What Black Immigrant Domestic Workers Want and Need

In 2020, more than 800 domestic workers from Massachusetts, Miami-Dade, Florida, and New York, New York responded to our National Domestic Workers Alliance We Dream in Black Domestic Worker Survey and revealed these devastating truths:

Black immigrant domestic workers were some of the hardest impacted by the pandemic.

In every state surveyed, 70% of Black immigrant domestic workers revealed they had lost their jobs (45%) or received reduced hours and pay (25%).

‘The Other Side of the Storm’ is a follow-up to NDWA’s initial ‘Notes from the Storm’ report, which examined the experiences of Black immigrant domestic workers in Miami, New York, and Massachusetts just as the pandemic hit in 2020.  ‘The Other Side of the Storm’ returned to these regions in 2021 and features data and anecdotes from surveys, focus groups, and interviews of more than 1,000 respondents.

Data

Black immigrant domestic workers want and need health insurance. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of survey respondents identified health insurance as the benefit they most desire. “Domestic workers deserve to have the same privileges as other workers, like health insurance. A lot of us don’t have that. Everything others get in other professions like health care and paid time off, we should get the same thing.” — Barbara, 60, Nanny, Boston, MA

New York City
56%

Massachusetts
56%

Miami
70% 

Caregivers want benefits that allow them to care for themselves and their families. 

Respondents also see retirement benefits (46%) and paid sick leave and medical leave (44%) as benefits that would make their jobs better.

New York City
56% retirement benefits  | 49% paid sick leave and medical leave

Massachusetts
43% retirement benefits  | 49% paid sick leave and medical leave

Miami
58% paid sick leave and medical leave  | 57% paid time off

When survey respondents were asked what they needed and wanted to make domestic work a good job, they named the following: 

1. Raise the wages for home healthcare and childcare workers across the country. 
2. Provide free childcare for working families. 
3. Provide free healthcare for anyone who cannot afford it. 
4. Pay family caregivers who take care of a relative full-time. 
5. Create a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants.

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