The report, Domestic workers across the world, is the first of its kind from the ILO and is aimed at capturing the size of the domestic work sector, working conditions and the extent of legal protection enjoyed by domestic workers worldwide.
The report reveals that these domestic workers (a person who is employed in a private household, carrying out domestic work, such as: cleaner, gardener and elderly carer), of whom 83% are female, account for 7.5% of women's wage employment worldwide and a far greater share in some regions, particularly Asia, the Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean.
But it states, despite the size of the sector, many domestic workers experience poor working conditions and insufficient legal protection.
Sandra Polaski, ILO deputy director-general, said: "Domestic workers are frequently expected to work longer hours than other workers and in many countries do not have the same rights to weekly rest that are enjoyed by other workers.
"Combined with the lack of rights, the extreme dependency on an employer and the isolated and unprotected nature of domestic work can render them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse."
The ILO report showed that only 10% of all domestic workers are covered by general labour legislation to the same extent as other workers. More than one quarter are completely excluded from national labour legislation.
More than half of all domestic workers have no limitation on their weekly normal hours under national law, and approximately 45% have no entitlement to weekly rest periods. Just over half of all domestic workers are entitled to a minimum wage equivalent to that of other workers.
Lack of legal protection increases domestic workers' vulnerability and makes it difficult for them to seek remedies. As a result, they are often paid less than workers in comparable occupations and work longer hours.
The report showed that live-in domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation since they are often paid a flat weekly or monthly rate irrespective of hours worked. In practice it means that a domestic worker is available whenever needed.
Polaski added: "The large disparities between wages and working conditions of domestic workers compared to other workers in the same country underline the need for action at the national level by governments, employers and workers to improve the working lives of these vulnerable but hard-working individuals."
The report also showed that between the mid-1990s and 2010, there was an increase of more than 19 million domestic workers worldwide. Many migrate to other countries to find work. The ILO suggests it is likely that the figures contained in the report underestimate the true numbers of domestic workers worldwide, which may in reality be tens of millions more.
The figures also exclude child domestic workers below the age of 15 that are not included in the surveys used by the report. Their number was estimated by the ILO at 7.4 million in 2008.
The report by the ILO was published today and covered 117 countries and had an employment coverage of 88.7% within those countries.
