Foreign Domestic Workers in Kuwait: Who Employs How Many

The percentage of Kuwaiti households with at least one foreign domestic worker increased from 13 percent in 1977/79 to 87 percent in 1999. This paper describes the workers' characteristics, their workload and attributes of the households they live in. Predictors of the number of domestic workers employed by households are examined by using multinomial logistic regression. Households that employ at least one domestic worker have a larger number of children than those who employ none. Households that employ two (or three) domestic workers have more children and older people and are significantly richer (i.e., have higher income, larger homes etc.) than those who do not employ any.