Domestic workers are underpaid and unprotected by labor law during the coronavirus pandemic
New EPI research finds that the United States’ 2.2 million domestic workers are underpaid, more likely to live in poverty than other workers, and are unprotected by U.S. labor law. Through 19 charts and 13 tables, EPI’s new Domestic worker chartbook is a comprehensive look at the demographics, wages, benefits, and poverty rates of the professionals who care for our family members and clean our homes.
“Domestic workers are on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic, caring for the sick, watching children, and keeping homes clean. They are providing essential work to families during this difficult time,” said Julia Wolfe, one of the report’s coauthors. “However, domestic workers, who are almost all women and mostly women of color, face poverty at much higher rates and are paid significantly less than comparable workers.”
Although the pandemic serves as the backdrop for this chartbook, only data from before the pandemic was available at the time of analysis. This chartbook serves to illustrate a snapshot of domestic workers in the pre-coronavirus period.
Key findings include:
The vast majority (91.5%) of domestic workers are women and just over half are black, Hispanic, or Asian American/Pacific Islander women.
Though most (64.9% of) domestic workers are U.S.-born, they are more likely than other workers to have been born outside the U.S. and they tend to be older than other workers.
The typical domestic worker is paid $12.01 per hour. Even when compared with demographically similar workers, domestic workers on average are paid just 74 cents for every dollar that their peers make.
Domestic workers are three times as likely to be living in poverty as other workers.
Fewer than one in 10 domestic workers are covered by an employer-provided retirement plan and just one in five receives health insurance coverage through their job.
https://www.epi.org/press/domestic-workers-are-underpaid-and-under-protected-by-labor-law-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/?utm_source=Economic+Policy+Institute&utm_campaign=89fe36f819-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_02_22_11_12_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e7c5826c50-89fe36f819-59078569&mc_cid=89fe36f819&mc_eid=56485f06ea