The National Domestic Workers Alliance has released a report on the state of domestic workers in the United States. "Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work" is the first report of its kind in the country. The research was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois in Chicago and DataCenter.
Among other sobering findings, the report reveals that:
- 23 percent of workers surveyed are paid below the state minimum wage.
- Domestic workers earn a median hourly wage of $10 an hour.
As journalist Barbara Ehrenreich writes in her introduction, the report's findings are a call to action, not only for domestic workers and employers, but for our nation as whole:
The best way to bring an end to the abuses documented in this report is to go beyond appeals to individual conscience and codify the rights of domestic workers in contracts and law. As a start, we must insist on the inclusion of domestic workers under the coverage of existing labor laws.
The challenge posed by Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work goes beyond the immediate community of employers. Anyone who reads this report will be forced to reflect on the larger consequences of extreme inequality, which are moral as well as economic. As we should have learned from the crisis that brought on a global downturn, inequality threatens economic stability. . . . Home Economics offers a way out of this shameful situation, a clear course of action toward a society in which everyone's work is respected and valued.
You can read the executive summary or download the full report here.
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