A reminder of Senegal’s system for domestic workers

Article 1 of decree no. 974 of January 23, 1968 on the employment of domestics and domestic servants in Senegal defines domestics and domestic servants as “any employee employed in the service of a household and continuously engaged in housework”. Excluded from this definition are people hired on a part-time basis for less than 20 hours a week. This decree classifies domestics and household staff into 7 categories. Each category corresponds to a minimum level of remuneration set by order of the Minister in charge of labor. Whenever possible, domestics are hired on the basis of a written contract (cf. art.7 of United Nations Convention 189 on the status of domestic workers). The signatory state of the convention must guarantee this formality.

Ranking of domestic workers in Senegal

Servants and housekeepers are classified into 7 categories:

1st category: a Boy or a Maid who is a beginner or who cannot justify more than 2 years of practice.

2nd category: Boy or maid who does only part of the housework, especially laundry

3rd category: Boy or maid responsible for all routine interior work. He or she must have more than 2 years’ practice experience

4th category: a Boy or Girl Cook who performs all interior work, including routine kitchen tasks

5th category: Qualified house cook

6th category: Qualified cook for meals for more than 8 people

7th category: Maître d’hôtel

Tax aspects of domestic workers in Senegal

In practice, the remuneration received by domestic servants and housekeepers is not taxed in Senegal. This is because often at the basis of the contractual relationship, there is no writing.

Application of the above-mentioned decree and United Nations Convention 189 will undoubtedly lead to income tax being levied on domestic workers’ earnings. In this case, he is an employee. This automatically excludes the application of the 5% withholding tax applicable to service providers.