Trumka: "Domestic Worker Rights Are Human Rights"

AFL-CIO blog

Veronica, a young domestic worker from Southern California, took her heart in her hands to speak to a barrage of television cameras and microphones, in a hearing room in the state Capitol building in Sacramento. She wasn’t afraid, though, she said, because she felt the strength of unions behind her.

Veronica was paid $350 – $400 a week to clean 34 houses, at little more than $10 per house. And for that wage, she had to clean everything.

Trumka responded, telling the legislators and other domestic workers, who’d gathered with the press,

This bill does not create new rights, it extends the rights that almost all other workers have to domestic workers.

He told them that domestic workers should be thanked for the work they do.

You do the most important work of all when you take care of the people most precious to us with such dignity.

The AFL-CIO president recognized that when the country’s basic labor law was written three-quarters of a century ago, the workers, mostly women, who clean homes and take care of children the sick and the elderly, were written out of it. Today, across the country, those workers are knocking on the door, demanding rights most workers take for granted.

Wow. I live in a state where wages in general aren't high. Still, I would consider $40-$50 as a fair wage for a thorough cleaning of my one-bedroom apartment -- about two to two-and-a-half hours of work.

For full-time, live-in help, I think $100 a day would be more than fair. Granted,many disabled people can't afford that $700 a week. I certainly wouldn't work for less than that, and I am eager and willing to work hard.

Women have always had to face lower wages than men, and children (when they had child labor) for even less than women. I'll bet no man would settle for less than $50 to clean my place.

Although I feel for this woman and hope that she makes a difference...

Wage/Worker rights are not Human Rights. Period.

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


Domestic workers are often subjected to abuse, taken advantage of; deprived of time for themselves, sleep or their families; work under hazardous, unregulated conditions.

Their condition often amounts to slave labor.

These are human rights concerns.

I forgot to add that domestic workers receive no benefits, either. No Social Security, no health insurance.