One in three irregular workers in Italy is concentrated in domestic work. “There is a lack of help for families”

Domestic employment grows in the three-year period 2023-2025, with an increase of 7.6% in the two-year period reaching 1.48 million units (+7.6%), but the sector remains marked by an irregularity rate which reached 56.6% in 2024.

We can read it in the 2026 Family (Net) Work Report, by Assindatcolf (National Association of Domestic Employers) according to which families are faced with rates that have increased by 20% in a decade.

According to what emerged from the Paper, a note reports, starting from 2020 - the year in which, thanks to the regularization of the sector, the irregularity rate had dropped to 51% - the percentage continued to rise, reaching 53.5% in 2022, 55.4% in 2023 and reaching 56.6% in 2024.

The most impressive number that emerges at this point is that the domestic work sector alone accounts for 33.7% of all irregular dependent employment in Italy; in a theoretical scenario of its complete emergence, the rate of employee irregularity in the country would drop from 13.2% to 8.7%, with a reduction of 4.5 percentage points. "The undeclared economy in the domestic sector is growing - declares Andrea Zini, president of Assindatcolf - because there is no help. Six out of ten families do not receive any support, and not by choice: there is simply nothing to access, or it is too little to make a difference".

According to the data, in the three-year period 2024-2026, 41.6% declare an increase in the need for domestic and care services. The increase in needs mainly concerns families who employ carers: 67.3% report a growth in assistance needs, compared to 25.9% of families who use a housekeeper. The growth in costs is even more widespread: it affects 71.7% of the families interviewed and reaches 86% among those who employ a caregiver. For 38.9% of the latter, the increase was very significant. Among families who use a housemaid, however, costs increased in 63.1% of cases and the increase was very significant for 10.5%.