Study calculates undeclared work
Nine out of ten domestic helpers not registered
3/20/2022, 8:04 p.m
When it comes to helping around the house, many don’t take the law very seriously. This is shown by a study by the Institute for Economics. According to this, around 90 percent of all domestic helpers in Germany work illegally. A possible solution is already ready at the Ministry of Labour.
According to a study, domestic help is employed illegally in nine out of ten households in Germany. This affects around 3.6 million households, writes the employer-oriented Institute of the German Economy (IW) in a short study. Overall, help is used in about every tenth household – particularly often when a person in need of care has to be cared for.
The IW calculated the difference between regularly registered and illegal employment relationships in the household from official information and survey results. According to this, an estimated 70,000 people are subject to social security contributions or are self-employed in households, and there are also around 330,000 registered mini-jobs. In comparison with surveys, this leaves a huge gap that can only be explained by undeclared domestic help.
Of the registered mini-jobbers in private households, 90 percent are female and almost two-thirds of them are older than 50, according to the mini-job center. The authors of the study support a voucher model planned by the new federal government to create better legal employment opportunities for domestic help.
According to the ideas of Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, families with children, single parents and households with people in need of care should initially receive an annual subsidy of up to 2000 euros so that they can afford legal help.