An estimated 91.5% are women. Over half (~52.4%) are Black women and Women of Color. Domestic workers are 3x as likely to be living in working-poverty as other workers. Less than 1 in 10 are covered by employer-provided retirement plans or funds. Less than 1 in 5 are granted access to employer-provided health insurance.
The fight for fair labor practices and protections of domestic workers continues to this day (Philadelphia only passed our city’s Domestic Workers Bill of Rights at the end of 2019 and it only went into effect May 2020) because we have been explicitly and purposefully excluded from labor protections and regulations since the end of slavery. And that’s where our timeline of the History of Domestic Work begins. Slavery.
There is no denying that our society’s devaluation of domestic work is linked to the historical and contemporary racial composition of the domestic labor workforce. Like all other race relations and histories America has refused to acknowledge and confront, the exploitation of domestic workers continues until we confront and dismantle the racist, classist, and patriarchal values that define our relationship to and view of this work.
A Timeline of the History of Domestic Work in the United States:
-1863- From slaves to domestic workers ~ With the emancipation proclamation, many African and African-American women become domestic workers, denied opportunities for most other jobs and segregated from white American society
-1870- Census estimates 52% of employed women work in “domestic and personal service”
-1901- 300 Chicago workers from the Working Womens’ Association, disbands due to lack of membership growth
-1934- Dora Lee Jones, a Black woman and domestic worker, establishes the Domestic Workers Union, lobbying for state and federal regulation around wages and hours, and for inclusion in the Social Security Act
-1935- Domestic workers explicitly excluded from the Wagner Act/National Labor Relations Act, denying domestic workers the right to form unions, engage in collective bargaining, and organize or participate in strikes
-1938- Domestic workers again explicitly excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act, denying domestic workers protections such as the 44-hour workweek, minimum wage, and guaranteed overtime pay
-1939- Bessie Brown, a domestic worker in Westchester, NY sues her employers for withheld wages and assault/retaliation, loses her case
-1964- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin by employers of 15 or more, covertly leaving out from these protections the majority of domestic workers who are hired as independents
-1970- OSHA formed but its regulations do not apply to “individuals who, in their own residences, privately employ persons for the purpose of performing… what are commonly regarded as ordinary domestic household tasks, such as house cleaning, cooking, and caring for children.”
-1995- “Modern slaves” discovered in Washington, DC where, under a State Department program, foreign diplomats and members of international institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are permitted to “import” household help, most of whom were living under house arrest conditions without pay
-2007- In Long Island Care at Home v. Coke, the Supreme Court rules that domestic worker Evelyn Coke is not entitled to overtime pay despite working three consecutive 24hr shifts (and regularly working 70hrs per week) at $7 per hour
The National Domestic Workers Alliance is formed in NYC by Ai-Jen Poo (founder and former lead organizer behind the Domestic Workers United) and worker-leaders to fight for the rights of and labor protections for domestic workers, by domestic workers, through grassroots campaigning and establishing of a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
-2010- New York state Domestic Workers Bill of Rights is signed into law (affecting an estimated 218,000 domestic workers in the state)
-2011- Despite the International Labor Organization establishing Fair Labor Laws for the protection of domestic workers, the U.S. remains absent from the countries to have recognized and ratified the convention
-2012- California governor vetoes and rejects the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
-2013- Hawaii passes their statewide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
California passes their statewide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (~360,000 workers)
-2014- Chicago passes the city’s first minimum wage bill with language that specifically includes domestic workers
-2016- Illinois passes their statewide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (~35,000 workers)
-2018- Seattle, WA passes their citywide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (~33,000 workers)
Nevada passes their statewide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (~4,000 workers in Southern NV)
-2019- Philadelphia, PA passes their citywide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (~16,000-30,000 workers)
Federal-level Domestic Workers Bill of RIghts introduced to Congress by U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal in the House and Sen. Kamala Harris in the Senate ~ has not yet passed
The Womens’ Lib Movement and Domestic Work~~
During the Womens’ Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 70s, while white middle-class women were fighting for the right to leave the home, underlying their battle cries was a further stigmatizing and devaluing of domestic work as unfulfilling, ignoring those employed in domestic labor and contradicting domestic workers’ fight for their labor to recognized as worthy of adequate pay. This lack of intersectionality can now be seen as an embarrassment to the feminism of white middle-, upper-middle, and upper-class women for excluding domestic work and its Black women and women of color who make up the majority of the domestic labor workforce in their demands for freedom and equality. While Gloria Steinem and others, like the National Organization for Women, argued that the revaluation of domestic work would benefit both middle-class women as well as their domestic employees.
