According to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), only 6% of domestic workers worldwide have access to comprehensive social protection.
This means that more than 94% of people do not have access to the full range of protections, which include medical care, sickness, unemployment, old age, employment injury, family, maternity, invalidity, and survivors’ benefits.
According to the report, Making the Right to Social Security a Reality for Domestic Workers: A Global Review of Policy Trends, Statistics, and Extension Strategies, roughly half of all domestic workers have no coverage at all, with the remaining half legally covered by at least one benefit.
Effective coverage has lagged far behind legal coverage. Because the vast majority of domestic workers are employed informally, only one in every five are covered in practice.
Despite their vital contribution to society, which includes assisting households with their most personal and care needs, the report explains that the majority of the world’s 75,6 million domestic workers face multiple barriers to legal coverage and effective access to social security. They are frequently left out of national social security laws.
Women are particularly vulnerable as 76.2 percent of domestic workers (57.7 million people) are women.
While few domestic workers have comprehensive social protection, they are more likely to be eligible for old-age, disability, and survivors’ benefits, as well as medical care, and to a lesser extent, maternity and sickness benefits.
The majority of them do not have access to social insurance schemes that provide benefits for unemployment or job injury.
The report also emphasizes significant regional differences. In Europe and Central Asia, 57.3 percent of domestic workers are legally entitled to all benefits. In the Americas, slightly more than 10% have such a right; in the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa, almost none are fully protected.
According to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic has made “glaringly apparent” the social protection coverage gaps experienced by domestic workers.
They were among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with many losing their jobs and livelihoods.
Many of those who kept their jobs were frequently exposed to the disease due to a lack of adequate protective equipment.
However, domestic workers could rarely rely on adequate health care, sickness, or unemployment benefits, further exposing their vulnerabilities.
