Nivea dos Santos got her first job as a live-in maid at age 12, dusting, vacuuming, ironing and polishing the silver of a wealthy Rio de Janeiro family from dawn until she’d fall, exhausted, into bed. More than two decades later, Brazil has passed legislation aimed at preventing such abuses.
The landmark domestic workers law, passed as a constitutional amendment last year and strengthened this month, aims to extend some of Brazil’s generous labor protections to the more than 6 million maids, nannies, eldercare givers, gardeners and caretakers who work in privates homes—many toiling long hours for little or, in some cases, no pay.
