Money & Work
80 million people work in other people's homes
On October 27, 2026, the ILO said that most of the world's domestic workers still work without formal protection.
On October 27, 2026, the International Labour Organization, or ILO, published new estimates about domestic workers around the world. Domestic workers are paid to do work in or for private homes. They clean, cook and take care of children, older people and people with disabilities. According to the ILO, about 80 million people aged 15 and over did this kind of work in 2025.
The report marks 15 years since the ILO adopted the Domestic Workers Convention in 2011. This international agreement says that domestic workers should have the same basic rights at work as other workers. In 2019, the ILO's estimate was 75.6 million, so the number has grown by about 4.4 million. However, domestic workers still make up only about 2.2 percent of all working people, a share that has hardly changed.
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Not official, or not done under the usual rules. An informal job usually comes without the legal and social protection that a formal job gives.
The ILO estimates that 66.5 million domestic workers, or 83.1 percent, had informal jobs in 2025.