Still, the chasm of race and class was drawn ever-deeper between work and workers that are seen to be “professional” versus work and workers that are seen as “domestic,” a chasm and false-difference that we are still fighting to breach and breakdown today. This chasm runs even deeper in the context of sexist, patriarchal values of capitalism viewing domestic work as “women’s work” ~ taken for granted, undervalued, and unpaid. As Premilla Nadasen, author of Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement has said,
“It goes back to the language of ‘care work.’ If one does this kind of labor because they care, it suggests that the reason they are doing it is because of an emotional connection, not necessarily for the paycheck.”
But this work is work. And as much as we care about the work we do, domestic workers are still entitled to dignity, respect, basic labor protections, and fair pay ~ just as all other professions are. Protections finally being realized, after well over 150 years of exploitation and invisibility, by the passing of states’ and cities’ Domestic Worker Bills of Rights.
“I don’t need a family, I need a job.” -Carolyn Reed, NYC domestic worker & organizer
Philadelphia is one of nine municipalities (seven states and two cities) to have passed and enacted a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, finally granting domestic workers basic labor protections. Like other states and cities to have passed such a bill, the Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights enacts the following protections:
1. Freedom from discrimination and harassment on the job and in hiring & firing.
2. The right to rest and meal breaks ~ For every four hours worked consecutively, the worker must be guaranteed a paid 10 minute break. For every five hours worked, the worker is entitled to an unpaid but uninterrupted 30 minute break.
3. Guaranteed time off for live-in workers ~ One day off for every six consecutive days worked.
4. Requiring a written agreement, in English and the preferred language of the worker, to ensure workers and employers understand the rights of domestic workers, and which outlines explicitly full terms, duties, and conditions of employment.
5. Provision that a notice of termination be provided in an adequate and timely manner ~ Live-in workers must receive at least four weeks’ notice of termination and non-live-in workers must receive two weeks’ notice. If proper notice is not given, the employer must pay those overlooked weeks to the worker.
6. Protection against trafficking bar employers from holding onto the original identity documents of the worker (such as passport, visa, or driver’s license). Privacy protections stipulate an employer cannot film in private spaces of the house such as bathrooms or a worker’s bedroom.
7. The legal institution of portable paid-time-off to provide up to 40 hours of paid time off per year to each domestic worker, regardless of the number of employers the worker has. Domestic workers will have access to a single account where they will accrue paid time off from each of their employers ~ ie. the Alia benefits program (more on this in a later post!)
8. The creation of a Domestic Worker Task Force to establish a standards and investigation board to oversee standards in the industry and make recommendations to the city in order to promote the health, safety, well-being, and living wages of domestic workers.
9. Protections against retaliation for domestic workers who exercise their rights.
10. A “Know Your Rights” inclusion that requires employers to provide a notice of these rights and protections for domestic workers under Philadelphia law.
These protections were won after a year of grassroots organizing, action, and campaigning by the PA Domestic Workers Alliance, led by Philadelphia-local domestic worker-leaders and director Nicole Kligerman. There is still much work to be done and more rights to be won. There are still outdated laws to overturn and new ones to put in place. There are still regulations for fair pay and safe, respectful working conditions to be guaranteed.
This work will take all of us ~ domestic worker and ally alike. This ongoing work requires us all to recognize and understand this history of exploitation, to unpack the racist, classist, and sexist values at the root of this exploitation, and to uplift the real human and professional value and dignity of house cleaners, nannies, and caregivers.
