers consider domestic
work easy they tend to extend their demands. It is not unusual for living-in domestic workers to be
called at any time of day or night. This is especially detrimental to young workers who are
supposed to attend classes or follow some training. In general private space reserved to domestic
workers is small and many complain of their employer's interference into their own affairs.
Furthermore it is more difficult to change employment as this means loosing food, lodging and
shelter.
Non-resident domestic employment with only one employer is an option for women who have got a
family living in their city of work. The advantages are work schedules more or less fix and more
independence. The disadvantages are transport costs not only in financial terms but also in time
spent to reach home. generally domestic workers live in poor parts of town far from their
employer's residential areas. It is easier to change employment in case of conflict or unsastisfactory
working conditions.
Independent workers with several employers negotiate their working time. Those who have a
specialised activity (cooking, ironing etc.) acquire a professional status and can negotiate better
terms of employment. The disadvantage is the time loss to go from one household to another.
Common problems to all statuses are: low wages, employment insecurity and the lack of benefits
granted to other workers as we shall see in the fourth section. Whithout a formal work contract
domestic workers have difficulties to get compensation in case of dismissal, sickness or maternity.
Furthermore many domestic workers are exposed to abuses such as arbitrary and unilateral changes
in their terms of employment, especially when they work illegally and/or are not registered and do
not pay any social and pension contributions.
Domestic workers may be subjected to discrimination. Some forms of discrimination are the same
as those faced by other workers but in the case of domestic service there is often a cumulative effect
when various characteristics meet simultaneously (gender, social class, ethnicty, race, nationality,
education,age etc.)12. Those discriminatory processes can lead to a differenciation among groups of
domestic workers and an assumed scale of competences and qualities that affect the wage
structure13 (Destremau et Lautier, 2002).
III.3 Wages
Domestic service workers are found at the bottom of the salary scale (Table 5). Their wages are, in
general, significantly lower than the average earnings of all workers (ILO, 2001). Their
determination results from the interaction of all the parameters that contribute to the undervaluation
of the sector. They includes economic factors such as a structural surplus of the supply of domestic
workers leading to a crowding effect and other factors that have little to do with market mechanisms
but are related to social practices.
In 1990 the average wage of domestic workers varied between 0.8 and 2.5 per capita national
poverty lines y en 2002 between 0.8 and 2.9. The situation of domestic workers in relation to other
private sector wage earners has not changed much over the period. The wage gap varied between
1.2 and 3.1 poverty lines in 1990 and between 0.9 and 4.1 in 2003. It narrowed in nine countries
and widened in seven. It is not possible to identify any improvement or worsening pattern nor to
differentiate between sub-regions.
12 For a global overview of discriminatory processes see time for Equality at Work (ILO, 2003b).
13 There is wage discrimination when the main determiniant of the wage is not the task to be performed but the
attributes of the person that performs it (ILO, 2003b: 52).
Table 5 – Average income of wage and salary earners from the private sector and
domestic service (in multiples of per capita national poverty lines)
Country
South Cone
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
Andean region
Bolivia
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Venezuela
Central America
and Mexico
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Honduras
México
Panamá
Caribbean
Dominican Rep.
Average income
of wage/salary
earners private
sector
Average income
of wage/salary
earners domestic
service
Difference
2002*
1990
2002
change
2.5
1.0
1.4
1.2
1.5
1.7
1.4
2.4
1.4
2.0
2.2
3.1
2.4
1.3
2.2
1.8
2.1
2.9
2.0
2.4
+
+
+
4.0
3.1
3.1
3.8
2.4
1.6
1.3
0.8
2.3
2.1
2.0
1.7
1.5
2.9
1.2
2.3
1.2
2.0
1.4
1.5
2.0
1.4
1.6
0.9
1.2
+
-
4.4
3.0
2.5
3.5
4.4
6.0
3.7
2.4
3.2
6.3
1.5
1.0
0.8
1.4
1.3
2.0
2.0
0.8
1.4
2.5
2.9
2.0
1.7
2.1
3.1
4.0
1.7
1.6
1.8
3.8
+
+
3.7
3.7
1.4
1.3
2.3
2.4
+
1990
2002*
4.7
4.1
3.8
2.5
3.7
3.5
3.5
5.3
3.4
4.4
3.9
2.5
2.8
3.7
3.6
1990
Source: Social Panorama of Latin America 2004, table 7, ECLAC
2002 or closest available year
The wage level is important because domestic workers have financial obligations towards their
families (either their own household or their household of origin). Furthermore, as they work and
live in wealthier houselholds they tend to acquire more expensive consumer habits than that of their
family of origin (Anderfuhren, 2002). Generally wages are negotiated at the time of hiring and the
domestic worker is in an inferiority position (social, educational, economic etc.). In Rio de Janeiro
or Sao Paulo, for example, for 40 to 50% of the domestic employees the level of wages was fixed
under the legal minimum wage (Lautier, 2003).
The wage level is also a measure of employment alternatives within the reach of domestic workers.
