GENEVA - An estimated 66.5 million domestic workers, or 83.1 per cent of the global domestic workforce - yaani 6.65 crore people out of 80 million (8 crore) in total - remain in informal employment without effective labour and social protection, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in a statistical brief issued to mark 15 years since the adoption of the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). The number in informal work is 5.1 million higher than in 2019, even though informality declined or remained stable in 91 of the 140 countries with comparable data.
Source: ILO, Oct 27, 2026 - Domestic workers see progress but informality remains widespread
Domestic workers 'clean our homes, prepare our meals, look after our children, care for older persons and support those with disabilities. And yet these workers often remain invisible. Their contribution is taken for granted, their work is undervalued,' ILO director Sahra Razavi told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, UN News reported. The ILO said domestic workers are more than twice as likely as other employees to lack effective labour and social protection. 'Domestic work is work, and domestic workers deserve the same rights and the same protections as other workers,' Razavi said.
Source: UN News, Oct 27, 2026 - Four in five domestic workers lack formal job protections, UN finds
Asia and the Pacific is home to 40.2 million domestic workers, about half the global total. Africa recorded the largest increase since 2019, with an additional 4.2 million domestic workers, and informality there stands at 93.3 per cent; in the Arab States it is nearly universal, the ILO said. Europe and Central Asia have the lowest regional informality rate, yet more than one in three domestic workers there remain informal. For Punjabi and Indian families, the Arab States figure carries a direct weight: the Gulf's households employ large numbers of migrant domestic workers, most of them women, and near-universal informality means most work without enforceable contracts or social protection.
Source: ILO, Oct 27, 2026 - Domestic workers see progress but informality remains widespread
Wages and hours deepen the picture. Domestic workers earned on average just over half - 53.3 per cent - of the monthly wages of other employees, falling to 48.7 per cent for those in informal employment, and the gap has been widening since 2019, the ILO found. More than one-third of domestic workers worked at least 49 hours per week, while nearly 15 per cent worked 60 hours or more; at the other end, many work short hours for little pay, moving between multiple households to make a living. Forty countries have ratified Convention No. 189, which sets standards for decent work for domestic workers, but Razavi stressed that ratification remains particularly low in Asia and the Arab States.
Source: UN News, Oct 27, 2026 - Four in five domestic workers lack formal job protections, UN finds
The ILO said the countries where informality fell or held steady are home to nearly 70 per cent of the world's domestic workers, while informality rose in 49 countries covering about 30 per cent. It read the global rise in informal numbers as largely reflecting domestic workers becoming more concentrated in countries where informality remains persistently high, rather than a broad decline in conditions everywhere. Domestic work stayed stable as a share of employment at 2.2 per cent of total employment and 4.4 per cent of employees.