Abstract
In this article, we examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor conditions of domestic workers in the epicenter of the United States. We focus our analysis on the symbolic categorization of domestic work as “essential labor.” While domestic workers are lauded as heroes in public discourse, we argue that this symbolic recognition does not extend to material remuneration. Instead, we find that labor conditions better fit their categorization as expendable essential workers, meaning those whose essential labor is magnified during the pandemic but whose work remains materially undervalued. Data used in this article draw from observations of more than 30 hours of virtual town hall meetings on the pandemic hosted by migrant domestic worker advocacy groups in Los Angeles and New York.
Highlights
In this article, we examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor conditions of domestic workers in the epicenter of the United States
The contradiction of being simultaneously essential and expendable is notably one not lost on domestic workers and their advocates, including Linda Oalican, the executive director of Damayan, a migrant work advocacy group serving the Filpinx community in New York City, who shares, The rich people in the state of New York and over all the country have migrant workers working as their nannies, their babysitters, their housekeepers and as caregivers taking care of their parents . . . But all along we know that they see us as disposable labor, workers without rights
This article draws data from observations of virtual town hall meetings organized by two advocacy groups for Filipinx migrant workers based in the two cities worst-hit by the pandemic, Los Angeles and New York (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020)
Summary
We examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labor conditions of domestic workers in the epicenter of the United States. This article draws data from observations of virtual town hall meetings organized by two advocacy groups for Filipinx migrant workers based in the two cities worst-hit by the pandemic, Los Angeles and New York (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020).
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