Demand for Lyric Services Exploded... But Intensified Labor Strain Remains a Challenge to Solve

Payment Amount Doubled in Last 2 Years
Additional Tasks Like Kimchi Making Imposed
35% Experienced Excessive Labor Monitoring
Impact of User-Centered Evaluation System

At the Ilgu Day event held on the 21st at the basement level 1 exhibition hall of Yongsan Art Hall in Seoul, job seekers are looking over recruitment information. This event, jointly hosted by Yongsan-gu, Seongdong-gu, and Jung-gu in Seoul, was attended by 10 hiring companies. The industries of the companies include facility cleaning, restaurant serving, postpartum and newborn care assistants, and parking management. The recruitment target age is 20 to 65 years old, and working hours and wages vary by company and job. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] As COVID-19 quarantine measures have been eased and remote work has ended, the burden of caregiving and housework has increased. However, the working conditions of domestic workers remain poor.

Sim Eunhee (52, pseudonym), who has been working as a domestic worker for six years in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, affiliated with a cleaning company, said, "I was supposed to only do cleaning, but I was assigned additional tasks such as vegetable preparation and making kimchi." Although the demand for domestic services has increased since remote work ended, she feels that the intensity of work has become higher than before.

Sim said, "If I didn’t do as instructed, sometimes they told me to leave before completing the full 4 hours, so I finished the work without saying anything." Kim Boksun (43, pseudonym) complains more about emotional labor than physical fatigue. Kim said, "When I refused to do tasks that were not related to caregiving or housework, the user became irritable and took it out on me," adding, "I didn’t want to, but I apologized to the user because I was afraid they would give me a low rating or complain to the company."

According to Statistics Korea, the payment amount for domestic services increased by more than 200% from 7.5 trillion won in 2017 to 2019. The number of domestic service workers reached 600,000 as of 2019. Domestic workers earn an hourly wage of about 15,500 to 18,000 won and work around 4 to 8 hours a day. However, since the tasks are not standardized, the intensity of labor varies, and it is difficult to refuse additional work beyond the assigned duties.

Experiences of Excessive Labor Surveillance and Disrespect... Need to Improve On-Demand Evaluation System

According to the analysis and report "Changes in the Domestic Labor Market and the Reality of Domestic Labor" by Kim Jaemin, a research fellow at the Seoul Labor Rights Center Policy Research Team, domestic workers experienced excessive labor surveillance (34.6%), disrespect of personality (22.5%), and risks of sexual harassment and assault (5.8%).

This phenomenon is analyzed to be influenced by the "on-demand (consumer-centered)" system. As the user evaluation system is emphasized, workers perform additional labor to obtain better ratings, increasing the intensity of labor.

On the internet, it is easy to find specialized domestic help companies and sitter recruitment by region. Recently, services have been segmented so that both users and workers can select desired time slots and tasks. Lee Minhee (36, pseudonym), living in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, said, "Even if they don’t do dishes or prepare meals and side dishes, it saves a lot of time," adding, "It would be better if sufficient policy support for domestic workers is provided so that high-quality services can be received."

Regarding this, Kim Taegi, a professor in the Department of Economics at Dankook University, said, "For those engaged in domestic services, the scope of labor is excessively broad," adding, "Without standardized criteria and with consumer-centered evaluations, the work environment is very poor," and emphasized, "It seems necessary to establish legal frameworks to define the scope of domestic workers’ duties and provide national policy support."