Transcript Unpaid Work - University of South Australia

Unpaid Work: From Recognition
to Transformation
by Diane Elson, Levy Economics Institute
and University of Essex
Presentation to Hawke Research Institute
University of South Australia
Questions
• Is it enough to recognize the economic and
social value of unpaid work?
• Or do we also have to transform the social
relations of unpaid work?
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Business sector
Formal paid work
Informal Work
Paid and unpaid
Public
Non profit institutions
Formal paid
work
Labour Services
Good and services and monetary flows
Unpaid Work and the Market Economy
Sector
Formal paid
work
Informal work
Paid and unpaid
Volunteer work
Household Sector
Paid work
Unpaid work
Subsistence Work
Care Work
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Recognition of Unpaid Work
•
•
•
•
Time Spent
Monetary Valuation
Social relations of unpaid work
Unpaid work as creation and depletion of
well-being
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Time Spent on Unpaid Work in Britain, 1999
Average Minutes per Day, population over 16 years
Providing Housing
Providing Nutrition
Providing Clothing
Providing Care
Voluntary Work
Shopping & Appointments
Gardening & Pet Care
Travel
Total
46
48
13
28
11
37
26
48
282
Source: Short, 2000, Office of National Statistics, London
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Time Spent on Unpaid Work in
South Africa, 2000
Average Minutes per Day, Population 10
years and above
Household Maintenance (including
cooking, cleaning, etc.)
Care
Community Service
154
Source: Budlender and Brathaug, 2005, Table 2
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Time Spent on Unpaid Work in
India, 1998/9
(combined average from 6 selected states)
Average Minutes per Day, Population 6
years and above
Unpaid Domestic
Services
(extended SNA)
160
Source: Calculated from Chakraborty, 2005, Table 3
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Monetary Valuation of Unpaid Work
Value of unpaid work excluded from GDP as
percentage of GDP
77%
UK
(output method, gross value-added by
households as % of GDP minus imputed
rent)
South Africa, 2000
11% to 50%
(input method, varying wage rates)
India, 1998/9
(for 6 states)
26% to 50%
(varying by state)
(input method, global substitute wage)
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Sources: UK: Office for National Statistics, www.statistics.gov.uk/hhsa/hhsa/index.html South Africa: Bulender and
Brathaug, 2005 India: Chakraborty, 2005
Unpaid Work Included in GDP
• In principle, measurement of GDP includes
subsistence production, including food processing,
collecting water and fuel, in countries where these
are substantial activities
• In practice, GDP measures do not fully cover this
unpaid work
Time Spent Collecting Water (average daily minutes)
South Africa, 2000
India
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41 (excluding travel time)
Sources: South Africa: Calculated from Charmes, 2005, Table 6
India: Calculated from Chakraborty, 2005 Table 6
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Reinforcing Patriarchy
• Unequal division of paid and unpaid work
• Disadvantages of specializing in unpaid
work – financial dependence
• Coercion, abuse and unpaid work
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Unequal Division of Unpaid Work
Average Minutes per Day by Sex
Total
Male
Female
F-M
UK
282
202
318
116
South
Africa
India
154
80
220
140
160
31
297
266
Sources: UK: Calculated from Short, 2000, Table 2
South Africa: Budlender and Brathaug, 2005, Table 2
India: Calculated from Chakraborty, Table 3
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Disadvantages of Specializing in
Unpaid Work, UK Examples
• Over 1/2 a million more
women than men are living in
poverty
• Women receive an average of
just 54 pence for every 1
pound received by men
• Following divorce, a woman’s
income is likely to decline by
nearly 1/5, a man’s income
changes little
Source: Bellamy and Rake, 2005
• 26% of employees work parttime, of these, 79% are
women. Part-time jobs are
low-paid and lack pension
benefits
• Hourly pay of women
working part-time is 40% less
than hourly pay of men
working full-time
• Only 13% of today’s women
pensioners are entitled to the
full basic state pension,
compared to 92% of men 12
Disadvantages of Specializing in
Unpaid Work, South Africa and India
• Concentration in informal employment
• In South Africa, poverty rates of households
headed by women, and in those in which the
primary earner is female, are higher than in
households headed by men, and in those in which
the primary earner is male
• In India, in the mid 90s, a higher proportion of
adult females than of males, lived in poverty
Sources: South Africa: Chen et al., 2005, Table 3.12
India: Banerjee, 2000, quoted in Elson and Keklik, 2002
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Subsidizing Private Profit
Directly, via the Labor Market
• Reducing the wage costs of social reproduction
• Reconciling workers to the capitalist labor process –
enabling them “to feel like human beings in a system
that treats them like commodities” (Picchio, 1992)
Indirectly, via the State
• Reducing public expenditure
• And hence, reducing taxation
Providing the Ultimate Safety Net
• Unpaid work as a buffer
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Unpaid Work and Public Expenditure
Women’s unpaid work ‘funds’ public programs
• Peru
– Women run a public food distribution program
– Valued at the minimum wage, their contribution
amounts to 20% of the budget for the program
• Netherlands
– Women volunteer extensively in public schools and
hospitals
• South Africa and Barbados
– Government funding does not cover full costs of
running shelters for women subjected to domestic
violence
– NGOs, relying partly on voluntary labor, cover the gap15
Source: Elson, forthcoming
Unpaid Work subsidizes health systems
• Improving the “efficiency” of public hospitals in Canada
and the UK
• Home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS in
Africa
– Ethiopia: Women spend 33.6 hours a week in agricultural
production in households not affected by AIDS, but between 11.6
and 16.4 hours in households affected by AIDS (Bollinger, et al.
1999)
– Zimbabwe: Unpaid household carers provided 17.5 – 24.5 hours of
care per week. Estimated opportunity cost was $22 a month
(Hansen, et al. 1994)
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Dilemma: How to Recognize and
Value Unpaid Work Without
Reinforcing Patriarchy and
Subsidizing Businesses and
Governments?
• Income tax
• Income transfers related to children
• Regulations and subsidies for parental leave
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Income Tax
• Should tax systems
recognize the value of
unpaid work by providing
taxpayers with allowances
for non-earning dependents
who do unpaid work at
home?
• Should tax systems instead
provide households with tax
allowances/credits to cover
some of the costs of
purchasing substitutes for
unpaid work?
• If tax allowances/credits are
related to childcare costs,
how can the system be
designed in ways that do not
reinforce the idea that child
care is solely the mother’s
responsibility?
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Regulations and Subsidies for
Parental Leave
• Should we call for the right to longer
maternity leave?
• Or the right to longer paternity leave, on a
“use it” or “lose it” basis?
• How should parental leave be funded?
• Should it be funded on a flat rate or
earnings related basis?
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Key Challenges
• Transforming unpaid work not just
recognizing it
• Sharing it equally between women and men
• Supporting it by laws and public funding
• Treating it as wealth-creating by businesses
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