Domestic Workers Are Being Left Out of the Stimulus
By Kaelyn Forde
When she cleans houses and public buildings now, Ezzie Dominguez, 38, wears a bandana over her mouth and nose, and brings her own gloves. Lately, there’s been a surge in demand for cleanings as people in her Denver community scramble to sanitize amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
“They're panicked and scared, and they want us to come and clean and disinfect, even with harsh chemicals,” she says. “My cleaning clients know that I'm also immunocompromised and in remission, but they don't care.”
The mother of two also worries about bringing the virus home. But she is her family’s sole breadwinner after her husband was laid off from his job. “[My family] can die if they're exposed to the virus, I know that, but they also will die if I don’t bring home the money to buy food and the basic necessities,” Dominguez says. “Many of us don't have a choice.”
Congress recently passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and a $2 trillion stimulus plan aimed at relieving some of the economic pain caused by the virus, but both leave many domestic workers like Dominguez out in the cold, advocates say.
For one, stimulus checks aren’t being sent to people who pay taxes through an individual taxpayer ID number (ITIN) – a group that includes immigrants who don’t have social security numbers, said Julie Kashen, senior policy adviser for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. And the cash-based, multiple-employer nature of domestic work also makes it harder for workers to show their income. Some workers’ immigration status leaves them ineligible for unemployment benefits.
That’s why across the country, people who clean houses, care for children and look after the elderly — many of them women of color — find themselves on the frontline of the pandemic, yet forgotten.
Lee Plaza, 60, works six 12-hour overnight shifts per week caring for a 98-year-old woman in the Los Angeles area. “I love this job despite the fact that we're underpaid and have no benefits like health insurance, no paid time off, no sick days, no overtime pay,” Plaza says. “I love to take care of the elderly because I love to learn from their wisdom, and I also consider this job a noble profession.” Plaza lives with five roommates to maximize the money she can send home to her children and elderly mother, but lately has been shelling out for Ubers to and from work to avoid catching the virus on the bus. She worries about contracting coronavirus and passing it on to her patient and her roommates.
Many domestic workers in the U.S. don’t have the gloves, masks and other personal protective equipment they need, the National Domestic Workers Alliance says. Others have been told to stay home without pay by their employers. To try to help, the alliance has set up a Coronavirus Care Fund, which aims to raise $4 million in order to provide $400 checks to 10,000 domestic workers like Plaza and Dominguez.
But advocates also hope the coronavirus crisis sheds light on the fact that America’s 2 million domestic workers need on-the-job protections long after COVID-19 is contained. So far, nine states have passed a bill of rights for domestic workers, but advocates want to see it adopted at the federal level. “Domestic workers care for the most important part of people’s lives, and it’s time we’re taken care of as well,” Dominguez says. “We are not disposable, and we deserve to have paid time off and health insurance like everyone else.”
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