Table 7 presents average wage (measured in multiples of the poverty line of each country) of the
empoyed economically active population and the groups at the bottom of the salary scale (domestic
service, wage workers of small enterprises and unskilled own account workers). The average wage
of domestic employees increased between 1990 and 2002 (except in Argentina and Venezuela that
were affected by an economic crisis at the begining of the century). Nevertheless domestic workers
were earning less that all the other categories except in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru where unskilled
self-employed had lower earnings.
In the 1990s there was a significant improvement in the earning per hour for domestic workers in
compairson to others groups of workers. In 1990 average wage per hour in small enterprises was
2.19 times that of domestic workers and the average wage per hour of unskilled own account
workers was 4.94 times. In 1999 the figures had decreased to 1.52 and 2.97 times respectively (ILO,
2004). ILO explains the improvement by the increase in minimum wages in the region14. But we
could also formulate the hypothesis that the increase in the relative proportion of non-resident and
independent domestic workers also contributed to the improvement of the average earning per hour
in the sector.
As domestic service is a sector of activity where women are over-represented, this increase in the
wage per hour explains an important part of the reduction in the gender wage gap of the informal
sector that decreased from 26% at the beginning of the 1990s to 18% at the end of the decade (ILO,
2001).
However, wage per hour is not the only determinant of domestic workers' level of earnings. It is
necessary to take into account the number of hours worked. A study from the Ministry of Labour of
Argentina (2005) showed that the average wage per hour of domestic workers was higher than that
of other unskilled female workers but as they had shorter working day, the level of their average
montly earnings was lower (Argentina, 2005: 16). The study showed an inverse relationship
between wage per hour and the length of working day and that the monthly earnings were inferior
to that of the others workers with similar skill because of the volume of hours worked was less15.
Two thirds of domestic workers do less than 35 hours of work per week. It should be pointed out
that for a majority this underemployment is not chosen since 54% of the domestic workers surveyed
would like to work more hours.
In its study of six metropolitan regions of Brazil DIESSE (2006) also found an inverse relationship
between wage per hour and the length of working day. It also showed that the hourly earnings of
domestic workers varied with the employment status. Those paid on a daily basis had higher
earnings than those who received a monthy wage. For example, in 2005, in Sao Paulo the former
earned 3.46 reais per hour while those who received monthly wages were paid 2.57 reais per hour
when fully declared and 1.88 reais per hour for those not declared. At the same time those paid
daily worked 20 hours per week, those paid monthly and declared worked 39 hours per week and
those paid monthly and undeclared worked 46 hours per week.
14 Though many domestic employees may not be paid the legal minimum wage, the latter constitutes a reference point
for the informal economy. Employers in the informal economy seems to be more willing to pay the minimum wage
than other remuneration components such as extra-time (Van de Meulen Rodgers, 1999¸Grimshaw y Miozzo, 2003).
15 The study of the Argentinian Labour Ministry shows that hourly wage of domestic workers working up to 30 hours
per month was 5.1 pesos while the income per hour of employees working over 150 hours per month was only 1.6
pesos (Argentina, 2005:17).
Table 7 – Average income of the employed economically active population, by
occupational category, urban areas, 1990-2002*
(in multiples of the respective per capita poverty line)
Total
SouthCone
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
Andean
Region
Bolivia
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Venezuela
Central
America &
Mexico
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Honduras
Mexico
Panama
Caribbean
DominicanRe
p.
Wage or salary earners, private sector,
non-professional, non-technical
Establish-ments < Establish-ments
Domestic
5 persons
>5 persons
employ-ment
Own account,
non- professional
non- technical
1990
2002
1990
2002
1990
2002
1990
2002
1990
2002
6.4
4,7
4,7
3,4
4,3
4.7
4,3
7,3
3,1
4,3
4,5
3,8
3,5
2,6
3,7
3,1
3,1
4,0
3,6
4,3
3,6
2,6
2,4
1,8
2,5
2,1
2,1
2,9
2,2
2,6
2,5
1,0
1,4
0,8
1,5
1,7
1,4
2,4
1,6
2,0
7.2
3,4
5,0
3,6
5,1
4,1
2,8
5,8
1,7
2,4
4,2
2,9
2,8
3,2
3,0
3,5
3,2
3,3
3,5
2,4
2,9
4,0
3,0
3,4
4,2
2,5
2,6
2,4
2,3
2,1
2,0
1,7
1,6
1,3
0,8
2,0
1,7
1,5
2,9
1,2
3,8
2,2
1,9
1,9
1,5
2,4
1,6
2,8
6,5
3,9
2,3
4,1
6.4
4,3
5,9
3,6
2,3
3,3
6,5
3,2
2,0
2,0
0,8
1,4
2,5
3,4
4,5
5,2
2,8
4,4
5,1
4,7
3,6
2,7
3,1
4,1
3,5
2,5
1,6
2,6
3,7
2,3
1,4
2,1
5,9
2,3
2,1
1,5
0,8
1,4
1,3
1,3
4,3
1,5
4,4
2,3
3,1
2,2
1,2
3,2
2,8
4,1
Source: Social Panorama of Latin America 2004, Table 7, ECLAC
* Instead of 1990, it is1989 for Bolivia and Mexico, 1991 for Colombia and Panama. Instead of 2002 it is 1999 for
Peru; 2000 for Paraguay; 2001 for Brazil and El Salvador; 2003 for Chile
III.4
Social Protection
National social protection statistics are so widely divergent that any comparison between countries
is impossible16. However, tentatively we can identify some general trends in social security
coverage. The increased informalization and precarization of the Latin American labour markets
between 1990 and 2003 has led to a decrease in the social protection of workers. The coverage of
informal sector workers decreased from 29.2% to 26.2% (ILO, 2004). This is also the trend for
male domestic workers, their coverage decreased by 1.9%. On the other hand the coverage of
female domestic workers increased by 6.2%.
