The omnipresence of Haitian labor in nearly all sectors of the economy, both formal and informal, is not documented in the statistics generated by government officials. They are truly “invisible”. Christian Maluf, spokesman for the Dominican Chamber of Constructors, said that the proportion of Haitian to Dominican construction workers on any site is usually between 30 to 80%, depending on the site. Generally speaking, they earn RD$268 per day. Washington Gonzalez, speaking for the Ministry of Labor, told Listin Diario reporters that there were only 17 labor contracts listed for Haitian workers in 2001, 14 in 2002, 4 in 2003 and 2 in 2004. Nonetheless, he said that the sector employs as many as 400,000 people, perhaps the largest employment sector of the Dominican Republic. Jaime Gonzalez, from the Association of Constructors and Promoters of Housing (ACOPROVI), said that these foreign workers are principally employed in the construction of apartments and other housing units. Larger construction sites that use heavy machinery have a much smaller percentage of this labor force.
In the streets of the cities and town of the Dominican Republic Haitians are selling everything from peanuts to knock-off watches. Coconut candies, ice cream, fruits, and even T-shirts are part of the Haitian marketing program. They also work as watchmen, night watchmen, janitors and now, more are becoming “moto-chonchistas”. In agriculture, the rice, banana and coffee crops are almost totally dependant on Haitian labor, as, of course, is the sugar cane industry.
There are Haitian doctors working in clinics in the DR, as well as Haitians in the tourist industry. In spite of this presence, there are virtually no statistics on their economic participation, nor their contributions to the GDP. Only the contract of the Haitian cane cutters is registered by the Immigration office, which gives each worker an ID card that tells where the worker is assigned.
Dominican law requires 80% of the labor force of any company to be Dominican.