A Public Policy Proposal Towards Formalization of Mexican Domestic Workers
According to official statistics, there are 2,376,767 domestic workers in Mexico. This represents 4.7% of the country´s total working population (data 2015). Domestic work in Mexico is characterized by gender segregation (91% female) and by an enormous rate of participation in the informal economy. There are more than 2 million domestic workers in Mexico, and only 2.6% of them are formally integrated into the economy. This means that 87.4% of domestic employees work without a contract, or any access to public health system, or formal retirement savings. Additionally, domestic workers’ wages are lower than average wages in Mexico. According to INEGI, 70% of them earn 140 pesos per day, around 7.5 dollars. This evidence leads us to conclude that domestic workers endure high levels of social vulnerability, and therefore, their labor situation must be considered a public problem that must be solved.
In Mexico, Federal Labor Law has a specific chapter regarding labor regulation for domestic workers (Chapter XIII); nevertheless, noncompliance of this chapter is the norm. Chapter XIII is actually discriminatory, considering it within the context of general labor legislation in Mexico. It doesn’t include the obligation of a signed contract, yet it does include the possibility than domestic workers may work up to 12-hours days. Likewise, Chapter XIII doesn’t include the recognition of different working conditions, for example: there are domestic workers living at the same house where they work, workers not living at their work place but having only one employer, and workers not living at work place and having several employers. These differences in working conditions should definitely be considered within labor regulations.
Considering the above, this research undertakes a comparative study between Mexican legislation on the subject and the International Labor Organization´s International Convention 189, which seeks to create better working conditions for millions of domestic workers worldwide. It must be stated that the latter document has not been ratified by Mexico. The paper also includes a comparative study of two Latin American countries than have ratified the International Convention, and have changed their labor laws concerning domestic workers in order to improve working conditions. The countries studied are Uruguay and Argentina.
In order to properly gauge the benefits, problems, and limitations of the current regulatory system, a comparative methodology will be applied. Additionally, we will use interviews to the president of the Domestic Workers’ Trade Union in Mexico, and to some academic researchers in the country. This allows us to conclude this study with several legal recommendations in order to improve the labor conditions of domestic workers in Mexico.
Some countries have already adopted advanced legislation, which helped to improve domestic workers’ wages. However, even in these countries, the proportion of informal domestic workers decreased but it’s still very high. Therefore, public policy towards formalization of domestic workers in Mexico should include not only legal reforms, but also a multidimensional concept in its design and implementation in order to have really effective results.