16 But some dedicated independent studies can throw some light. Some recent studies have shown that in Argentina
94,5% of domestic workers who work 6 hours or more did not pay pension contributions, only 13.8% had some
sick-leave coverage and 5.7% had a social insurance scheme (Argentina, 2005). In Brazil a little more than half
women employed in domestic service did not contribute to any social security scheme (DIESSE, 2006).
The increase in the proportion of female domestic workers with social security coverage has various
explanations among those the professionalization of the activity but also the increase in the number
of women heads of household. A woman with a working husband works used to derive coverage
from her husband's contributions. Nowadays, the increase in the proportion of women heads of
household – whether due to a divorce, an unemployed partner or by choice – makes it more
imperative for women to have a coverage on their own. However, the high proportion of not
declared or irregular work relations within domestic service means that a majority of domestic
workers remain without any social protection.
Maternity protection is of significant importance for a sector so highly feminized. Maternity
benefits are paid through social security schemes and therefore, as seen above, many do not have
any protection. Anyway, in the daily reality of domestic service, a pregnancy often implies the loss
of employment whether with benefits or without benefits (Ramírez-Machado, 2003).
Pension entitlements is another concern. The future of domestic workers is highly insecure. The low
level of their earnings does not allow them to save and when their employment is irregular or
undeclared employers do not pay any pension contributions. Many domestic workers continue to
work until they are not able to do it anymore and/or they cannot find employers anymore.
III.5
Social mobility
A crucial question is whether domestic service jobs constitute a bridge or a dead end that traps
domestic workers onto the lower rungs of the labour market. In particular does it enable female
workers to break the poverty vicious circle or does it contribute to the reproduction of income
inequality?
In the past domestic service was viewed as part of a social mobility process for young rural women.
It enables them to learn urban habits and through vocational training and an insertion in information
and solidarity networks they could eventually aspire to another type of employment and social
promotion. This optimistic vision of domestic service belongs more to the realm of romantic photostory than reality (Butler Flora, 1988, Smith, 1988). Various studies relate another reality.
Margo Smith (1988) studied the trajectory of domestic workers who left their position as living-in
employees in Lima in the 70s and 80s. She showed that for many women from rural extraction the
domestic service was one of the few means to survive and an opportunity for contact with urban
life. Many considered that they and their children managed to have a “better” life than if they had
stayed in their poverty striken village of origin17. However, what they achieved in Lima is a
“lateral” socio-economic mobility limited to opportunities within reach of poor women with little
education i.e. non-resident domestic service, street vendor or a withdrawal from the labour market
to marry and rear a family. A few turn to prostitution and even less went to work in factories.
Though the life of a street vendor is economically precarious the attraction of the occupation result
from the lack of stigmatization linked to the status of domestic servant.
In his article on female domestic workers in Latin America and the sociology of work, Bruno
Lautier (2003) also treats the theme of social mobility. He stressed that the idea of domestic work
was only a stepping stone in an occupational mobility trajectory does not correspond to main reality
of metropolitan cities. In those cities the majority of domestic workers originate from the city itself.
However, the “traditional” picture of the young domestic worker who has just arrived from the
countryside continue to be pertinent in parts of Colombia, Mexico, Peru o Brazil, in particular in
17 Pero al quitar el servicio doméstico unas empleadas volvían a su pueblo.
medium size towns. A fair proportion of young domestic workers have the ambition to study with
the view to have access to better employment but few succeed (less than a third in Brazil). Various
reasons are responsible for the high drop-out rate: tiredness after a whole day of work prevents them
from attending regular evening classes, the employer who claims some assistance at the time of the
classes, the price of private tuition and discouragement. Those who manage to finish their studies
tend to attend classes of general education, secretarial training or sewing.
In Brazil, mobility outside domestic service is low but alternative employment opportunities are
limited. Domestic workers are almost three times more numerous than female factory workers.
(Lautier, 2003: 802)18. The mobility outside domestic service consists mostly in taking up a job
as cleaner in industrial or commercial offices. Such move is explained by the desire to enter
social security and pension schemes rather than a better level of earnings which in general is
lower. Therefore the majority of domestic workers mobility is within the domestic service sector
itself as Lautier describes:
“Social mobility that seems to be accessible to domestic workers and that polarizes hopes and
energies, is mobility within the status of domestic workers. It follows this pattern: living-in
domestic worker, non-resident domestic worker with only one employer, generalist domestic
worker with several employers, semi-generalist domestic worker with several employers, semispecialist, independent specialist. It is very rare to go through the whole chain. The most frequent is
to stop at the second stage i.e. non-resident domestic worker with only one employer19 (Lautier,
2003: 802)”.
