COVID-19 and Domestic Workers in Mexico

The article below is my contribution to GCDLP's August 2020 publication on "Contemporary Issues in International Development Law and Policy".

On March 31, 2020, with 1,215 confirmed cases and 29 official deceases due to COVID-19, (1) and 20 days after the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared COVID-19 a pandemic,(2) the Mexican Ministry of Health issued an Agreement titled “Agreement whereby extraordinary measures are established to respond to the sanitary emergency caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus”, which ordered the “immediate suspension of non-essential activities, with a view to mitigate the dispersion and transmission of the SARS-CoV2 virus in the community, to diminish the burden of sickness, its complications and death by COVID-19 among the population residing in [Mexico]”.(3)

The ensuing paralysis of the economic activity has had a dramatic effect on the Mexican economy. In fact, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) expectations by the end of June of this year were that Mexico’s real GDP would contract by 10.5 percent in 2020, with growth in 2021 expected to recover only a modest portion of the lost output.(4) This comes against the backdrop of an already fragile labor market. Mexico is doubtless one of the emerging economies where “the situation of labour markets was precarious (...) even before they were hit by the COVID-19 crisis, with often high or rising unemployment, low wage growth, elevated informality and large gender, age, racial and ethnic divides.”(5) 

About a million formal jobs had been lost in Mexico by the end of May(6) - in April alone, more jobs were lost than all of those that were created in 2019-(7), and many more people are going through significant reductions of salary and working hours. Yet, those numbers pale in comparison with the situation of the informal economy.(8) According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), around 60% of the total jobs in Mexico are informal jobs,(9) that is about 31 million jobs. It is believed that 12.5 million of those jobs were lost in April alone,(10) and the crisis is still unfolding.

Research has amply shown how women are hit the hardest by economic crises, partly because most of them are already in a vulnerable position. According to a Policy Brief by the United Nations, women are affected most by the compounded economic impacts of crises given that women and girls are “generally earning less, saving less, and holding insecure jobs or living close to poverty”.(11) That is, the effects of the pandemic over the employment are “critically driven by pre-existing inequalities”.(12) Those pre-existing inequalities cause inequality in occupations and wages, which in turn leads to unequal exposure to COVID-19 risks and economic consequences, which in turn increases poverty and social vulnerability, which maintains the status quo of inequalities.(13)

The economic consequences of the pandemic are expected to be so dire indeed, that they “could undo some of the gains in gender equality in the labor market and exacerbate disparities”. In effect, “[p]revious crises have shown that when women lose their jobs, their engagement in unpaid care work increases, and when jobs are scarce, women are often denied job opportunities available to men”; this means that “the bigger their losses in employment and the greater the scarcity of jobs in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, the harder it will be for women’s employment to recover”. This crisis could in effect nullify the hard-earned gains women have obtained in labor over the past decades, as well the advancement in the distribution of unpaid care work.(14) Furthermore, “[research] shows that women bear the costs of crises to a greater extent than men in terms of political participation, level of employment, educational achievement and health, and this effect outlasts the crisis by up to seven years.”(15)

Given the measures adopted in Mexico (and the world) in light of the pandemic, particularly lockdown measures, the above means that women have been and continue to be hit by the ensuing crisis both at the formal and informal economy fronts. On one hand, women in Mexico make for 58.8% of the informal economy, compared to 50.1% of men;(16) on the other hand, the workforce of the sectors most affected by the measures is predominantly composed of women, such as retail, hospitality, tourism, education, domestic worker, as well as professions such as beauticians and seamstresses.(17) Women make up for most of the workers in healthcare and social assistance as well. These women that did keep their jobs are being overworked, with little pay and little or no protection in the face of COVID-19.(18)

Within the specific groups most affected by the containment measures is that of domestic workers. According to United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), “domestic work includes caring for people and performing diverse tasks for the upkeep of the home (...) those tasks mainly involve cooking, cleaning, taking care of children, the elderly, people with disabilities, taking care of the garden or pets, shopping or driving the family car. Domestic workers may work full time, part time, or by the hour; and they may live at the home they work for or not.” In the Latin America and the Caribbean region, there are about 11 to 18 million domestic workers, 93% of which are women.(19)

In Mexico, according to data from Hogar Justo Hogar,(20) (translated as Home Fair Home), a Mexican Civil Society Organization promoting human rights and non-discrimination for domestic workers, before the pandemic there were about 2,480,466 domestic workers in Mexico, 91% of which (2,257,224) were women. The informality of the domestic work in Mexico is one of the highest in the region: about 90% of the domestic workers work informally; that is, without a work contract,(21) which means they are prevented from getting access to social security or any kind of employment benefit. It also means they can be dismissed with no prior notice or severance pay.

