Employer practices and perceptions on paid domestic work: Recruitment, employment relationships, and social protection

This study report is an important contribution towards understanding employers’ perceptions, rationale and bases that underlie how employers in urban India engage, value, and perceive domestic work.

To do so, it draws upon data from personal interviews with 403 households in two large metropolitan Indian cities– Bengaluru and Chennai – with variations across socio-economic status, caste, neighborhood type and across households with and without women working for wages. This report is the third of a three-part series, with the first report looking at paid and unpaid hours taken to reproduce a household in urban India, and the second report looking at the quality of employment for paid domestic workers.

Deficits in decent work: Employer perspectives and practices on the quality of employment in domestic work in urban India

This study report contributes towards understanding employers’ perspectives on existing working conditions and practices relating to recruitment, income security, employment security and social security available to domestic workers.

To do so, this report draws upon data from 3,067 households in two large metropolitan Indian cities – Bengaluru and Chennai – with variations across socio-economic status, caste, religion, neighborhood type and across households with and without women working for wages. This report is the second of a three-part series, with the first report looking at the total number of paid and unpaid hours it takes to reproduce a household in urban India, and the third assessing employer motivations, beliefs and perspectives about domestic work and workers.

Conceptualizing the role of intermediaries in formalizing domestic work

Domestic workers have long provided a range of services for families from cleaning and cooking to caring for children, the elderly and disabled, to driving household members and tending gardens. Despite the crucial services they provide, in many countries, domestic work is characterised by a high incidence of informal arrangements and contributes significantly to informality especially among women. The level of organization of the domestic work sector varies dramatically from country to country. In some countries, domestic workers are hired informally, by word of mouth, through social networks. In other countries, intermediaries – such as agencies, digital platforms, coops and others – play a role in recruiting, placing, and employing domestic workers. As the role of these intermediaries increases, questions arise about the impact intermediaries have on formalizing domestic work and providing decent work for domestic workers.