To sum up: while vertical mobility seems to be a myth, there is an important horizontal mobility,
i.e. a rotation of same type of jobs or a return to inactivity, the latter coinciding with marital/ family
strategies. This mobility is encouraged by the informality and the easy job access prevailing in
domestic service. But access to jobs depends on the access to information since family and personal
networks are the main sources to secure a job or an employee.
The low level of mobility whether inside or outside domestic service constrasts with the discourse
of domestic workers themselves who refer to the character “provisional” of their position. For
Marie Anderfuhren (2002), though improbable, the vision of a strategy to escape outside domestic
service help domestic workers to face the disregard they suffer from. The construction of an
imaginary exit door becomes a survival strategy.
III.6
Domestic service and quality of employment: a synthesis
Domestic service is one of the less disadvantaged sector of the labour market but all domestic
workers do not enjoy the same working conditions. Job quality seems to vary along a continum
defined by the employment statuses. The professionalization of domestic service enables the
workers to get better working conditions. However, the picture is not clear-cut because on the one
hand the employment statuses described above can be legally registered or not and on the other
hand, the personal dimension in the relationship between employee and employer continue to be
very important. A living-in worker with a good employer contributing to social security and pension
funds may be better-off that a semi-generalist independent worker.
18
It was estimated that between a quarter and a third of those factory workers had previously been domestic workers
(Lautier, 2003)
19 translation by the author
Tendency of the relation between employment status and quality of employment
Living-in
domestic worker
Not living-in
semi-generalist
worker
with one
employer
Worse
Semi-generalist
worker
with several
employers
Semi-specialist
worker with
several
employers
quality of employment
Own account
specialist
Better
The search for better employment quality is also conditioned by the workers' family life cycle
(Howell, 2002). The age and the position of a woman worker within her family (daughter, spouse,
mother) affect the choice of type of employment status. It should be pointed out that though many
non-resident workers do not work full time but a majority of them would like to work more
(Argentina, 2005a).
While the profile of domestic workers and the forms of contract are changing in most countries
traditional (living-in) and more modern forms of domestic work continue to co-exist.
IV. Domestic service regulation
In several countries domestic workers stay at the margin of the rights and protective laws that cover
other activities. As a group domestic workers suffer from deficits of legal protection as well as of
quality of employment. The improvement of their situation is a question of social justice but the
isolated nature of domestic activities (behind the walls of a household) restrict the possibility for
domestic workers to organize themselves and improve their situation collectively.
IV.1 The legal framework varies between countries
In the course of the XXth century the majority of Latin American countries gradually regulated
domestic service either through their labour code or by means of specific laws. While the legislation
does not reflect the daily reality of domestic workers. The national legal framework constitutes a
reference. The two fundamental questions are: how far do the laws and regulations that govern
domestic service offer a protection to its workers? and to which extent are those laws and regulation
respected and enforced?
In his study of domestic service regulation in the world, Ramírez-Machado (2003) identifies the
deficiencies and limits of the protection countries extent to domestic workers. He identifies three
approaches:
i) Countries that considered domestic service as a special employment relation, to which the
general labour legal framework does not apply. They promulgated some laws and
regulations specific to domestic service (as for example Argentina, Brazil or Peru);
ii) Countries that devoted some chapters or sections to their labour code or general labour
legislation to domestic service. In those cases, the general labour legislation does apply to
domestic service but sometime not in full (Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay y
Venezuela).
iii) Countries that did not included any specific regulations to apply to domestic service in their
labour code and that did not promulgate and special legislation covering domestic service
but that promulgate general labour laws that can include or exclude domestic service.
(Colombia)
The review of Latin American legal frameworks shows that the protection extended to domestic
workers varies from country to country. Generally the norms applied to domestic workers are less
favorable than the norms applied to other categories of workers. This legal stigmatization is brought
about in two ways: 1) when domestic workers are explicitly excluded from regulation that applies to
other workers and 2) when special laws or regulations grant them less protection on account of the
nature of domestic service (Ramírez-Machado, 2003: 9).
Often, legal protection is even restricted further within the category of domestic service. In
Argentina, for example, the legal framework only covers workers who are working for one
employer and during a minimum number of hours per week. Those who do not comply with those
requirements are left outside legal protection altogether (Argentina, 200520).
In general, by law, working time of domestic workers is longer than that of other workers and extra
time is rarely remunerated. Laws tend to include norms regarding weekly rest, bank holidays, sick
leave and maternity leave but those norms vary tremendously from one country to another. Such
diversity reflects the difficulty to reconcile two competing rights: the employer's right to protect his
private sphere and the employee's right to decent working conditions. En case of dismissal for
example, the employer can aspire to have in his home a person who has his/her confidence but at
the same time the employee needs protection against unfair dismissal.
In the case of conflict, the provision of evidence is very important. The employment contract
governs the work relations between the two contractual parties and it enables a worker to claim
benefits and compensation linked to his/her status of worker. It specifies the employer's and the
employee's obligations and rights. It should include information on the tasks to perform, the type of
employment (living-in/non-resident, full-time, part-time), wages, working hours, weekly rest, extra
time, holidays entitlements, trial period, terms of contract termination, conflict resolution etc. In
Latin America only the Chilean law used to specifically require a written contract for domestic
workers. Bolivian law made it compulsory after several months of employment and in other
countries an oral contract was sufficient. Hence in case of conflict it is the employee's word against
that of his/her employer.
