Household survey evidence on domestic workers in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Whilst much scholarly attention of this nascent field of domestic service work focuses on protecting the rights and security of foreign/migrant domestic workers, the nature of domestic service work undertaken within national borders has escaped the attention of both researchers and public policy makers. Outlining the findings from a large household survey data in Ethiopia collected from seven major urban areas covering the period from 1994 to 2004, this paper departs from the usual focus on rights-based perspective and foreign migrant domestic service workers. Instead, the paper attempts to contribute to our understanding of the profile of domestic service providers, the significant drivers of participation in the provision of domestic services and the welfare of unpaid and paid domestic service workers in Ethiopia. In doing so, the paper contributes to the development of a greater evidence base, relevant for both researchers and public policy practitioners alike.

KEYWORDS:

• Domestic work
• decent jobs
• welfare
• informal economy
• serving households

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the two reviewers of the original manuscript who provided constructive comments. The usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We are focusing on data sets from 1994 to 2004 because there are no recently collected comparable longitudinal data on domestic work from household surveys.

2. The results based on marginal effects can be provided upon request.