Mexico domestic workers face high informality despite reforms

A new report titled ‘Sosteniendo el cambio: Por un trabajo justo para las trabajadoras del hogar en México’, presented by the civil network Unidas, reveals that only 1% of Mexico’s more than 2.3 million domestic workers have written employment contracts. Despite legislative reforms between 2018 and 2023 that made affiliation with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) mandatory, 96.6% of the sector remains in informal employment.

Of the 2.3 million domestic workers in the country, nine out of ten are women. Néstor Genis, an author of the report and inclusion coordinator at Ethos, noted a significant gap between legal reforms and the actual working conditions of these individuals. Currently, mandatory IMSS affiliation affects only about 60,000 people, which is less than 3% of the total sector.

The study highlights that the evasion of employer contributions to IMSS results in an estimated annual loss of 56,671 million pesos. Experts describe this as an ‘institutional subsidy’ for employers that increases worker vulnerability. Additionally, the report criticizes the ‘per day’ insurance scheme, stating it provides fragmented protection by limiting medical access only to the specific days registered.