IV.2 Protection of vulnerable groups
Child labour
Various countries have taken measures to protect the child domestic worker. The most frequent
reference is the minimum age at which a child would be allowed to work as a domestic servant. In
some countries it is the same age for all branches of economic activities (Cuba, Guatemala,
Honduras, Peru), in others the minimum age for domestic service is 14 years of age (Argentina,
Bolivia, Republica Dominicana, Mexico y Nicaragua), others agreed on 14 years of age but imposes
20 El marco legislativo de 1956 sólo incluía a las trabajadoras que trabajaban más de 16 horas por semana por lo tanto
más de la mitad las empleadas hubieran sido excluidas de esta normativa. En el año 2000 la ley de reforma tributaria
incluyó a las trabajadoras que trabajan 6 horas y más, normativa fuera de la cual se encontrarían un 9,4% de los
ocupados.
some restrictions regarding the length of the working day, the workload, and to have completed
basic education or to work only during school holidays (Chile). In some countries the minimum age
is lowered to 12 years of age when children have to support parents or younger siblings (Colombia,
Ecuador y Venezuela). Additionally Panamá, Paraguay y Venezuela require parents' or legal tutor's
authorization for a child to work. Mexico, Paraguay, la Republica Dominicana y Venezuela require
a medical check-up (Ramírez-Machado, 2003).
International migrants
Low wages, extended working days, ignorance of their own rights, violence, and exposure to abuses
are problems shared by all domestic workers whether national or foreign. However, international
migrants are more vulnerable due to discriminatory practices and, for many of them, due to the
absence of legal documents. Without a legal work permit they are exposed to exploitation not only
at work but also in their social integration such as in their search for lodgings when they do not live
on the employer's premises (Ceriani Cernadas & al., 2005). In several countries international
domestic workers have to pay a deposit when applying for a work permit21 that can be
prohibitively high. Among international domestic workers the tendency to enter the host country
with a tourist visa and stay as “indocumented” migrants is wide spread. They are vulnerable to their
employer's violation of existing labour laws and in particular the non-respect of legal rest periods or
holidays, and unpaid extra work (García Quesada y Retana Arguadas, 2000; Hernández González,
2000).
4.3 Law enforcement
The employment conditions of domestic workers do not only depend on the degree of protection
granted by law but how far the laws are respected. In the daily reality of domestic service the
personal factor predominates in the relation employer-employee. The social distance made the
relationship unequal, both sides do not have the same power of negotiation. Working conditions
vary widely, some employers treat their employee fairly but others do not pay attention to the law.
Law enforcement is difficult because of the private and hidden nature of domestic service. As
already mentioned two rights interact. On the one hand, the duty of the State to protect the basic
rights of the workers and on the other hand, the right of employer to protect their intimacy and their
family (Ramírez-Machado, 2003: 63). Because the private character of a household, the labour
inspectors have difficulty to act on their own authority. The only means to intervene is at the
request of one of the parties which limit the possibilities for enforcement of the law. In some
countries labour inspectors can only intervene with the expressed agreement of the employer
(Argentina and Venezuela). Therefore law violations and conflicts between employees and
employers rarely find their way to tribunals despite the fact that law violation is extensive in
domestic service.
Conclusion
In Latin America. domestic service is an important source of employment for women with labour
market disadvantages. Its incidence has evolved differently in different countries. It decreased in
21
En Costa Rica, el monto era de US$100. El deposito era menor para otros oficios sin que se sepa el porque de
la diferenciación. Luego de múltiples esfuerzos realizados desde el Centro Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Mujer y la
Familia (CMF) se logró disminuir el monto del depósito que deben pagar las mujeres migrantes que quieren laborar
como servidoras domésticas. Para ello, el Gobierno emitió el Decreto Ejecutivo No. 26634-SP, determinando dicho
monto en US$20. (García Quesada y Retana Arguadas, 2000: 7).
countries where alternative employment opportunities for unskilled women were created and it
increased in countries where the massive entry of educated women into the labour market generated
a new demand for domestic services.
The sector underwent a transformation process. Since the 1980s poor urban households provide the
majority of domestic workers in metropolitan cities such as Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Bogota o Santiago
de Chile and in the 1990s the intra-regional migration of female domestic workers increased
significantly.
The employment relation within the sector has become less personal and more commercial. The
professionalization of the activity has contributed to improving the quality of employment but the
crowding of women within the sector does allow workers to earn sufficiently to get out of poverty
and move up the social scale. The major problems of the sector are: low wages, employment
insecurity, poor social protection and the absence of benefits granted to other workers.
Domestic workers suffer from legal stigmatization i.e. norms applied to domestic workers are less
favorable than norms applied to other categories of workers. Hence they stay at the margin of
various rights and protective norms. Furthermore the level of evasion from statutory norms is much
higher than in other occupations. A high proportion of domestic workers are not regularly registered
and do not belong to any social security or pension schemes.
To improve the situation of domestic workers it would be necessary to enhance the image of the
activity in society and stress its social and economic role so that domestic workers could pretend to
the same rights as other workers.
