Characterization of social security schemes to domestic work

The information and analyses presented in previous sections of this report demonstrate that countries differ significantly in terms of practice regarding the establishment and application of social security schemes for the domestic work sector. This section presents an approach to a classification of social protection schemes for domestic workers, which was developed based on an analysis of the countries. Table attempts to systematize some typical characteristics of the main types of schemes.

Typology of social protection for domestic work

There are five most frequent types of social protection schemes for the domestic work sector. The classification covers certain key components of pertaining to the design of these systems which were divided into four categories: legal configuration, institutional organization, financial aspects and enrolment.

In terms of legal configuration, it is useful to determine whether social security schemes provide mandatory or voluntary coverage, and whether they consider domestic work as an occupational category equal to that of other categories of wage employment. The institutional organization category differentiates schemes according to whether domestic workers are included in the general scheme or in a special programme and whether or not the scheme has a centralized administration and collection system. Financial aspects focus on whether the contributory scheme differs from that of other employees. Finally, the enrolment category distinguishes schemes by their capacity to incorporate domestic workers who have more than one employer (multi-employer) and those who work part-time.

International evidence demonstrates that countries in the third category (Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Spain, Belgium, France and Switzerland (Canton of Geneva)), have the highest effective coverage rates as compared with the countries in the other categories. Key differences in systems include the existence of a differentiated contributory scheme and a scheme that allows for the registration of workers with more than one employer and those who work part-time.