Investing in the Care Economy: Supporting Domestic Workers’ Fight for Labor Protections

In the United States, Labor Day is meant to commemorate the value and contributions of all workers. Yet there's one critical group whose labor is too often overlooked, both in the United States and around the world: care workers.

Today, there are over two million domestic workers in the U.S. alone, including house cleaners, nannies, and direct care workers who provide in-home care for the aging and those with disabilities. Despite the rising demand for care-driven by aging populations and a lack of investment in care infrastructure-these workers, often immigrants and women of color, frequently lack labor protections and social benefits. According to the International Labor Organization, over 70% of domestic workers in the U.S. are migrant workers, who face significant barriers to accessing and asserting their rights. Not only that, but they and other workers like them in low-wage, female-dominated industries have the highest reported incidences of sexual harassment and assault by sector.

When June Barrett took on the role of a live-in caregiver for a blind man in Miami, they knew it would be hard work. They were prepared for the physical demands and long hours, something they'd experienced since they first entered the domestic caregiving field at age 14. Barrett, unfortunately, was also prepared for the unsettling reality of sexual harassment and assault at the hands of clients-a profoundly disturbing but all too common aspect of domestic work. After a day of avoiding mouth kisses and wandering hands, they barricaded their bedroom door that night.

Barrett's experience is far from isolated. And as a leader within the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and second vice president for the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), they are helping care workers fight back.

"It's our job at the National Domestic Workers Alliance to keep care conversations and domestic workers front and center," Barrett told Ford. This alliance, made up of over 70 grassroots organizations, empowers domestic workers across the U.S. by providing resources, training, events, and community support to advocate for respect, recognition, and labor protections. Additionally, NDWA raises public awareness about the importance of care work and the challenges care workers face through media outreach, storytelling, and cultural organizing.

By using this multifaceted approach, NDWA ensures the needs and voices of underrepresented communities are prioritized. Their organizational structure mirrors these values, with an almost entirely worker-led board that is democratically elected from their membership and worker councils that advise on their domestic worker strategies.

For example, the We Dream in Black initiative empowers Black, Afro-Latina, and Afro-descendent domestic workers, addressing unique challenges they face such as discrimination and low wages. "This work that we do, mentally, is hard," said Barrett, who immigrated from Jamaica in 2001. "So it's important to create a space for all of us to learn from each other."

That's why NDWA also builds alliances with other social justice organizations, labor unions, and community groups to create a broader movement for a just and equitable care economy.

Building a Global Movement

A bonding event during the 2022 LUNA retreat in Ecuador.IDWF

That movement could not be more important: There are more than 400 million domestic workers worldwide facing similar challenges.

The care crisis is especially severe in the Global South, where economies are predominantly informal. Labor and social protections are scarce for these workers-most of whom are women, migrants, refugees, people with disabilities, or members of Indigenous communities. Too often, this lack of protection results in exploitation-yet in many countries, domestic workers are prohibited from organizing or joining trade unions, and migrant domestic workers frequently face exclusion.

Organizations such as the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) are pivotal in helping domestic workers break cycles of abuse. Representing over 670,000 domestic workers through 88 affiliates in 68 countries, the IDWF provides support and training, strengthening their capacity to organize, mobilize, and advocate for workers' rights. They also lead global campaigns to raise awareness around the challenges facing domestic workers, informed largely by the experiences of their members and their research on working conditions.

As IDWF general secretary Adriana Paz sees it, we cannot effectively improve the care economy without first addressing how so many domestic workers get their start.

"Domestic work has a significant concentration of child labor," Paz said. "Children start as unpaid care workers because their mothers are domestic workers living in slums who leave them alone, in the absence of public care facilities such as child care, while they go to provide paid care work in the cities. So at a young age, the daughters and granddaughters start providing unpaid work for their families-and that predetermines their future as paid domestic workers."

It's estimated that today, 7.1 million children between 5 and 17 years old conduct domestic labor, making them highly vulnerable to abuse, harassment, and violence. Exploitation in this sector has a long history. For centuries, the struggles of domestic work have been deeply rooted in the struggles of enslaved women who were forced to perform care work without recognition or compensation. The legacies of slavery and patriarchy continue to shape the experiences of domestic workers today.

For a population long subjected to oppression and abuse, mental health initiatives are essential to building domestic workers' leadership. That's why IDWF supports programs such as Leadership, Unity, reNovation, and Amplification (LUNA). This unique trade union school focuses on building leadership skills and applying strategies to heal deeply embedded trauma.

"This is a regional school that brings 26 workers' unions from 16 countries in Latin America," explained Paz. "We have a strong vision of internationalism. We wanted the Latin American movement to get stronger because if we understand the spirit of internationalism, when somebody wins, everybody wins."

