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Long Hours, Low Pay, and Lack of Pension Rights Mark the Reality of Housekeepers in Brazil, Revealing a Scenario of Informality and Vulnerability Affecting Millions of Women Across the Country.
Reports of overload, task accumulation, and financial uncertainty illustrate the daily lives of millions of housekeepers who work as self-employed workers in the country.
Although legislation recognizes the domestic link when there is work for more than two days in the same week for the same employer, a large portion of hiring remains outside the formal regime.
In 2024, 65.7% of domestic workers did not contribute to Social Security, leaving them unprotected in case of illness, maternity, or retirement.
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“I worked in a house where the employers had no time for anything and started overloading me, asking me to do several tasks that were not agreed upon.
There were days when I stayed 15 hours on site (…).
I felt like I became a slave within that residence,” reported a housekeeper.
This testimony is not isolated: the pressure for multiple functions in a single day of work and extended hours frequently appears in reports to the news outlet.
Rising Informality and Decline in Signed Portfolios
The formalization of domestic employment has declined over the past decade.
Between 2015 and 2024, the stock of formal links dropped 18.1%, which means nearly 300,000 fewer jobs by the end of the period.
In the 4th quarter of 2024, only 24.4% of people employed in domestic work had signed contracts, meaning that three out of four were informal.
For the president of the Domestic Legal Institute (IDL), Mario Avelino, “the slaveholding and patriarchal culture still persists in domestic work” and irregularities continue to occur either due to ignorance or bad faith.
According to him, a common mistake is paying the housekeeper monthly, when the proper arrangement, in the case of self-employment, is per day.
“By paying monthly, the activity ceases to be considered self-employed and instead constitutes an employment relationship,” he said.
It would be up to the professionals to notify public agencies when there is disrespect.
Profile of Domestic Workers in Brazil
Brazil had 5.9 million people employed in domestic services in the 4th quarter of 2024.
The profile remains predominantly female: 93.5% are women.
There is also a predominance of Black women, who account for about 69% of the category.
Precariousness is evident in income.
In 2024, the average income of people employed in the sector was below the prevailing minimum wage at the time, and the social protection framework is fragile.
In June 2025, the federal government indicated that 64.5% of domestic workers earn less than the minimum wage.
Poverty and Vulnerability of Housekeepers
Social vulnerability is high.
In 2023, 26.1% of domestic workers lived in poverty or extreme poverty, a proportion higher than the average for employed women.
Among Black women, the rates were even higher.
Voice of Housekeepers: Routine Marked by Uncertainty
Housekeeper Alessandra Emygdio, 45, from Niterói, works in three houses and states that many employers avoid formalizing the connection due to claiming high costs.
She says she accepts jobs even for amounts below the average so she doesn’t go without income: “I feel like I need to be strong every day.
I can’t get sick or have an accident because if I don’t work, I can’t pay my bills.”
Another worker, a resident of São Gonçalo, shared that she went almost two months without calls: “I was desperate because the bills kept coming, and my children were feeling hungry.”
For her, the lack of a formal connection and the seasonality of daily jobs create a routine of uncertainty.
Solange Calixto, 47, also from Niterói, remembers that between 2020 and 2023, she had responsibilities caring for children, cleaning, and cooking.
On some occasions, the shift reached 15 hours.
“I became a slave in that house — I did everything — and in the end, I was thrown away like a garbage bag,” she said.
Despite the difficulties, she emphasizes the education of her daughters as a way to overcome and plans to start a nursing degree.
Exploitation and Accumulation of Functions
The president of the Domestic Workers Union of the Municipality of Rio (STDRJ), Maria Izabel, states that pre-agreeing on tasks is essential to avoid function accumulation.
“There’s no way a housekeeper can clean, cook, and also iron clothes all on the same day.
This is function accumulation,” she stated.
According to her, workers dismissed as employees are often re-hired as housekeepers to circumvent the legislation.
What Legislation Provides for Housekeepers and Domestic Workers
According to Complementary Law 150, a domestic worker is someone who provides services continuously and subordinately to the same family more than two days a week.
Up to this limit, the prevailing understanding in Labor Justice is that it is considered self-employed work — the housekeeper.
Thus, when the service exceeds two days, there is bondage and the registration in the portfolio becomes mandatory, along with all rights of the category.
In practice, however, the line between autonomy and subordination can blur, especially when payments are monthly and tasks exceed those agreed upon for a daily payment.
Therefore, experts recommend that the parties define activities and daily work standards to reduce disputes.
MEI and Social Security Contribution: Possible Pathways
As self-employed workers, housekeepers do not have access to typical rights of those who are registered, such as 13th salary, vacation, and FGTS.
To ensure social security benefits — retirement by age, sickness benefit, and maternity pay — there are two usual routes: registering as a Microentrepreneur (MEI) or contributing as an individual contributor.
Since January 2025, the minimum wage is R$ 1,518.00.
In the MEI, the contribution to INSS is 5% of the minimum wage, currently R$ 75.90 per month.
In the simplified plan for individual contributors, the rate is 11% on the minimum; at the current minimum, it amounts to R$ 166.98 monthly and does not entitle to retirement by the time of contribution.
Those who wish for this right must contribute through the normal plan, at 20% of the contribution salary; at the national minimum, this starts from R$ 303.60 a month.
The Ministry of Labor emphasizes the distinction: those who work up to two days a week for the same employer are self-employed workers; beyond that, domestic employment is configured with registration and rights.
In these cases, housekeepers seeking social security protection must register and contribute as MEI or individual contributors.
Essential Work, But Invisible
Despite making up almost 6 million job positions and providing indispensable care to the routines of millions of families, domestic employment remains undervalued.
The combination of fragmented shifts, accumulated tasks, low social security protection, and decline in formalization pushes housekeepers into cycles of vulnerability and turnover.
As long as public care policies are not consolidated and oversight does not reach everyday practice, effective protection largely relies on the formalization of the bond when due — or on regular social security contribution when the relationship is, in fact, self-employed.
Given this scenario, what changes in legislation, oversight, and hiring routines could improve the lives of those who take care of the homes in the country?
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