Domestic work count! Characteristics and transformations of the domestic service in Spain

Abstract

This paper explores the characteristics of and transformations that Spanish domestic service has undergone in the since 2000. The paper also analyzes the domestic service’s contribution to the Spanish economy since the beginning of the country’s economic crisis. Relying on quantitative analysis of the domestic work data from the Active Population Survey, the most relevant changes identified are the increase of its demand and the consolidation of migrants workers in it. The paper also looks at the tasks carried out in the households of employers. The recent conversion of the domestic services in a nonprofessional care sector seems to mitigate the burden of personal care work that Spanish families aim to provide to their older relatives. This transformation of domestic work into care work has changed some traditional features of this occupation: the outcomes of qualitative data show changes in the intensification of the tasks carried out, a tendency to higher male workers, a reappearance of live-in workers, and key modifications in the relationship between employer families and employees. Finally, this paper incorporates a short assessment of Real Royal Decree 1620/2011 (which regulates domestic service) and Law 39/2006 (Law on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent Persons) to analyze which is the legal space delegate to the labor category related with the non-professional caregivers in private homes.