Over the past 40 years, rising female labour force participation has transformed Asia's economy. In Hong Kong, the share of women in the labour force has increased from 45.7% in 1980 to 52.2% in 2023. In Singapore, it surged from 44.4% to 62.6%, and in Malaysia from 36.8% to 55.8% over the same period. These figures not only reflect the greater educational attainment and progressive labour policies, but also the often overlooked contributions of domestic workers.
By shouldering household chores, childcare and eldercare, domestic workers allow women to join the formal labour market, making them a key enabler of dual-income households. They quietly sustain economic growth in Asian countries, where approximately 40.8% of the world's 52.6 million domestic workers are employed. Despite their key role in Asia's economic growth, their importance remains unacknowledged, and countries often fail to appropriately enforce the institutions that protect them from exploitation.
The Economic Importance of Domestic Work
Many Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) leave behind families in rural or impoverished areas, under the allure of better wages and the chance to support their families' livelihoods. In exporting nations, such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar, domestic work is a crucial source of remittance income. For instance, in the Philippines, remittances from overseas workers account for nearly 9% of GDP, supporting household consumption and regional development. Remittances that boost consumption could assist human development through indirect investments in healthcare, schools and real estate.
For receiving economies such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, MDWs are essential to maintaining high levels of labour participation among women, sometimes being acknowledged as the backbone of Asia's emerging economies. In Malaysia and Singapore, there is evidence that increasing demand for MDWs is aligned with the increasing female labour force participation rate. Moreover, employing an MDW costs around £260-320 per month in Malaysia and £480 in Hong Kong. This is a small price to pay for middle and even working-class families in return for alleviating the stress of the "double burden" of work and care. This affordability remains a key reason why MDWs are rampant in Asian middle and high-income countries, such as Hong Kong, where MDWs make up about 10% of the city's workforce.
Abuse and Exploitation of Domestic Workers
Despite their vital contribution, many MDWs endure severe exploitation. The informal and unregulated structure of the domestic work market creates the perfect conditions for information asymmetry and exploitation. Workers know little about local labour laws, contractual terms or reporting mechanisms, allowing employers and recruitment agents to wield unchecked authority.
The cycle begins with recruitment agencies who target women and girls from rural areas, sometimes underage, promising secure jobs and lucrative pay abroad. Agencies frequently forge documents, inflate placement fees, and impose debt bondage, requiring MDWs to surrender their first six or seven months of wages to repay recruitment costs. These excessive fees keep them in prolonged debt, giving them no other option but to stay in an exploitative field in fear of harassment by agents. Weak regulation and a lack of access to formal credit markets force workers into inescapable financial dependency before they even begin employment
Upon arrival, live-in laws legally bind MDWs to residing in their employers' homes, making them vulnerable to abuse. In many cases, passports and work permits are withheld, restricting workers' mobility. Their workdays stretch from before dawn to late at night, with little rest, privacy or fair overtime compensation. Although most Asian jurisdictions guarantee a weekly day off, compliance is rarely monitored and often falls on employers to uphold standards. The lack of enforcement by formal authority severely limits an MDW's bargaining power, leaving them with little to no choice but to adhere to the demands of their employers.
Abuse can also be psychological or physical. Reports of verbal harassment, confinement and even sexual assault persist. Documented cases of physical abuse include acts of slapping, choking, hitting and even burning skin with irons. In the most severe cases, sustained abuse has led to death, as in the case of Piang Ngaih Don, who died in Singapore in 2017 after months of starvation and physical assault.
Why This Situation Persists
The persistence of such abuse stems from a combination of market and institutional failures. Information asymmetry between agents and workers, missing labour market protections and social norms that devalue domestic work all reinforce one another.
In sending countries, a lack of accessible information about wages, job types and working conditions leaves workers vulnerable to deception. Governments must strengthen oversight of recruitment agencies, verify documentation extensively to prevent the poaching of underage girls into the industry and improve welfare standards within the industry. These regulations help establish the moral expectations of an institution by setting clear standards of conduct and holding themselves accountable for the fair employment of MDWs. However, a major flaw of imperfectly implemented policies can lead to side effects that are even more harmful. For example, after several high-profile cases of domestic worker abuse, the Myanmar government banned women from seeking domestic work abroad in 2014. While the policy aimed to protect women from exploitation, it instead led to the growth of a black market for overseas employment, where agents demanded higher fees and used bribes to circumvent restrictions. The failure of this policy is evidenced by the 50% growth of Myanmar maids in Singapore between 2013 and 2015. For policies to be effective, governments must combine regulation with proper enforcement, accessible information campaigns and collaboration with receiving countries to ensure that protection mechanisms do not only look good on paper.
From a broader perspective, poverty and limited job opportunities in rural areas push families to depend on overseas domestic work as a form of livelihood insurance. Investing in local job creation and rural infrastructure would reduce the demand for risky overseas employment. Improving local job opportunities and rural infrastructure could reduce the demand for risky overseas employment. In Indonesia, initiatives such as the SDG Indonesia One aim to boost connectivity and local jobs, while Myanmar's Local Development Funds program targets agricultural and rural development. Yet these remain general development schemes, with little explicit focus on preventing the exploitation of women and girls through migrant domestic work.
Receiving countries face different challenges. Live-in conditions, limited access to transportation, and weak education about rights constrain MDWs' ability to bargain or advocate for their rights collectively. Stronger enforcement mechanisms, inclusive wage laws, anonymous reporting channels, and safe shelters are needed to ensure that the laws protecting domestic workers are effective. In many jurisdictions, such as Singapore, live-in domestic workers are exempt from statutory minimum wage protections, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. In terms of infrastructure that aims to protect MDWs, some progress has been made by civil society initiatives such as Christian Action's Centre for Migrant Domestic Workers (CMDW) in Hong Kong under the Asian Network of Women's Shelters, which provides safe accommodation, counselling and legal support. While such initiatives show progress, real protection for MDWs requires consistent enforcement, inclusive labour policies, and government accountability beyond the efforts of civil society.
Finally, and possibly the hardest barrier to the fair treatment of MDWs, is the normalisation of discrimination. In many societies, domestic work is still viewed as unskilled. This perception is deeply intertwined with class and racial hierarchies. Most MDWs are women from poorer backgrounds in neighbouring countries. This creates an expectation of servitude and obedience. When an occupation is associated with a specific race or class, its wage and social status are systematically depressed. This is not an easy problem to solve; it requires a paradigmatic shift that recognises domestic work as dignified and essential to our growing economies.
Conclusion
Domestic workers are the hidden foundation of Asia's economic growth, enabling countless women to participate in the labour force while also sustaining their own families across borders through remittances. Their contributions extend beyond the economies of their employers, stretching across oceans and catalysing their home economies as well. Their exclusion from basic labour protections represents not only a moral failure but an economic inefficiency. Underpaid and undervalued, they are unfairly treated and perpetuate inequalities, undermining the value of their work.
As Asian economies continue to grow, it is important to ensure fair treatment, safe conditions and proper valuation of domestic work. Without checks on exploitative recruitment practices and discriminatory employment norms, the economic progress MDWs make possible risks being built on modern forms of servitude. Therefore, there should be a unified call to improve the systems we have to better protect and value our domestic workers for their often unacknowledged yet vast contributions to our growing economies.