Nice work if you can get it: Labour market pathways of Belgian service voucher workers

Abstract

Seen as an alternative to precarious, informal work or no job at all, several European countries have started to use tax money to boost the demand for domestic services. This article asks whether this makes sense. We consider the case of the heavily subsidized and highly popular service voucher scheme in Belgium. Close to a quarter of households there employ domestic service workers under the scheme, making it in relative terms the largest scheme of its kind in Europe. The workers employed under the scheme enjoy extensive labour and social security rights. Does the service voucher scheme provide a model to be followed if we care about labour market exclusion and precariousness or is this a case of institutionalized second-tier work? To that end we trace workers’ labour market pathways over a considerable length of time. We find that a substantial share of women find a way out of vulnerable labour market situations through the scheme. However, a very significant number enter from steady employment. This is clearly at odds with the original objective of offering a stepping stone to women with a precarious labour market position. The scheme also plays an ambivalent role in the labour market integration process of immigrant newcomers. At least in part, the Belgian scheme can be seen as a case of policy overshooting. We suggest some potential improvements.

Precarious employment and mental health in the Belgian service voucher system: the role of working conditions and perceived financial strain

“…The results of our paper are also important for the specific population of domestic cleaners engaged in the Belgian SVS. The SVS offers formal employment, including mandatory worker rights and social security coverage, contractual security and convenient working hours, something that is hard to find in other low-skilled service occupations (Lens et al 2022 ). Therefore, it is assumed to take away the sharp edges of employment precariousness for domestic workers.…”

“…A second important recommendation concerns the financial situation of SVS workers and their families. Policymakers should be aware of the inherent risk related to low-waged and ‘small’ jobs—especially in the case of the SVS, an employment scheme that is abundantly subsidized with public resources (Lens et al 2022 ). To avoid the trap of in-work poverty, some policies with proven success are already in use in Belgium (e.g.…”

“…Belgian authorities heavily subsidize the SVS (ca. 2 billion euros yearly), leading to discussions on the effectivity and efficiency of the scheme (Adriaenssens et al 2023 ; Lens et al 2022 ).…”

Rethinking paid domestic services in modern societies – Experimental evidence on the effect of quality and professionalisation on service demand

“…More critical studies on the effect of the Belgian or French scheme (e.g. Windebank, 2004; Lens et al. , 2021) underline the importance of carefully designing and introducing an approach that benefits all parties involved.…”

“…More critical studies on the effect of the Belgian or French scheme (e.g. Windebank, 2004;Lens et al, 2021) underline the importance of carefully designing and introducing an approach that benefits all parties involved. Our study can inform policy evaluations and policymakers concerned with developing and formalising the personal and household services sector, in line with both the public and academic calls for the professionalisation of domestic services and the introduction of service vouchers (ILO, 2016;Meier-Gr€ awe, 2015, and the emphasis on professionalisation and quality assurance in domestic labour advocated by organisations representing domestic workers like the Deutsche Gesellschaft f€ ur Hauswirtschaft or the Kompetenzzentrum PQDH [2] (Meier-Gr€ awe, 2015; for France see, e.g.…”