The number of  domestic workers decreased continuously in Sweden over the course of  the twentieth century. As a share of the total workforce, the proportion of waged domestic workers had fallen to 2.9% in 1950 and 0.05% by 1990, largely because of the mechanization of domestic work, the growth of public child-care and eldercare, a shortage of labour, and increased taxes on labour. Yet at the end of the twentieth century the demand for domestic services increased, and there were signs that the informal sector was growing. In 2007 the Swedish Parliament decided to make domestic services—domestic cleaning, cooking, clothes care, snow removal, gardening, child-care, and help with personal hygiene—tax deductible for private persons. For many this reduced the cost of home help by 50%. The reform started a political debate (the ‘maid debate’), with opponents of  the reform arguing it would create a new, low-pay sector of  female and immigrant workers, characterized by asymmetric power relations between families and domestic workers, exploitation, and bad working conditions in general. Following the reform, the number of  domestic service businesses and employees increased rapidly. In the second half  of  2007, 46,000 people applied for the tax deduction, and by 2011 their number was almost 416,000. From 2009 to 2011, the number of hours of waged domestic work doubled to the equivalent of 61,400 full-time jobs a year.

A previous report, which was based on the same data used here, describes various characteristics of the workers (for example, gender, age, birth, educational background, previous career, reasons for taking the job, and experience of  informal work in the domestic sector) (http://hkr.diva- portal.org/smash/record.jsf ?pid=diva2:556163). The present study describes working conditions and job satisfaction among domestic workers employed by Swedish firms. The empirical data were collected by means of a questionnaire sent to employees of companies with five or more employees in the four southernmost counties of Sweden (Skåne, Blekinge, Halland, and Kronoberg), which together have a population of 1.9 million out of national total of 9.45 million. A total of 249 questionnaires were returned by domestic workers from 86 companies.

Almost 70% of respondents were in permanent employment. About 80% were female (of the total workforce in Sweden, 88% of men and 83% of women were in permanent employment, and among cleaners in general 64%). About 28% said they had managerial functions. One possible explanation for this high percentage was that their workplaces were rather small and geographically scattered (about 30% reported their workplaces had 5–9 employees, and 36.5% reported that their workplaces had 10–19 employees.)

About 54% work full time (35 hours or more per week). According to a national survey in Sweden, 76.6% of the workforce work full time. Male domestic workers are more likely to work full time (76%) than female workers (about 49%), and those with managerial functions work are more likely to work full time (74%) than those without managerial functions (47%). Of those who work fewer than 30 hours per week, only 43% reported that their employer could not offer them more hours.

Most of the respondents did routine, weekly domestic cleaning (89%). A majority also did one- off cleaning (62%) and end-of-tenancy cleaning (58%), and about half of them also did window cleaning (46%). Other common tasks were clothes care and shopping. Only a small proportion reported providing care for the elderly (7.7%), the disabled (1.2%), or children (2%). One explanation for the low percentage of care work is that the public sector provides most of these services in Sweden, while such gaps as exist are largely covered by private care companies (funded by the public purse).

Tasks are divided by gender. For example, 34% of male workers did odd jobs, compared to 3.5% of the female workers, and while almost 48% of the male workers shovelled snow, only 8% of the female workers did. The female workers performed tasks that are traditionally considered to be female, namely routine domestic cleaning, one-off cleaning, clothes care, and child-care and eldercare.

Most of the domestic workers’ wages included time spent travelling between jobs (73%) and most of them had their travel costs paid for by their employers (84.5%). Most of them took their breaks in other places than their company’s break room (74%).

When asked about their relationships with managers, 90.5% agreed with the statement that they received help and support from their managers (compared with a national survey of  general cleaners in Sweden, of whom 28% said they rarely or never received support from supervisors); 74% agreed with the statement that they planned their work with their supervisors (again, 22% of  general cleaners in the national survey said they had difficulty getting information from their supervisors about what should be given priority); and when asked about their relationships with co-workers, 86% agreed with the statement that they got help and support from their co-workers. About 50% agreed with the statement that they did not meet their co-workers often enough, although not all domestic workers longed for co-workers: 20% said they took the job because it entailed little interaction with co-workers. Meanwhile, 19% took the job because it entailed few interactions with customers.

In the ‘maid debate’ prompted by the Swedish Parliament’s deliberations about the tax reform, opponents argued it would create a new and exploitative low-pay sector for female and immigrant workers, with poor working conditions. The debate thus contributed to the public image of working conditions in domestic service as generally bad. We therefore asked the respondents if they felt that others looked down upon their work, and 25.5% agreed with the statement, while almost 9% said that they were ashamed of their work and chose not tell others what they did for a living.

This public image and the shame felt by some of the domestic workers are in sharp contrast to how they felt about the work per se. Almost 94% agreed with the statement ‘I enjoy my work’, and 78% with the statement that the work was more fun than they thought it would be. When asked what they thought was best about their work, the most common answer referred to customers in some way (57%)—for example, meeting them, helping them, and pleasing them. The second source of satisfaction was flexibility and self-determination (43%)—for example, being able to influence how many hours they had to work, when to work, and how to do the work. In answering another question, 85% agreed with the statement that they preferred cleaning because the hours were flexible. A large number said that the work was varied, that they liked the contact they had with their supervisors, and that it was a form of physical exercise.

When asked about the worst aspects of their work, many said it was stressful (24%), physically demanding (21%), and low paid (11%), and that some customer interactions could be difficult.