Domestic service has been put up for discussion at the 2009 ILO Annual Conference with the view
to draft a Convention for 2010.
Bibliography
Abramo, L. (2004): “Women's participation in the labor market in Latin America: a secondary work
force?” en Revista Estudos Feministas., Vol.12, No.2 May/Aug. (Florianopolis, Brasil),
p.224-235.
Abramo, L. y Valenzuela, M-E. (2001): América Latina: Brechas de equidad y progreso laboral de
las mujeres en los 90, OIT-Lima y OIT-ACTRAV, 72p.
Abramo, L. y Valenzuela, M-E. (2005): Balance del progreso laboral de las mujeres en América
Latina en Revista Internacional del Trabajo, Vol.124, No.2 (Ginebra, Oficina Internacional
del Trabajo), pp.399-420.
Anderfurhen, M. (2002): “Mobilité professionnelle des domestiques au Brésil (Nordeste) une
logique complexe” en Revue Tiers-Monde No.170, abril-junio (Paris),
Anker, R. (1998): Gender and jobs: sex segregation of occupations in the world (Ginebra, Oficina
Internacional del Trabajo), 444 p.
Argentina, Ministerio del Trabajo (2005a): Caracterización del servicio doméstico, Dirección
General de Estudios y Estadísticas Laborales, Subsecretaria de Programación Técnica y
Estudios Laborales, Agosto (Buenos Aires), 26 p.
Argentina, Ministerio del Trabajo (2005b): Diagnóstico de la situación laboral de las mujeres,
cuarto trimestre de 2004, Dirección General de Estudios y Estadísticas Laborales,
Subsecretaria de Programación Técnica y Estudios Laborales, Agosto (Buenos Aires), 34 p.
Bello, A. y Rangel, M. (2002): “La equidad y la exclusión de los pueblos indígenas y
afrodescendientes en América Latina y el Caribe” en Revista de la CEPAL No.76, Abril
(Santiago, CEPAL), pp.39-54.
Benería, L. (1999): “El debate inconcluso sobre el trabajo no remunerado” en Revista internacional
del trabajo, Vol.118, No.3 (Ginebra, Oficina Internacional del Trabajo), pp.322-346.
Bourdieu, P. (1998): La domination masculine (Paris, Editions du Seuil), 146 p.
Chaney, E.M. y Garcia Castro, M. (eds) (1991): Muchachas No More, Household Workers in Latin
America and the Caribbean, Temple University Press, 498 p. Versión en español:
Muchacha, cachifa, criada, empleada, empregadinha, sirvienta y… más nada. Trabajadoras
del hogar en América Latina y el Caribe (Caracas, Editorial Nueva Sociedad, 1993).
Ceriani Cernadas, P. (coordinador) (2005): Migración y trabajo doméstico en la Argentina: una
aproximación interdisciplinaria,
Confederación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Trabajadoras del Hogar (CONLACTRAHO)
(2005): “La construcción de una estrategia de laborización de las trabajadoras del Hogar” en
Sindicatos y Formación (CINTERFOR web portal)
http://www.cinterfor.org.uy/public/spanish/region/ampro/cinterfor/publ/sind_for/castillo/pdf
/exp_sec.pdf
Cortés, R. (2004): Salarios y marco regulatorio del trabajo en el Servicio Doméstico, Programa
inFocus sobre Repuesta a las Crisis y Reconstrucción, Documento de trabajo No. 9
(Ginebra, OIT), 33 p.
De Ferranti, D., Perry, G.E., Ferreira, F.H.y Walton, M. (2003): Desigualdad en América Latina y
el Caribe: ¿Ruptura con la historia?, Estudios del Banco Mundial sobre América Latina
(Washington, Banco Mundial).
Destremau, B. y Lautier, B. (2002): “Femmes en domesticité, les domestiques du Sud, au Nord et
au Sud” en Revue Tiers-Monde, No.170 avril-juin (Paris),
ECLAC (2003): Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial (Santiago-Chile).
ECLAC (2004): Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial (Santiago-Chile).
ECLAC (2005): Estudio económico de América Latina y el Caribe 2004-2005 (Santiago, CEPAL),
185 p.
Flora, C. Butler (1988): “Domestic Service in the Latin American Fotonovela” en Elsa M. Chaney y
Mary Garcia Castro (1988): Muchachas no more, household workers in Latin America and
the Caribbean (Philadelphia, Temple University Press), pp.143-159.
Folbre, N. y Nelson, J.A. (2000): “For love or money – or both?” en The Journal of Economic
Perspectives; Vol.14, No.4; pp. 123-140.
García Castro, M. (1993): “The alchemy between social categories in the production of political
subjects: class, gender, race and generation in the case of domestic workers’union leaders in
Salvador-Bahia, Brazil” en the European Journal of Development Research, Vol.5, No.2,
Dic.1993 (London), pp.1-22.
