More than half of domestic workers in Colombia don’t have enough income to save, which is why Hogaro noted, “We have a responsibility to go beyond decent wages and social benefits.”
Colombia is the country where the market for paid domestic work is most developed, in contrast to Mexico where formalities in this area do not exceed 1%.
That is why this sector still presents great challenges, especially after a report issued by the National Statistics Administration (DANE) of Colombia and the UN Women Agency in 2020, which revealed that this type of work is carried out in 5.6% of households in Colombia. , which represents approximately 688,000 people, of which 647,000 are women (94%).
The study revealed that only 17% of these women receive Social Security, in addition to 62% receiving a minimum wage or less. While 26% earn between 1 and 1.5% of the minimum wage, the rest earn more than 1.5% of the minimum wage.
This calls into question Latin America’s debt to domestic work.
In response, Colombian cleaning company Hogarú published a study to highlight the socio-economic reality of the market and provide information to the country’s employers so that they can make informed decisions about their policies and incentives.
This report revealed that more than half of women do not have enough income to save (56%). Among those who save, 59% use the money to buy their own home.
Finally, 73%, about seven out of 10 cleaners, are heads of household.
In this sense, the CEO of Hogarú, Juan Sebastián Cadavid, explained that this study is “fundamental” to understand and measure the socioeconomic reality of the domestic cleaning market. “It is our responsibility to go beyond decent wages and social benefits,” he emphasized.