Given the well-documented health risks of cleaning work, we asked if they thought their work affected their health: 31% agreed with the statement that the work had an adverse effect on their health, and about 50% agreed with the statement, ‘I believe my work will have an adverse effect on my health in the long term’.

The number of domestic workers decreased continuously in Sweden during the 20th century. In 1950 their share of the total workforce had decreased to 2,9% and in 1990 to 0,05%. Important causes were mechanization of domestic work, growth of public child- and elderly care, shortage of labour and increased taxation of labour. But at the end of the 20th century demand for domestic services increased and there were indications that the informal sector was growing. In 2007 the Swedish parliament decided to introduce a tax deduction for private persons who buy domestic services, for instance domestic cleaning, cooking, care of clothes, shoveling snow, gardening, child care and help with personal hygiene. For many this meant a decrease of costs with 50% when purchasing domestic services. The number of businesses and employees increased rapidly. In the second half of 2007 there were 46 000 persons who applied for tax deduction and in 2011 their number was almost 416 000. From 2009 to 2011 the amount of work hours in this sector doubled to the equivalent of 6400 full time jobs per year. At the same time, tax authorities report the informal sector has decreased only marginally.

This study describes who have been employed in the new formal domestic sector in Sweden. Empirical data was collected by means of a questionnaire sent to employees in companies with five or more employees in the four southernmost counties of Sweden (Skåne, Blekinge, Halland and Kronoberg). (Sweden has a population of 9,45 million and the population of these counties is 1,9 million.) A total of 249 questionnaires were returned from domestic workers in 86 companies.

The results show that 40% work in “big cities”, 45% in “small towns” (45%) and 11% in “villages.” Most of them work at workplaces with 5-9 employees (29,7%), 10-19 employees (36,5%) or 20- 49 employees (15,7%). A high majority were employed in the last five years, i.e. after the tax deduction was introduced (82,6%). Mainly women work in this sector (80,6%) and their mean age is 42 years and 3 months. Most of them are born in Sweden (77,6%). Although the percentage of immigrants (22,4%) is higher than in the Swedish work force in total (15,2%) it is as high as among nurses assistants, home helps and personal care attendants (22%) but lower than among cleaners in general (44%). One possible explanation for the high number of native born workers in this sector may be that employers and customers demand workers who master the Swedish language. In other types of cleaning (hotels, restaurants, factories, etc.) communicative skills may not be as decisive as in domestic work. In four questions respondents were asked to assess how well they understand, speak, read and write Swedish. In all four questions between 32,9 and 44,1% of immigrants responded they master Swedish ”very good” and between 44,1 and 57,6% replied they master Swedish “fairly well”.

The educational background of domestic workers is lower than in the population in general but considerably higher than among cleaners in general. 21,6% of them finished elementary school without any further education in comparison to the workforce in general (11,2%) and cleaners (about 40% according to three different studies). 69% of domestic workers had finished elementary school and gymnasium and/or vocational school.

A minor part were unemployed at the time they accepted their current employment (28,1%) and a majority of them were unemployed six months or longer before they were employed. A large share were employed elsewhere at the time of employment (58,3) (but most of these looked for new jobs at the time due to threatening unemployment, insufficient work hours, companies planned to move their businesses to other parts of the country, etc.) 37,2% of domestic workers had similar tasks at their immediately previous workplaces.

A large share had, at one point or another in their previous careers, had low skilled jobs. Many had worked as cleaners (40,7%), as carers of children, disabled and elderly (43,1%), in restaurant kitchens (12,5%), and customer service in restaurants (16,2%). 33,8% had worked in factories. Very few had had jobs that demanded higher education (2,8%). Thus a major part of domestic workers had previous experience of jobs where they handled other people´s dirt. It may be that having experienced working with others dirt creates an important background for readiness to accept a job in this sector and how it is experienced.

A high majority had not actively looked for jobs in this line of business (78,3) but happened to end up in it. Most of them were told about the companies and their need for staff through informal channels (72%). In 17,8% domestic workers were informed by staff at unemployment agencies or their homepages.

There were a number of reasons for accepting the job offer: A large share agreed to the statement saying “had to take this job for economical reasons” (46%). Slightly more than half agreed to the statement saying that the job allowed them to “work more hours than before” (53,9%) and slightly more than half agreed to the statement “I am well-paid” (50,4%). An important reason to accept the job offer was that work hours are flexible and allow a high degree of self-determination: 85,1% agreed with the statement “I like that the work hours are flexible” and 80,3% agreed with “work was possible to combine with my family life”. Another reason for accepting the job offer was that it allowed them to work alone (20,9%) and not meet customers (19,1%). Another reason was that they liked to work with domestic service (65,5%). At the same time 36% said they accepted the job offer while waiting for something better to turn up.

16,7% had, at one point in time or another, worked in the informal sector and 8,6% agreed with the statement that they accepted the job offer because they wanted to stop working informally. 4% had taken on tasks paid for informally as part of their current employments. 22% said customers sometimes ask them to work informally.

This study describes who has been employed in the new formal domestic sector in Sweden, more precisely firms with 5 or more employees. It is likely that the work force in smaller companies is composed differently, with a generally lower educational background, a higher number of immigrants and lower skills in the Swedish language. It is likely that the work force in the informal sector also consist of persons with a generally lower educational background, a higher number of immigrants, of which many have lower skills in the Swedish language but also paperless immigrants and other groups with low prospects for paid employment in the formal economy.