García Quesada, A.I., Retana Arguedas, F. (2000) : “Programa Soy trabajadora doméstica y
conozco mis derechos – experiencia en Costa Rica", Fundación Género y Sociedad, Taller
Internacional Mejores Prácticas Relativas a Trabajadores Migrantes y sus Familias, organizado
por la Organización Internacional para las Migraciones (OIM) con la cooperación de
CEPAL/CELADE y la CIDH/OEA, bajo los auspicios del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos,
en cumplimiento del Plan de Acción de la Cumbre de las Américas; Santiago de Chile, 1920 Junio 2000.
http://www.iom.int/documents/officialtxt/sp/fresia%5Fretana.pdf
Gill, L. (1995): Dependencias precarias: clase, género y servicio doméstico, (La Paz, Bolivia,
ACDI/COTESU), 193 p.
Giullari, S. y Lewis, J. (2005): The adult worker model family, gender equality and care, UNRISD
Social Policy and Development Paper No.19 (Geneva), 27 p.
Glantz, N.M. (2003): “Moving maids: Dynamics of domestic service and development” en Política
y Cultura, N.23, pp. 83-102.
Grimshaw, D. y Miozzo, M. (2003): Minimum wages in Latin América: Identifying the employment
and pay equity effect, Declaration Working Paper No.12 (Ginebra, OIT).
Héritier, F. (2004): “La valence differentielle des sexes au profit des hommes” en F. Rault
(coordinadora): L’identité masculine, permanences et mutations, Problèmes politiques et
sociaux (Paris, La Documentation Française).
http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/revues-collections/problemes-politiquessociaux/2003/sommaire894.shtml
Hernández González, P. (2000): Atención a Inmigrantes Laborales Peruanos en Santiago: una
experiencia desde la solidaridad y la cultura de acogida, (documento de trabajo), Instituto
Católico Chileno de Migración, junio.
http://www.iom.int/documents/officialtxt/sp/pedro%5Fhernandez.pdf
Hojman, D.E. (1989): “Land reform, female migration and the market for domestic service in
Chile” en Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol.21, No.1, Feb.(Cambridge-UK), pp.105132.
Howell, J. (2002): “Of servanthood and self-employment: changing patterns of domestic service in
southern Mexico” en Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World
Economic Development Vol.31, No.3/4 (Brockport), pp.389-422.
ILO (1999): Trabajo Decente, Memoria del Director-General, 87a reunión de la Conferencia
Internacional del Trabajo, Ginebra, junio de 1999.
ILO (2001): Organizing the unorganized: informal economy and other unprotected workers,
Gender Promotion Programme
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/gems/eeo/tu/cha_5.htm#5.%20Domestic%20
Workers
ILO (2002): Un futuro sin trabajo infantil, Informe global con arreglo al seguimiento de la
Declaración de la OIT relativa a los principios y derechos fundamentales en el trabajo 2002,
(Ginebra, 2002)
ILO (2003): Panorama Laboral, (Lima, OIT).
ILO (2003b): La hora de la igualdad en el trabajo, Informe global con arreglo al seguimiento de la
Declaración de la OIT relativa a los principios y derechos fundamentales en el trabajo
(Ginebra, OIT), 153 p.
ILO (2004): Panorama Laboral, (Lima, OIT).
ILO (2004b): ¿Ayudantes o esclavos? Comprender el trabajo infantil doméstico y cómo intervenir,
IPEC (Ginebra), 127 p.
Jiménez Tostón, G. (2001): “¿Desaparición del servicio doméstico?” en Servicio doméstico y
desigualdad, Comunicación e Información de la Mujer (CIMAC), semana del 17 al 23 de
julio del 2001 (México),
http://www.cimac.org.mx/noticias/semanal01/s01070302.html
Lerda, S. y Todaro, R. (1996): ¿Cuánto cuestan las mujeres? Un análisis de los costos laborales
por sexo, (Santiago de Chile, Centro de Estudios de la Mujer).
http://www.cem.cl/pdf/cuanto_cuestan.pdf
Lautier, B. (2003): “Las empleadas domésticas latino-americanas y la sociología del trabajo,
algunas observaciones acerca del caso brasileño” en Revista Mexicana de Sociología, Año
65, No.4, Oct-Dic., pp. 789-814.
Mata Greenwood, A. (1999): “Incorporación de las cuestiones de género a las estadísticas
laborales” en Revista Internacional del Trabajo, Vol.118 No.3 (Ginebra, OIT), pp.305-320.
Mújica Petit, J. (2004): El desafió de la solidaridad. Las condiciones de vida y de trabajo de
migrantes Peruanos en Chile, Documento No.178 (Lima, OIT), 100 p.
Pardo, L. (1995): “Trabajo, algo más que un recurso productivo”, Opinión en Estudios Públicos,
Vol. 59 (Santiago de Chile, Centro de Estudios Públicos), pp.239-249.
Pollack, M. (1997) Reflexiones sobre los indicadores del trabajo para el diseño de políticas con un
enfoque basado en el genero, Serie Mujer y Desarrollo No.19 (Santiago de Chile, CEPAL),
75 p.
Ramírez-Machado, J.M. (2003): Domestic work, conditions of work and employment: a legal
perspective, Conditions of Work and Employment Series No. 7 (Ginebra, OIT), 93 p.
Rodgers, J. y Rubery, J (2003): “El salario mínimo como instrumento para luchar contra la
discriminación y promover la igualdad” en Revista Internacional del Trabajo, Vol.122, No.
4 (Ginebra, OIT), pp. 596-612.
