GENEVA (AP) — At least 52.6 million people worldwide areemployed as domestic workers, most of
them women without adequate legalprotection, the U.N.’s labor agency said Wednesday in its first
globalsnapshot of the often invisible workforce that cares for other people’sfamilies and households.The
research by the U.N.’s InternationalLabor Organization found that 83 percent of all the domestic
workerswere women, many of them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse because oftheir lack of knowledge
of local languages and laws or because they areoften paid a flat weekly or monthly fee that is not based
on how manyhours they work."From caring for children, to caring for elderlyand persons with
disabilities, to performing a wide range of householdtasks, domestic workers are an indispensable part
of the social fabric,"Sandra Polaski, ILO’s deputy director-general, told reporters inGeneva.The
agency also found that 90 percent of the domesticworkers are not covered by general labor protections to
the same extentas workers in the mainstream economy — with 30 percent completelyexcluded from all
national labor laws.The U.N. warned, however,that the tally represents what is probably a reliable
minimum figure,based on 2010 data, and is likely to be tens of millions of peoplehigher due to
underreporting by countries.The report excludedthose domestic workers who are below the age of 15 and
are considered tobe children, and were last estimated to number at 7.4 million in 2008.Copyright 2013
The Associated Press.GENEVA (AP) — At least 52.6 million people worldwide areemployed as domestic
workers, most of them women without adequate legalprotection, the U.N.’s labor agency said Wednesday in
its first globalsnapshot of the often invisible workforce that cares for other people’sfamilies and
households.The research by the U.N.’s InternationalLabor Organization found that 83 percent of all the
domestic workerswere women, many of them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse because oftheir lack of
knowledge of local languages and laws or because they areoften paid a flat weekly or monthly fee that is
not based on how manyhours they work."From caring for children, to caring for elderlyand persons
with disabilities, to performing a wide range of householdtasks, domestic workers are an indispensable
part of the social fabric,"Sandra Polaski, ILO’s deputy director-general, told reporters
inGeneva.The agency also found that 90 percent of the domesticworkers are not covered by general labor
protections to the same extentas workers in the mainstream economy — with 30 percent completelyexcluded
from all national labor laws.The U.N. warned, however,that the tally represents what is probably a
reliable minimum figure,based on 2010 data, and is likely to be tens of millions of peoplehigher due to
underreporting by countries.The report excludedthose domestic workers who are below the age of 15 and
are considered tobe children, and were last estimated to number at 7.4 million in 2008.Copyright 2013
The Associated Press.
