Domestic workers need to work in 6 households to earn minimum wage: Study

Employers believe they pay enough, do not consider skills while setting the wage and favour "trustworthiness" over caste and religion, found a study of households in Bengaluru and Chennai

Domestic workers in Bengaluru and Chennai would have to work in six low-paying households to earn the state minimum wage, found a study released on December 12.

More than half (55%) of the employers surveyed in Bengaluru believed that they paid their domestic workers "generously", while 51% in Chennai believed they paid "adequately" for services, found the study by the Indian Institute of Human Settlements, an educational institution based in Bengaluru that researches equitable, sustainable and efficient transformation of Indian settlements.

The number of tasks--cleaning, food preparation and upkeep--performed by the workers and the time spent on these tasks