Rodríguez Vignoli, J. (2004): Migración interna en América Latina y el Caribe: estudio regional
del período 1980-2000, CELADE Serie Población y Desarrollo No. 50 (Santiago, CEPAL),
58 p.
Smith, M.L. (1988): “Where is Maria Now? Former Domestic Workers in Peru” en Elsa M. Chaney
y Mary Garcia Castro: Muchachas no more, household workers in Latin America and the
Caribbean (Philadelphia, Temple University Press), pp.127-142.
Van de Meulen Rodgers, Y. (1999): Protecting women and promoting equality in the labor market:
Theory and evidence, Policy Research Report on Gender and Development, Working Paper
Series No.6 (Washington, Banco Mundial), 47 p.
Vidal, D. (2004): Le droit des bonnes : domesticité féminine et sens du juste a Rio de Janeiro, RTF
No.13, Congrès de l’Association française de sociologie, Villetaneuse, 24-27 de febrero, 14
p.
http://www.melissa.ens-cachan.fr/IMG/rtf/afsdroitvidal_version_d_finitive_.rtf
Valenzuela. M-E y Rangel, M. (2004): Desigualdades entrecruzadas – Pobreza, género, etnia y
raza en America Latina (Lima, OIT), 175 p.
World Bank, 2003: Argentina – Crisis and Poverty 2003. A Poverty Assessment (Volume 1), Report
No. 26127-AR, (Washington, Banco Mundial).
Zurita, C.V. (1997): Trabajo, servidumbre y situaciones de género, Algunas acotaciones sobre el
servicio doméstico en Santiago del Estero, Argentina, Programa de Investigaciones sobre
Trabajo y Sociedad (PROIT) del Instituto de Desarrollo Social (INDES) de la Universidad
Nacional de Santiago del Estero.
ANEXO - Correlaciones entre el porcentaje de servicio doméstico en PEA femenina urbana y varios indicadores macrosocioeconómicos 2002-2003*
Países
América Latina
Cono Sur
Argentina
Brasil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay
Región
Andina
Bolivia
Colombia
Ecuador
Perú
Venezuela
Centro América
y México
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Honduras
México
Panamá
El Caribe
Rep. Dominicana
R
R2
% Servicio doméstico
en PEA femenina
1990
13.8
2003
15.5
14.3
16.7
14.7
21.1
16.2
5.0
12.1
11.6
10.4
15.8
Ingreso
por
habitante
(PPP)
Coeficiente de Gini
% Población bajo la
línea de pobreza
% de pobres
en empleados
domésticos
urbanos
% Industria
manufacturera
en empleo
femenino no
agrícola**
2003
14.5
+/+
2004
1990
2002
+/-
1990
41.4
2002
38.4
+/-
2002
16.7
20.1
16.8
24.1
20.4
+
+
+
+
+
12460
8020
10500
4870
9070
0.501
0.627
0.554
0.447
0.492
0.590
0.639
0.550
0.570
0.455
+
+
+
-
16.1
41.2
38.4
49.9
17.9
45.4
34.1
18.6
50.1
15.4
+
+
-
43
40
15
36
17
10.6
14.4
11.2
11.1
11.9
8.9
12.8
11.2
12.4
7.0
+
+
-
2590
6820
3690
5370
5760
0.538
0.601
0.461
0.532
0.471
0.614
0.575
0.513
0.525
0.500
+
+
+
52.6
52.7
62.1
33.7
39.8
52.0
50.6
49.0
42.0
48.6
+
+
30
44
51
27
53
16.4
17.0
12.5
10.9
10.8
0.438
0.507
0.615
0.536
0.545
0.488
0.525
0.588
0.514
0.561
+
+
+
24.9
45.8
70.4
42.1
39.9
17.5
39.4
66.7
32.2
25.3
-
18
40
48
46
22
14.0
22.4
27.5
17.7
9.7
0.517
0.544
+
35.6
41.9
+
49
15.1
-0.421
-0.467
0.218
-
14.6
12.0
17.8
12.6
10.3
8.8
10.5
15.4
-
9530
4980
2710
9540
6870
11.7
12.4
+
6750
0.406
0.165
0.145
0.020
-0.390
0.152
0.168
Fuentes:
Servicio doméstico en PEA femenina: Panorama Laboral 2004, Cuadro 6-A, OIT;
Ingreso por habitante (Paridad del Poder Adquisitivo): World Development Indicators database, Banco Mundial, 15 Julio 2005
Coeficiente de Gini = Panorama Social 2004, Cuadro 25, CEPAL
Población urbana bajo la línea de pobreza: Panorama Social de América Latina 2004, Cuadro 15, CEPAL. Datos para Venezuela se refieren a la población total del
país.
Porcentaje de pobres entre los empleados domésticos: Panorama Social de América Latina 2004, Cuadro 18, CEPAL
Industria manufacturera en empleo femenino no agrícola Panorama Laboral 2004 Cuadros 6-A y 7-A, OIT.
*cuando el dato no es disponible para el año especificado se usó el dato para el año más cercano
** incluye también minerías, electricidad y agua pero la gran mayoría de las mujeres trabajando en esta rama de actividad lo son en la industria manufacturera.