ILO: Over 80% of world's 80 million domestic workers remain in informal employment without protections

Fifteen years after the adoption of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), new estimates from the International Labour Organization show that major gaps in decent work persist for the world’s domestic workers. An estimated 80.0 million people aged 15 and over are employed as domestic workers worldwide, up from 75.6 million in 2019, according to the ILO Statistical Brief The state of domestic work in 2025: 15 years after Convention No. 189 (ilo.org).

Yet more than four in five still work informally. An estimated 66.5 million domestic workers, or 83.1 per cent of the global domestic workforce, remain in informal employment without effective labour and social protection — 5.1 million more than in 2019 — the ILO reported in its 27 October 2026 press release (ilo.org). The global informality rate rose from 81.2 per cent in 2019 to 83.1 per cent, though this largely reflects compositional effects from a larger share of workers in countries with persistently high informality rather than widespread deterioration.

Informality declined or remained stable in 91 of the 140 countries with comparable data for 2019 and 2025. These countries account for nearly 70 per cent of domestic workers worldwide. The remaining 49 countries, representing around 30 per cent of the workforce, saw increases in informality rates.

Domestic work accounts for a relatively stable 2.2 per cent of total employment and 4.4 per cent of employees globally. Growth has been concentrated in certain regions and largely tracks broader employment expansion. Asia and the Pacific is home to 40.2 million domestic workers, about half the global total. Africa recorded the largest increase, adding 4.2 million workers between 2019 and 2025. Informality reaches 93.3 per cent in Africa and is nearly universal in the Arab States. Europe and Central Asia has the lowest regional rate, though more than one in three domestic workers there remain informal.

The sector is highly feminized: women account for 77.2 per cent of domestic workers (61.8 million). Domestic workers earn, on average, only 53.3 per cent of the average monthly wage of other employees, down from 56.4 per cent in 2019. Informal domestic workers earn just 48.7 per cent. Women domestic workers earn 48 per cent of the wages of other employees on average, compared with 65.8 per cent for men in the sector. Long hours are common, with 35.2 per cent working at least 49 hours per week, including 14.6 per cent working 60 hours or more; short or fragmented hours are also more frequent than among other employees.

Domestic workers provide essential household services including cleaning, cooking and care for children, older persons and people with disabilities. “Progress in many countries shows that change is possible. But with more than 66 million domestic workers still in informal employment and their wages falling further behind those of other employees, much more needs to be done,” said Patrick Belser, Chief of the Informal Work Branch at the ILO. “We cannot claim to value care while undervaluing the people who provide it. We must turn the rights set out in ILO Convention No. 189 into reality, ensuring fair wages, social security, decent working conditions and effective protection for all domestic workers.”

The ILO calls for stronger implementation of Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 through targeted formalization strategies, accessible registration and social protection, effective minimum wages progressing toward living wages, working-time protections, investment in decent care jobs, skills recognition, stronger enforcement, and social dialogue and collective bargaining. As care needs intensify with demographic and other shifts, ensuring decent work for domestic workers is increasingly important for gender equality and sustainable care systems, the organization stated.