Introduction A little more than a decade after regulating paid domestic work in Uruguay, a mixed study was carried out to know about workers’ employment and health conditions in this sector. This study offers unprecedented evidence on these aspects of domestic work in Uruguay.

Objectives The study aims to find out the relationship between labor precariousness and the health of domestic workers, incorporating the analysis of some characteristic and frequent variables of work in this sector.

Methods A non-probabilistic sample of unionized female domestic workers from different departments of Uruguay was considered for this research. In the quantitative study, a self-administered standardized questionnaire was applied, which included questions about their employment and health conditions, among other characteristics of work in the home. The qualitative approach contributes to the interpretation and contextualization of the results presented below, based on the fieldwork carried out through interviews and discussion groups with these workers.

Results The results obtained reflect a relationship between a higher level of labor precariousness and worse level of health of domestic workers, and being exposed to putting their time at the disposal of employers, even outside working hours. This relationship is reversed when the worker has more seniority in the labor relationship.

Conclusions The results presented here are the outcome of a study in which unionized workers, presumably organized and with access to information, participated. Despite this, results reveal that the law and the policies developed for the sector do not protect domestic workers’ health, as they do not consider the particularities of the sector. These results reflect the need to continue investigating the particularities of their working conditions to prevent their negative impact on health.