Domestic Workers and the Future of Work — An Interview with Ai-jen Poo

Ai-jen Poo is the president of theNational Domestic Workers Alliance, director ofCaring Across Generations, and a leading voice for worker rights and dignity. And we had the pleasure of speaking with her as part of our series, “Back to the Future of Work: Revisiting the Past and Shaping the Future.”

In this conversation with Economic Opportunities Program Senior FellowNatalie Foster, Ai-jen paints the picture of an economy that domestic workers have long known: low wages, unstable employment, unfair scheduling, and few workplace protections. Domestic workers like caregivers, cleaners, and home aides routinely work in precarious conditions, often without job security, clear contracts, or basic benefits like paid sick leave.

What’s changed in the last 10 years is the degree to which their experience is no longer unique. From increased automation to the rise of the gig economy, work across many industries has become more unstable, mirroring the conditions that domestic workers have faced for generations.

"We saw that the conversation often overlooked workers’ experiences in favor of technology-driven narratives,” she notes. “But the real future of work is about ensuring workers — regardless of job classification — have power, rights, and dignity." In this conversation, we explore what the past can teach us about the future — and how we can ensure that workers have a say in what comes next.

About This Series

This is part of a series called “Back to the ‘Future of Work’: Revisiting the Past and Shaping the Future,” curated by theAspen Institute Future of Work Initiative. For this series, we gather insights from labor, business, academia, philanthropy, and think tanks to take stock of the past decade and attempt to divine what the next one has in store. As the future is yet unwritten, let’s figure out what it takes to build a better future of work.