Who works at home?

Abstract

The proportion of work which is casual, part-time, self-employed or in some way insecure has increased during the 1980 s. Paid work carried out at home comes into many of these categories, and has been receiving attention because of the prevalence of low pay among home workers for the last 100 years. As consumer tastes change the actual work has changed, for example from making artificial flowers for hats to word processing. Allen and Wolkowitz (1987: 57) have argued that regardless of the task, working at home creates a situation where workers are vulnerable to exploitation. Contributing to this situation is the fact that they are isolated from other workers and may have taken this type of work because they have limited access to the job market.