The price of 'golden' exploitation

How money flows from the super-rich to domestic workers support inequalities

Bibliographic Data

ID4237464
AuthorsAlizée Delpierre (0009-0005-8508-637X, Center For Sociology of Organizations (CSO) , Paris, 75007, France, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume20
Issue4
Pages1539-1566
Publication date2022-11-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocio-Economic Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-1461 • E-ISSN: 1475-147X
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ser/mwab049
OpenAlexW3203036699
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited21

Wealthy people can afford full-time domestic staff at home to be served every day. Some of them spend huge amount of money in domestic service. Working for the rich, domestic workers thus receive wages, gifts and compensations in kind. They can potentially improve their standard of living. Why do super-rich pay so much for their household staff? Following the intuition of Paul Segal about inequality as entitlement over labor, I argue that money as entitlement over labor rests on what I call the 'golden' exploitation of the workforce. Substantial rewards do not call into question the exploitative relationship. High value gifts and high salary support exploitation even in situations where it is most likely to be undermined. The case of the 'super-rich' domesticity illustrates a hidden production of social inequalities: money compensates for the unlimited drudgery of the employees

Business · Domestic work · Economic growth · Economics · Entitlement (fair division) · Inequality · Intuition · Labour economics · Market economy · Microeconomics · Salary · Value (mathematics) · Wage · Workforce · Emotional Labor in Professions · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions

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