Already, LUNA graduates are succeeding. In Peru, a domestic worker now serves as the general secretary of the national trade union. In Brazil, a woman from Rio's favelas is the current secretary of human rights in Brasília. Similarly, in Chile, a domestic worker leads the Secretariat of Women and Gender.

Advocating for Policy Change

When asked about domestic workers' biggest need, both Paz and Barrett agree: the adoption of policies, measures, and actions for those who perform and receive care.

Such policy changes are long overdue, especially in the United States. In the 1930s, when Congress passed what are now known as the nation's core labor laws, they intentionally excluded domestic and farm workers. "We do not have rights like most workers do. We do not have, for example, a human resources department," Barrett explained. "It's just us behind closed doors."

To address this challenge, NDWA works to educate the public and decisionmakers on several key areas: the need to eliminate legal exclusions and increase investments in care systems; the impact guaranteed minimum wages, unemployment benefits, and paid time off would have on domestic workers; and the importance of stronger protections for these essential workers, including more effective processes to file sexual harassment complaints. To date, 12 states and three cities have passed "domestic worker bills of rights," while domestic workers continue to fight for similar protections nationally.

More recently, NDWA has dedicated efforts to secure public funding to increase wages for direct care workers in order to make jobs like Barrett's pay living wages and alleviate widespread worker shortages that keep many families from accessing the care they need.

Organizations like IDWF are advocating at the local and international levels for the adoption of crucial policies such as the International Labor Organization's Conventions 189, known as the Domestic Workers Convention, and Convention 190, the Violence and Harassment Convention. These conventions set minimum standards for domestic worker rights and aim to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work. Core to Convention 190 is also the recognition that collective bargaining and freedom of association are essential to women-led progress.

To date, 36 countries have ratified Convention 189. Powered by feminist and labor leaders from across the globe, Convention 190 has been ratified by 44 countries in five years, making it the fastest-ratified ILO convention of the past decade. Much more is needed, however, from wider ratification and adoption to deeper implementation. It will take all governments recognizing these conventions as central pillars of a national care policy in order to establish care as both a human right and a public good.

Investing in the Future of Care

Achieving this level of national and global support for care workers will require sustained effort. Strategic funding can amplify the voices of those at the forefront of care, secure significant policy advancements, and create a more just and equitable care economy. In its position paper on domestic workers and the care economy, IDWF laid out how care workers continue to be undervalued and excluded from decent working conditions and protections and how these gaps can be addressed to create a sustainable and well-functioning care economy with workers at the center.

Leaders and affiliates of labor movements from around the world converse and embrace during the 2023 Brazil LUNA reunion.IDWF

"Investing in long-term, unrestricted funding is key for building the infrastructure to sustain this critical work. Social movements need time and resources to make change happen," said Ghada Abdel Tawab, a senior program officer for the Future of Work(ers) International program at the Ford Foundation.

Already, philanthropy has begun to join the movement for domestic workers around the world. For example, the Care for All With Respect and Equity Fund-a collaboration aimed at redefining America's approach to care, and that includes Ford as a founding member-is creating a more just and equitable economy by investing in a universal, publicly supported care infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Together We Care-a new collaboration between Ford, USAID, and the CARE Fund-focuses on strengthening the collective representation of women care workers, improving wages and working conditions, ensuring safe and healthy work environments, and reaching gender equality across the care sector.

Care workers are already seeing the impact. In the Dominican Republic, the trade union Federación Nacional de Mujeres Trabajadoras (FENAMUTRA) recently signed an agreement with the government agency that oversees elderly care, CONAPE, to provide training to participants of the "Familias de Cariño" programme. Earlier this year, FENAMUTRA began its yearlong training series to standardize and improve professional capacities of care workers. This training, supported by the Together We Care initiative, also includes awareness and response to occupational safety and health issues, gender-based violence and harassment, and stigma.

But there are still significant gaps in philanthropic support and the understanding of care economics.

"This is all about the economy. Think about the work these organizations are advancing, and how the working conditions we want to change effectively change how labor markets treat workers," said Livia Lam, a program officer for Ford's Future of Work(ers). "If we can improve domestic workers' rights, we're more likely to improve and strengthen labor protections across a spectrum of issues."

In other words: Domestic work is the foundation of every economy. Now is the time for foundations and other funders to back domestic workers in their fight for dignity and fair conditions. After all, everyone will need their support eventually.

"From the moment that a human being comes to this life, we need care. And the moment that we die, we need care," Paz reminds us. "From womb to tomb."

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