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Good practice Imported

Batas Kasambahay (RA 10361) — The Philippines' Domestic Workers Act

Philippines · Manila · See the Philippines profile · See the Manila profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 59% 59/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

The Philippines' 2013 Domestic Workers Act promised written contracts, minimum wage and mandatory social-security coverage to 1.4 million kasambahay; a 2019 government survey found only 2.5% had written contracts and 83% still lacked social-security coverage.

1.4 million workers
Kasambahay covered by the 2019 survey (2019)
2.5 %
Kasambahay with a written contract (2019)
83 %
Kasambahay with no social-security coverage (2019)
41 %
Kasambahay aware the law existed (2019)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Philippines
Period
2013-2019
Keywords
labour rights, domestic work, social security, gender equality

Context

The Domestic Workers Act (Republic Act No. 10361), known as Batas Kasambahay, took effect in 2013 to formalise labour protections for the Philippines' household workers -- kasambahay -- an overwhelmingly female workforce long excluded from the country's general labour code.

Objectives

The law requires written employment contracts, a minimum wage, at least one rest day a week, and mandatory employer-funded enrolment in the Social Security System, PhilHealth and the Pag-IBIG housing fund after one month of service.

Activities

DOLE has since issued additional 2021 guidelines aimed at tightening enforcement and raising awareness of the law.

Results

A joint 2019 survey by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Statistics Authority, covering an estimated 1.4 million kasambahay nationwide, found that only 2.5% of domestic workers (about 35,000) had the written contract the law requires, 83% had no social-security coverage of any kind, and only 41% were even aware the law existed.

Conclusions

The law remains a genuine, still-active legal floor for a workforce that previously had none, but its own government's data make clear that formal rights on paper have not yet reached the great majority of the workers they were designed to protect.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — No efficiency or enforcement-budget data was found; the low compliance rates suggest enforcement resources have not matched the law's scope.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Law effective 2013; DOLE issued additional enforcement and awareness guidelines in 2021; most complete evaluation to date is the 2019 DOLE-PSA survey.
Staffing & skills
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) enforces the law; the Philippine Statistics Authority provides the national survey infrastructure used to measure implementation.

Common failure modes

  • Only 2.5% of the 1.4 million kasambahay had the written contract the law requires.
  • 83% had no social-security coverage of any kind.
  • Only 41% were even aware the law existed.
  • About 4% of kasambahay were minors, including a small share under the legal working age of 15.

Where it fits

Governance type
national labour law
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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