Domestic work is REAL WORK

This story raises awareness in regards to the current working conditions of domestic workers in New York. Something that strikes me about this story that is somewhat of a hidden issue, is the fact that domestic workers really are the “backbone of New York City’s economy” (p. 1), which is described to be invisible. This is an overall idea that not many of us seem to step back and realize, that without these workers our society would not be able to function. We rely on domestic workers much more than we give them credit for. After all, they do all the work that no one else wants to do, and this in turn can be a reason why many of us choose not to see this issue. Another thing that was striking to me was the fact that most of the surveyed domestic workers had been working at this level for more than 10 years. This stood out to me because I don’t think anyone plans to work this hard, for this long. This is very telling of the reality that domestic workers often become trapped and pushed into exploited jobs, earning low wages while working insanely long weekly hours.

In my opinion, DataCenter created a compelling argument through the measures of research they took to survey domestic workers. They looked at every aspect associated with these workers and provided viable statistics that truly supported their fight to show that there is an immediate need to improve the working conditions of domestic workers. For example, it is very effective to show statistics based on worker hourly wages, overtime hours worked, primary providers for their families, years working as a domestic worker, abusive treatment by employer etc, which is included in the executive summary and also revised in following chapters. “Survey results clearly point to the need for industry standards that will ensure fair labor practices, recognition, and humane treatment” (p. 2). By utilizing real-life experiences of domestic workers in this report also had an added affect of supporting the statistics shown. 

After reading El Mojado’s story, it was apparent that harsh working conditions was a social issue that came up in this story. For example, I learned that as a meat packer the climate was  either very hot, or very cold. El Mojado worked in processing where it was very cold, “it keeps the bacteria out of the meat. I wore a vest , sleeves, an apron, and four gloves. I was wet all the time. Inside I trembled” (p. 210). El Mojado gained numerous health issues due to the state of his working site which included minor health issues like fevers, but also got more serious and caused him to have respiratory and heart problems. Standing in the factory in these conditions for up to 12 hours a day, with a total of 45 minutes for break, and earning $8.50 per hour, not to mention having to do extra work for those who are absent - these are just a brief description of evidence that could be used to support the argument of improving domestic worker conditions. Reading these kinds of experiences and acknowledging them as true-life for someone is very awakening for me, and after reading ‘Home is where the work is’ I see how this social issue of harsh working conditions is parallel between the two.

-- Taki Te Koi