Already by the end of June, an estimated 70% of the domestic workers in Mexico had lost their job due to the lockdown measures.(22) As mentioned before, those women lack any kind of social security and most likely were not given any kind of severance pay. Marcela Azuela, president of Hogar Justo Hogar, believes the rest of them were asked to remain at their place of work, thus being cut from seeing their own families and even made to work longer hours given both their constant presence at the place of work as well as the presence of the whole household at the home.

Women who work as domestic workers often take those jobs because they have no other employment opportunities: about half of them finished only up to junior high education, while about 35% of them are the head of their household.(23) Domestic workers are therefore an extremely vulnerable group: they are women, working in the informal economy, with low formal education and lack of opportunities in general, and many of whom represent the main income of their household. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis has taken an extremely high toll on them and has made even more manifest their fragile situation.

In Mexico, it was only until 2018 that a serious review of the domestic workers and their right to social security was undertaken, following a case brought forward by a female domestic workers. Among other issues, the Mexican Supreme Court analyzed the situation of domestic workers and their lack of formal work and corresponding social security rights vis-à-vis the Constitutionally-guaranteed equality before the law and human rights in general.(24) In effect, domestic workers used to be excluded from the right to social security membership and only had the right to “voluntary” social security membership, which meant their employers were not obligated to register them and pay the corresponding fees. The Supreme Court found this categorization resulted in a de facto discrimination of women, given the preponderant number of women domestic workers. It thus held that distinction to be unconstitutional and asked the Mexican Institute of Social Security to implement a pilot program with a view to design a special regime of social security for domestic workers.

Following this award and request by the Supreme Court, the relevant statutes were reformed on July 2, 2019 by the Mexican Congress.(25) The current text calls for obligatory social security membership, as well as for the obligation for employers to enter into a work contract, with a series of required information. Unfortunately, that reform will not be enforceable until April 2021, as per the transitory articles of the publication. In effect, there will be an initial 18-month trial period during which the Mexican Institute of Social Security will gather information to be shared with the Congress after the end of the trial, followed by a 6-month period for the Congress to analyze the information and undertake any necessary modifications.

Hogar Justo Hogar advocates for the formalization of domestic work and the corresponding access to social security. Their website features model contracts as well as best practices for the employers of domestic workers. Additionally, they frequently organize talks and workshops for “Fair Employers”. Their work is very important and much needed in a society that is mostly unaware of these reforms, even though in Mexico 10.2% of working women are domestic workers.(26) In fact, before the lockdown measures, there were only 21,592 domestic workers in the trial program (a meager .87% of the universe of domestic workers then employed).

The reforms to the social security system contemplated by the Mexican Congress and the work of Civil Society Organizations such as Hogar Justo Hogar is essential for the wellbeing of domestic workers. It is particularly essential in order to prevent that future crises affect such an important segment of working women in Mexico so severely. In effect, had this work by Mexican Supreme Court and Congress been undertaken just a couple of years earlier, it would have spared literally millions of women from the most difficult part of the current economic crisis. More such reforms are necessary for other informal workers, men and women, who lack any kind of social security, safety or protection in the face of a completely unexpected crisis such as that caused by COVID-19, with an end not yet in sight. ~Julia A. Garza

(1) Ministry of Health’s Daily Technical Report of March 31st, 2020. Available in Spanish at: https://www.gob.mx/salud/prensa/nuevo-coronavirus-en-el-mundo-covid-19-comunicado-tecnico-diario-239396?idiom=es

(2) WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 of March 11, 2020. Available at: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020

(3) Available at: http://www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5590914&fecha=31/03/2020

(4) Werner, Alejandro. Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean: An Intensifying Pandemic. International Monetary Fund’s Blog. June 26, 2020. Available at: https://blogs.imf.org/2020/06/26/outlook-for-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-an-intensifying-pandemic/

(5) United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Economic Analysis. World Economic Situation and Prospects: June 2020, Briefing No. 138. June 1st, 2020. Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/world-economic-situation-and-prospects-june-2020-briefing-no-138/

