The take-home pay by domestic workers in Kenya almost doubled over the past decade, growing 75.7 percent from Sh51.3 billion in 2015 to Sh90.2 billion last year, new data shows.
Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) represent households directly paying wages and allowances to domestic staff and other support workers, highlighting enhanced shifts in social and economic patterns.
KNBS equates the Sh90.2 billion to 0.6 percent of the value of Kenya’s economy as at the close of 2024.
Household-paid labour includes roles carried out by nannies, cooks, cleaners, personal care assistants, and other staff hired directly by families for daily tasks.
Elderly care is a growing category, as families engage caregivers to assist ageing household members with daily activities, health monitoring, and companionship.
Temporary and casual work also forms part of household-paid labour, with families employing staff for short-term maintenance, errands, or event-related services.
Most of these arrangements remain informal, with payments made in cash and without formal contracts or statutory contributions.
KNBS data shows that the growth in the value has been steady, with household employment consistently rising each year between 2015 and 2024.
Household employment has become a measurable contributor to economic activity, representing demand for services that are not captured in formal enterprises or traditional employment data.
Growth in household employment is partly linked to increased participation of women in the formal workforce, creating demand for paid domestic support.
Technological platforms and online marketplaces have further facilitated household hiring by connecting families with available workers for flexible, short-term, or recurring tasks.
Despite its growth, however, household-paid labour largely escapes formal regulation, leaving workers without social protection and statutory benefits such as leave or health coverage. Its informal nature also creates tax gaps, as paid wages are seldom captured in conventional tax monitoring, limiting the government’s view of the sector’s economic footprint.
While KNBS captures the financial value of wages paid by households, an earlier report by the national statistician had pegged the value of unpaid domestic work done by Kenyans at Sh2.423 trillion, with women putting in Sh1.9 trillion worth of labour, as men contributed Sh353.9 billion.
According to the study, each Kenyan woman performs unpaid work valued at Sh118,845 per year, while each man’s worth of this work is valued at Sh22,676 per year.
This means women’s unpaid labour amounts to more than five times the collective Sh2.423 trillion annual unpaid domestic and care work, underlining the disproportionate burden of care and domestic responsibilities borne by women.
The report identifies food and meals management and preparation as the single most valuable category of unpaid work for women in Kenya at Sh1.073 trillion from 14.7 billion hours compared to men’s Sh157 billion courtesy of 2.1 billion hours.
The second most valuable form of unpaid work was caring and maintenance of textiles and footwear, where women’s unpaid work was valued at Sh295.98 billion compared with men’s Sh55.33 billion.
Cleaning and maintaining the home and its surroundings was the third highest unpaid work for women at Sh192.92 billion, while that of men was Sh48.17 billion.
Caring for children, including feeding, cleaning, and physical care, came fourth with women at Sh176.83 billion and men at Sh7.12 billion.
Rounding out the top five categories was shopping for household and family members, where women devoted hours valued at Sh65.58 billion compared with men’s Sh27.64 billion.