Elva Villacis, 69 years old, arrived in Spain when the country still used the peseta. She has been cleaning houses and caring for the elderly for more than three decades. She reached retirement age four years ago but continues working because she does not have the required years of contributions to access a contributory pension. Although she emigrated from Ecuador with a university education, like many women of her generation, she spent long periods without a contract and outside the Social Security system.
She recalls that for years domestic work was carried out without a contract or contributions, a reality that today prevents her from retiring. “Now I am 69 years old and I have to keep working. I have given my life, like many colleagues. This is not our fault; it is the consequence of decades of a system that allowed under-the-table work, lack of contracts, and many employers did not register us with social security,” she denounces in conversation with EL MUNDO.
Her story is not an exception. Data from Oxfam Intermón show that the precariousness that accompanies domestic workers throughout their working lives also follows them into retirement. A recent report identifies a “triangle of precariousness,” marked by informality, temporariness, and part-time work, which hinders their contribution careers and explains why thousands of women face old age with insufficient pensions or no benefits.
The figures of invisible work
In Spain, 565,718 people work in domestic and care employment, according to the Intermón document. 87% are women and 69% have foreign nationality or dual nationality, making this sector one of the most feminized and with the highest presence of migrant population. Additionally, 158,330 workers are over 55 years old, three out of ten live in poverty, and about 70,000 work in irregular administrative situations.
Precariousness is not limited to the underground economy. Among workers over 55 years old, 15.7% are still not registered with Social Security, 24% have a temporary contract, and 62% work part-time, conditions that make it difficult to accumulate stable contribution careers and also complicate access to a contributory pension.
For Nerea Boneta, one of the report’s authors, precariousness begins long before retirement. In her words, “the immigration law allows and favors people working without rights.” As a consequence, she explains to this newspaper, “if you have worked many years without a contract, even if you join the formal market, all those gaps end up penalizing your retirement, both in the number of years and in the amount of the pension.”
The triangle of precariousness
Fragmented work trajectories have direct consequences on retirement. 65.9% of domestic workers over 55 plan to delay their retirement beyond the legal age because they do not have the required years of contributions to access a contributory pension or need to continue generating income to make ends meet.
Rossana Cantero knows that path well. She came from Paraguay 18 years ago and spent the first 12 working without a contract while waiting to regularize her administrative situation. Getting the papers eased some of that uncertainty but did not change her working conditions. “It stabilized a little, but not much,” she sums up. She continues alternating periods of work without a contract with jobs where she contributes fewer hours than she actually works.
“I have only contributed six hours so far. I do not contribute the eight hours that would correspond”, she explains. A single mother, she assumes that this situation will delay her retirement: “I will probably have to work more years than should be worked to get a pension.” And she adds that “if right now, due to illness or whatever, I stop working, I will have a very low pension.”
Physical and emotional wear
Job instability not only leaves a mark on contributions but also accumulates in the body. According to Oxfam Intermón data, 73% of domestic workers over 55 have suffered back pain during the last year and 70.9% joint pain. But the wear is also emotional: 65.6% report having suffered stress, 59.2% anxiety, and 40% show symptoms of depression.
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Angelica Lugo arrived from Venezuela in 2023 to work as a caregiver and, although she obtained a temporary permit, she assures that her working conditions did not change. After suffering a work accident that injured her arm, she continues with aftereffects. “There are days when I cannot sleep,” she says. At 64 years old, she accepts that she will not be able to retire, “I cannot aspire to a pension because I have only contributed eight months. Emotionally and physically, I can’t take any more”.
This wear is also explained by her working conditions. Since arriving in Spain, she assures that she has never earned more than 850 euros a month. She works from Sunday to Sunday and, as a live-in caregiver, there are periods when she goes up to two months without leaving the house where she works.
Another factor that affects precariousness is the salary itself. The report points out that domestic workers over 55 receive an average income of 940 euros per month. 64.9% rent and spend nearly 40% of their income on housing, and 87% say they could not afford an unexpected expense over 600 euros. More than seven out of ten have given up going to the dentist due to lack of resources.
Aging without a pension
The general Social Security law establishes a minimum of 15 years of contributions to access a contributory retirement pension, two of them within the 15 years immediately prior to the moment of generating the right. Reaching that minimum does not mean receiving a full pension. With 15 years contributed, 50% of the regulatory base corresponds, and the percentage increases as more contribution time accumulates.
Viorica Vacariuc, from Romania, arrived in Spain in 2005 and, at 56 years old, is still trying to complete the minimum time to access a contributory pension. “I am two years and three months short of making at least 15 years. And no one registers me when I find work. I have to leave without being registered because there is no remedy. Since Social Security has increased a lot, they do not want to pay almost anyone because it costs almost 400 euros,” she explains to EL MUNDO. When she asks to be registered, she says, the answer is always the same: “Well, I have another girl”.
But even accessing a contributory pension does not guarantee leaving precariousness behind. In 2024, retired domestic workers received an average of 473.56 euros per month, half that of women in other sectors. 49.5% needed the minimum supplement, which raised their pension to barely 710 euros per month.
In recent years, the sector has advanced in labor rights. Royal Decree-Law 16/2022 equated their protection with that of other workers by recognizing the right to unemployment, incorporating coverage to the Wage Guarantee Fund (FOGASA), and eliminating dismissal by withdrawal, which allowed the employer to end the contract without cause. Since then, dismissal must be justified.
Despite these changes, Concepción Santodomingo, secretary of Women and Equality of CCOO del Hábitat, agrees that the main challenge is not the lack of rules but ensuring they are enforced. She explains that domestic work takes place in private homes, where inspection is more complex, and many workers, especially migrants, avoid reporting to not lose their jobs. “Those who fail to register or contribute fewer hours than worked are seriously harming the present and future rights of the worker.”
In her opinion, the priority should be to combat irregular employment through strengthening the Labor Inspectorate and increasing specific actions in the sector. To this end, she argues that “it is necessary to facilitate mechanisms for regularizing contributions when an undeclared employment relationship can be proven and to continue advancing in full equalization of rights with other workers.”
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