Life is extremely hard for domestic workers: Here are some of their biggest challenges

Domestic workers earn too little to meet their basic needs and are always on edge because they never know when they will lose their jobs.

To make matters worse, rolling blackouts prevents them from doing their work on time and impact their safety and duties at home where they often have to wash and cook without electricity.

SweepSouth’s sixth annual Report on Pay and Working Conditions for Domestic Workers threw the spotlight on the disproportionate burden domestic workers carry in their households.

The majority are women (94%), sole breadwinners (84%), single caregivers (64%) and support an average of four dependents. The most common role they fulfil was as cleaners (96%), followed by childcare (26%).

Domestic workers caring for children, the elderly or people with special needs earned the most, while gardeners earned the least. They earned more if they took on more roles and many sought other work to earn additional income (42%).

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Domestic workers battle to make ends meet

As with many other low-income workers, domestic workers continue to sacrifice basic needs as the cost of living outstrips their earnings. Domestic workers spend most of their money on food, which increased more than 12% in the past year.

Poor South Africans were hit the hardest as food inflation hit a 14-year high in March 2023, primarily driven by the electricity crisis, the prices of vegetables, wheat and corn-based products and plant-based oils, such as vegetable oil. These items make up a disproportionate portion of food in low-income households.

Very few domestic workers have any savings (9%) and many of them take on debt to survive. That means when they have to resign due to family commitments such as leaving to go look after a sick parent, they leave with nothing. There is no provident fund or pension. If their employment is terminated for an unfair reason, they can take their case to the CCMA and they could get an award of two years’ salary.

SweepSouth said thankfully, it looks like debt levels are decreasing (2023: 35%, 2022: 39%). Devastating job losses exacerbated the debt burden of domestic workers, with 28% of respondents indicating they lost their jobs as domestic workers in the past year (2022: 25%). Around 1 in 4 lost their jobs due to affordability, similar to 2022. However, employers moving home increased considerably (2023: 40%, 2022: 25%), with the majority moving overseas (59%).

While rolling blackouts make everybody’s lives more difficult, it has a devastating effect on domestic workers. Many of the respondents felt load shedding played a role in them losing their jobs and 40% did not believe they were dismissed for a valid reason.

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They worry about keeping their jobs all the time

Therefore, it is no wonder the risk of unemployment is the greatest driver of poor mental health among the respondents, increasing from 47% in 2022 to 52% this year.

According to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 67,000 fewer people were employed as domestic workers versus the previous quarter (down 7.7%).

Domestic work accounted for 5% of total employment in the first quarter of 2023. Just over 40% of respondents earn income from employment other than domestic work.

SweepSouth said the impact of the electricity crisis on the lives of domestic workers was evident throughout the report. Many domestic workers have multiple employers and almost half lost one or more of their employers due to load shedding (35% definitely, 12% maybe).

In addition, more than half of the respondents reported feeling less safe travelling to and from work. This was due to increased crime rates, inadequate lighting and darkness due to blackouts and mobile networks failing.

They also had to leave for work earlier due to increased congestion from traffic lights not working and got home later due to their work day becoming longer as they waited for the power to return to use appliances.

According to the report, there was a continued recovery in earnings, especially among SweepStars, workers who work on the SweepSouth platform whose wages increased by 19% to R4 999. Unfortunately, the wages of domestic workers who do not work through the platform only saw their wages increase by 1% to R2 992, failing to keep pace with inflation and still significantly below a monthly minimum wage.

SweepSouth has been looking at decreasing costs for domestic workers through bulk buying and group risk offerings for SweepStars and hopes to roll these out to workers beyond the platform in the near future.

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How to make life a bit easier for your domestic worker

People who want to make life a little easier for their domestic workers can keep these suggestions from Luke Kannemeyer, MD of SweepSouth, in mind:

• Pay a living wage and be a fair and empathetic employer by ensuring their salaries meet or even exceed minimum wage requirements and contribute to UIF.
• Be a compliant employer. Pay your domestic worker’s UIF and stick to the provision of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. Docking pay for days not worked leads to insurmountable financial pressure.
• Be sensitive. If your domestic worker travels to work each day, consider how load shedding and the vagaries of South Africa’s public transport might affect their ability to arrive at work on time.
• Help your domestic worker to save by putting a little money aside each month for their retirement or children’s education. You could even set up a professionally managed trust and grow your domestic worker’s future wealth in that way.
• Tangible benefits will help if you are unable to give your domestic worker a pay increase. Try and contribute to their household income in other ways such as splitting bulk buys for food, topping up their airtime, data and prepaid electricity.
• Donate pre-loved items when you dispose of clothing, unwanted gifts or household items you no longer use. If she cannot use them, she can sell them and make extra cash.
• Upskill your domestic worker to enable them to get a side hustle that can supplement their income. It might be basic or financial literacy skills, cooking or a recognised childcare course. Find it, enrol them and, if possible, fund them through a course that will give them additional skills for life.

“Domestic workers are in many ways the backbone of our country. They keep our homes running while we go out to work. Taking good care of your employees so they can take good care of you is critical in the dynamic between employer and domestic worker,” Kannemeyer said.