Paid domestic work: A private matter or a public policy issue?

Abstract

In industrialised countries most of the goods and services traditionally undertaken in the home are now largely sourced outside the household. The main exceptions are childcare, food preparation and washing and cleaning, which can be unpaid work or can be undertaken on a paid basis: this is paid domestic work. The ILO estimates that there are over 100 million domestic workers globally. These workers are often the most disadvantaged and vulnerable and, in many countries, are migrants, sometimes working illegally and sometimes part of guest worker schemes. Most domestic workers internationally are women. In New Zealand, domestic work was once an important source of paid employment for women with shortages of workers met by migration from the British Isles. While it had almost disappeared as a paid occupation post World War II, a number of reasons suggest a likely increase in the number of paid domestic workers in the near future, probably met, again, by migration. Nevertheless, little is known about New Zealand domestic workers, and paid domestic work fits uncomfortably with labour law, principally because the workplace is the private home. This has meant that overall, paid domestic work has, in a variety of ways, been a private matter in New Zealand. However, we suggest that it is time that paid domestic work is viewed as a public policy issue, particularly in relation to labour law and migration policy development.