(6) Angulo, Sharay; Fajardo, Alberto. Mexico Lost a Million Tax-Paying Jobs Over Last Three Months. Reuters. June 12, 2020. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mexico-jobs/mexico-lost-a-million-tax-paying-jobs-over-last-three-months-idUSKBN23J2RJ

(7) Ahmed, Azam. Mexico’s Leftist Leader Rejects Big Spending to Ease Virus Sting. The New York Times. June 8, 2020. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/world/americas/mexico-AMLO-economy-coronavirus.html

(8) International Labour Office – Geneva. Decent Work and the Informal Economy. Pp. 4-5. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_policy/documents/publication/wcms_210442.pdf

Informal economy includes: “‘all activities that are, in law or practice, not covered or insufficiently covered by formal arrangements. The notion of exclusion lies at the heart of these parameters – that it refers to working people who are largely excluded from the exchanges that take place in the recognized system. They are often not captured by national accounts and official statistics and as a consequence invisible in policy formulation. From this point of view, several aspects of informality are revealed: actors can be informal in that they lack social protection, do not exercise rights at work and lack representation and voice in the workplace. They are therefore excluded from the benefits that are provided by the state, private markets and political processes, and because of this, the informal economy is largely unprotected, insecure and vulnerable.”

(9) International Labour Organization, Programme for the Promotion of Formalization in Latin America, and the Caribbean. Informal Employment in Mexico: Current Situation, Policies and Challenges. Pp. 1, 5. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---americas/---ro-lima/documents/publication/wcms_245889.pdf

(10) Mexico Lost a Million Tax-Paying Jobs Over Last Three Months, Op. Cit.

(11) United Nations. Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women. April 9, 2020. P. 2. Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2020/policy-brief-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-women-en.pdf?la=en&vs=1406

(12) World Economic Situation and Prospects: June 2020, Briefing No. 138. Op. Cit.

(13) Ibid.

(14) International Labour Organization. ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the World of Work. Fifth Edition – Updated Estimates and Analysis. June 30,2020. P. 10. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_749399.pdf

(15) Korolczuk, Elzbieta. Crisis is gendered. Women in the Times of Pandemic. Heinrich Boell Stiftung – Gunda Werner Institute – Feminism and Gender Democracy. May 4, 2020. Available at: https://www.gwi-boell.de/en/2020/05/04/crisis-gendered-women-times-pandemic

(16) International Labour Office – Geneva. Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture. Third Edition, 2018. P. 116. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_626831.pdf

(17) Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Women. Op. Cit. P. 4. See also: Crisis is Gendered. Women in the Times of Pandemic. Op. Cit.

(18) Ibid. See also: World Economic Situation and Prospects: June 2020, Briefing No. 138.

(19) United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Trabajadoras Remuneradas del Hogar en América Latina y el Caribe frente a la Crisis del COVID-19. June 12, 2020. P. 4. Available in Spanish at: https://www.cepal.org/sites/default/files/document/files/trabajadoras_remuneradas_del_hogar_v11.06.20_1_1.pdf

(20) https://hogarjustohogar.org

(21) Trabajadoras Remuneradas del Hogar en América Latina y el Caribe frente a la Crisis del COVID-19. Op. Cit. P. 5.

(22) AFP. El 70% de las Trabajadoras del Hogar Quedaron sin Empleo por el Coronavirus. Expansion. June 29, 2020. Available in Spanish at: https://expansion.mx/economia/2020/06/29/el-70-de-las-trabajadoras-del-hogar-quedaron-sin-empleo-por-el-coronavirus

(23) According to a paper by the Council for the Prevention and Eradication of the Discrimination in Mexico City (COPRED). Personas Trabajadoras del Hogar. Pp. 8-9. Available in Spanish at: https://copred.cdmx.gob.mx/storage/app/uploads/public/5a1/f04/1df/5a1f041df3c0e954561289.pdf

(24) Second Chamber of the Mexican Supreme Court’s Award 9/2018 of December 5, 2018 (Amparo Directo). Available in Spanish at: https://www.scjn.gob.mx/derechos-humanos/sites/default/files/sentencias-emblematicas/resumen/2020-02/Resumen%20AD9-2018%20DGDH.pdf

(25) Decree Whereby Several Sections of the Federal Work Act and the Social Security Act regarding Domestic Workers are Reformed, Amended, and Repealed. Available in Spanish at: http://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5564651&fecha=02/07/2019

(26) Trabajadoras Remuneradas del Hogar en América Latina y el Caribe frente a la Crisis del COVID-19. Op. Cit. P. 3.