Essential, but excluded: The undervaluation of caregivers who power our economy

Essential, but excluded: The Undervaluation of Caregivers who power our Economy

Caregiving is job-enabling work, yet domestic workers are excluded from labor movements and the fight for equal pay.

By Madeline Ley

While most white women were originally excluded from the U.S. labor force and relegated to the private sphere, many women of color had to work. “The problem that has no name,” coined by Betty Friedan, during the 1960s was unrelatable to Black women and women of color who worked in domestic service jobs. Women’s labor force participation rose rapidly during the second half of the 20th century, increasing significantly from the 1960s (at nearly 38 percent) through the 1980s, reaching its peak in 1999 at 60 percent. While the rate has declined since, exacerbated by the pandemic, women – regardless of race and ethnicity, education level, marital status, and parental status – participate at higher rates than they did in the 1960s.

But who played a role in enabling adults, particularly women, to live independent lives and do other work?

Domestic workers, who are overwhelmingly women, women of color, and immigrants, power our economy and do essential care work that sustains the labor force and keeps families alive. However, entrenched views of care work as unskilled and as a woman’s responsibility, and racist perceptions of women of color, cause domestic workers to be undervalued, under-compensated, and unseen. 2.2 million domestic workers face higher rates of poverty than other workers, lack labor protections, and face unacceptable working conditions. While progress has remained slow for all working women and gender pay gaps persist, basic protections and dignified working conditions for domestic workers have been swept under the rug.

A Brief History of Domestic Work and Organizing

Domestic worker resistance in the U.S. dates back to European colonization. Enslaved Indigenous women and African American women forced into domestic work combatted their exploitation and confinement. Beginning in the mid-1800s through the 1900s, many immigrants including those from Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Caribbean, and Indigenous women affected by U.S. expansion were tunneled into domestic labor, earned extremely low wages, and faced inhumane conditions. During Reconstruction, Black women’s segregation into domestic labor jobs resulted directly from slavery and being denied other occupational opportunities. Non-white domestic workers faced intersecting forms of oppression due to their race, gender, and class.

During the 1900s, many domestic workers organized unions and collective action across the country, despite not receiving legal recognition from the state. Many domestic workers participated in more radical organizing, such as strikes, civil disobedience, mass quitting, and slowing down their work. Domestic worker organizing expanded during the Great Depression, as domestic workers joined nationwide labor uprisings across the country in response to the passage of New Deal legislation that gave workers the right to organize. While not all movements achieved success, domestic workers proved that they could organize collective bargaining power despite lacking centralized workplaces and facing abuse; in many cities such as St. Louis, New York, and D.C., domestic workers established contracts, minimum wages, and better work schedules while addressing employers’ sexual harassment and economic exploitation.

The Civil Rights Movement further inspired and trained domestic workers to organize. The National Domestic Workers Union of America (NDWUA), based in Atlanta, Georgia, became one of the largest and most active domestic workers’ rights groups in the country. The organization had one requirement for its members: they all had to register to vote. This strategy, along with training domestic workers to negotiate for better wages and working conditions, harnessed their worker and political power. Domestic worker organizing continued through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, and strongly persists today.

Swept Under the Rug

While women across the country advocate for paid leave, pay transparency, and salary history bans, domestic workers have been (and many continue to be) excluded from key provisions of labor and employment laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970, and the National Labor Relations Act. Minimum employee threshold rules, exclusion of independent contractors from coverage, and the misclassification of domestic workers as independent contractors resulted in the exclusion of most domestic workers from Federal civil rights protections, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other laws. Women are not monolithic; middle and upper-class white women benefited from the exploitation of domestic workers since it enabled them to pursue careers at lower costs, and therefore played a role in excluding domestic workers in legislation.

Domestic workers face vulnerabilities to discrimination and sexual harassment, exacerbated by poverty, immigration status and a fear of deportation, language barriers, lack of support networks, and limited knowledge about laws and legal processes.

A 2021 National Domestic Workers Alliance Survey reported:

16 percent of domestic workers have a written agreement with their employer.
over 30 percent of domestic workers do not get meal and rest breaks, and of those who do, only 34 percent are paid for those breaks.
81 percent of domestic workers do not receive pay if their employer cancels on them with less than three days’ notice, and 76 percent receive no pay if their employer cancels on them after they show up for work.
23 percent of domestic workers feel unsafe at work.

The Future for Domestic Workers

Women, especially women of color, are on the frontlines of worker-organizing in various industries, including those categorized by the patriarchy as “women’s work.” Domestic workers have – and always have – a unique position on the frontlines. The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is growing the legacy of the forerunners of domestic worker organizing, working to gain rights and respect for domestic workers through voter mobilization, policymaking, storytelling, and consciousness-raising. The NDWA is working to pass the National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights to ensure inclusion in workplace laws and add new protections with stronger enforcement mechanisms. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Kristen Gillibrand and Ben Ray Luján and Representative Pramila Jayapal.

True intersectional feminists center domestic workers, who are among the most marginalized working people, in their advocacy for women in the workforce. The U.S. will not achieve full workplace equality until domestic workers are given the dignity, respect, visibility, and protection they deserve. Investing in care work is essential to building a strong economy that supports families. It is essential to ensure that domestic workers are not left behind.

Madeline Ley is majoring in Political Science and minoring in Public Health and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the George Washington University.