Late 2012, you witnessed the historic, ground-breaking release of Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work – the first-ever, nation-wide report on the state of domestic work. Now, we’re proud to announce the release of a California-specific report on domestic work titled Home Truths: Domestic Workers in California (PDF).
With results from over 600 surveys, Home Truths reveals how domestic workers face a range of hardships associated with their work in an industry that is largely invisible and unregulated. Domestic workers – nannies, caregivers, and house-cleaners – play a significant role in the California economy, yet their work is excluded from basic protections afforded to most of the US work force. Domestic workers are excluded from the federal right to organize and bargain collectively, and they are not protected by workplace health or safety laws. Many are also excluded from workers’ compensation, rights to overtime pay, meal breaks, rest breaks, and anti-discrimination laws.
Home Truths is part of the first systematic assessment of domestic workers’ working conditions in the US, and it presents an empirically grounded picture of what it means to be a domestic worker in California.
NDWA teamed up with DataCenter and the University of Illinois at Chicago to produce this report and, in the process, supported hundreds of domestic worker women to document their experiences. DataCenter helped ensure domestic workers were involved in every step of the research process. Domestic workers crafted and administered the survey, analyzed the results, and made recommendations based on their own experiences.
“DataCenter offered us expertise in research while respecting the leadership, vision and social justice values of our membership. Together we were able to produce research that surpassed our own expectations.”
— Ai-jen Poo, Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA)
*Thanks to NDWA for providing some of the text in this posting!