Maid in Brazil: Black and Working for Food

In Brazil, black women constitute the majority of autonomous workers, without formal jobs, occupied in unremunerated family tasks or domestic employment.

This is one of the results of the study, The Negro Population in Metropolitan Labor Markets, released last Thursday, November 18, by the Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (Dieese).


The investigation covered the metropolitan areas of Belo Horizonte, the Federal District, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador, and São Paulo.


Around half the black female workers hold what are considered vulnerable jobs in São Paulo (50.7%), Salvador (53.1%), and Recife (50.9%).


These conditions also apply to 46.4% of black female workers in Belo Horizonte, 47.5% in Porto Alegre, and 41% in the Federal District.


The study also indicates that black women receive lower wages and, in general, work longer hours.


The average work week in the Federal District, for example, is 38.4 hours for black women and 38 hours for white women.


Nevertheless, the hourly wage rate for black women is no more than 60% of what non-black men receive.


In Salvador, for example, their hourly wages amount to 38.8% of what white men earn, whereas the earnings of non-black women amount to 81.5%.


Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil’s Scientists Contribute a Mere 1.7% to World’s Academic Production

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended the importance of investments in education ...

Haiti to Be Under Brazil’s Troops Watch One More Year

Brazilian troops may remain in Haiti another year, until the presidential elections in December, ...

Brazil Expands Umbilical Cord Blood Banks. Country Depends 90% on Imports.

By the beginning of next year, Brazil’s public system of umbilical cord blood banks ...

OECD Sees Brazil Growing 4.5% in 2010 and 2011

The Brazilian economy will experience a robust growth in 2010 and 2011, in the ...

Brazil Market Sputters Ahead

Brazilian and Latin American markets were in the black, but pulled back from earlier ...

Brazil Ready for Possible US Meltdown with a US$ 30 Billion Package

Prepared for the event of a United States default if no agreement is reached ...

China’s Big Appetite Makes Cotton Market Look Good for Brazil

Next year should be good for the cotton sector, with greater demand and, consequently, ...

Brazil’s Embargo-Proof Cattle

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and cattle ranchers are joining forces in an effort to ...

Carcass of a burned down bus in São Paulo, Brazil

Brazil: São Paulo, Bring In the Marines and Army, Navy and Air Force!

There is only one solution for this unfinished rebellion by São Paulo’s organized crime. ...

The US Is on the Expansion Plans of Brazil’s Nobel Bookstore

Livraria Nobel, which calls itself the largest chain of bookshops in Brazil, plans to ...