Domestic workers see progress but informality remains widespread
GENEVA (ILO News) - Fifteen years after the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), new estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) show progress in reducing informality among domestic workers in many countries. Yet more than four in five domestic workers worldwide still work informally, often without effective labour and social protection.
According to the ILO Statistical Brief, The state of domestic work in 2025: 15 years after Convention No. 189, an estimated 80.0 million people aged 15 and over are employed as domestic workers worldwide, up from 75.6 million in 2019. Domestic work nevertheless remains relatively stable as a share of employment, accounting for 2.2 per cent of total employment and 4.4 per cent of employees, indicating that the global increase largely reflects broader employment growth in specific regions rather than a specific expansion of domestic work relative to other occupations.
Despite progress, informality remains pervasive
Informality in domestic work declined or remained stable in 91 of the 140 countries with comparable data for 2019 (the year of the ILO’s previous global estimates) and 2025. These countries account for nearly 70 per cent of domestic workers worldwide. The remaining 49 countries, accounting for around 30 per cent of domestic workers, experienced an increase in the proportion of informality.
Despite this progress, an estimated 66.5 million domestic workers, or 83.1 per cent of the global domestic workforce, remain in informal employment – 5.1 million more than in 2019 – without effective labour and social protection.
The global figures largely reflect the growing concentration of domestic workers in countries where informality remains persistently high, rather than a widespread deterioration in working conditions in the sector.
Asia and the Pacific is home to 40.2 million domestic workers, about half of the global total. Africa recorded the largest increase between 2019 and 2025, with an additional 4.2 million domestic workers. Informality is experienced by 93.3 per cent of domestic workers in Africa and is nearly universal in the Arab States. Europe and Central Asia has the lowest regional informality rate, yet more than one in three domestic workers remain informal. The Americas remain the most highly feminized broad region.
Essential work, yet undervalued
Domestic workers provide essential services to households, including cleaning, cooking and caring for children, older persons and people with disabilities. Yet their contribution continues to be undervalued.
The new estimates confirm persistent inequalities. Domestic workers earn, on average, only 53.3 per cent of the average monthly wage of other employees. Informal domestic workers fare worse, earning just 48.7 per cent.
This demonstrates that the relative wage gap has widened since 2019, when domestic workers earned 56.4 per cent of the average monthly wage of other employees. This does not necessarily mean that domestic workers’ wages have fallen. In many countries their wages increased, but more slowly than those of other employees. The global result is also influenced by the growing weight of countries with large domestic workforces and wider wage gaps.
Long working hours also remain widespread: 35.2 per cent of domestic workers work at least 49 hours per week, including 14.6 per cent who work 60 hours or more. At the same time, domestic workers are more likely than other employees to work very short hours, which can reflect underemployment or employment fragmented across several households.
Women face particularly pronounced disadvantages. They account for 77.2 per cent of domestic workers worldwide and are disproportionately concentrated in cleaning and direct-care occupations. They earn, on average, just 48 per cent of the monthly wages of other employees, compared with 65.8 per cent for men domestic workers.
Progress in many countries shows that change is possible. But with more than 66 million domestic workers still in informal employment and their wages falling further behind those of other employees, much more needs to be done
Patrick Belser, Chief of the Informal Work Branch at the ILO
“Progress in many countries shows that change is possible. But with more than 66 million domestic workers still in informal employment and their wages falling further behind those of other employees, much more needs to be done,” said Patrick Belser, Chief of the Informal Work Branch at the ILO. “We cannot claim to value care while undervaluing the people who provide it. We must turn the rights set out in ILO Convention No. 189 into reality, ensuring fair wages, social security, decent working conditions and effective protection for all domestic workers.”
Turning legal recognition into effective protection
The ILO calls for stronger efforts to implement Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201, including through targeted formalization strategies, accessible registration and social protection; effective minimum wages and progress towards living wages; working-time protection; investment in decent care jobs; skills recognition; stronger compliance and enforcement; and social dialogue and collective bargaining.
As demographic shifts, migration, digital transformation and other changes reshape the world of work and intensify care needs, ensuring decent work for domestic workers will be increasingly important to achieving gender equality, building sustainable care systems and advancing social justice.
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