Care Work and Care Jobs for the future of decent work

In 2018, just 41 million men declared themselves unavailable for employment owing to unpaid caregiving they must impart. In the same year, 606 million women of working age declared themselves unavailable for employment for the same reason.

One of the primary barriers preventing women from advancing into better-paying careers is unpaid care duties. Compared to men and women with no children, women with children under six years of age work shorter hours for money or profit. In addition, women who provide care are more likely to be self-employed or work in the informal economy.

The report states that in Asia and the Pacific, men perform the lowest share of unpaid care work of all regions – an average of 1 hour and 4 minutes per day. In India, men spend only 31 minutes per day in unpaid care work.

Regardless of the type of household, the probability of non-single women and men entering the labour force is lower in low-income countries. Married or partnered women in low-income countries suffer a “marriage penalty”, the report states, that results in a fall of 13.1 percentage points in the probability them either being in employment or seeking a job.

The ILO-Gallup survey also finds that for women around the world, balancing work and family is their biggest workplace issue. Work-family balance and a lack of accessible care were consistently cited by both women and men as the top two challenges faced by working women.

The report states that “care-related infrastructure” reduces the workload related to the household and family care which is primarily borne by women and girls. This includes tasks such as obtaining water and procuring sources for fire. The report observes that there are drastic regional differences in the availability of electricity as well as basic water and sanitation facilities. Northern America, Europe, and Central Asia have the lowest rates of access deficit, the report states. 

The report notes that care workers are subjected to low pay. A “care pay penalty” – discrepancy in hourly compensation that cannot be explained by variations in skills, experience, or credentials – has been noted in a number of situations. This care pay penalty, the report adds, stems from the lack of recognition of unpaid care work which also extends to the undervaluation of paid care work. 

Given the current patterns of employment segregation, the International Trade Union Confederation, Belgium, estimates that a direct public investment in the care economy of two per cent of GDP in just seven high-income countries would generate over 21 million jobs. As high as 75-85 per cent of these jobs would go to women. A similar investment in the emerging economies might result in the creation of 24 million new jobs in China, 11 million in India, 4.2 million in Brazil, over 2.8 million in Indonesia, and just over 400,000 in South Africa, with about 43-74 per cent of these new jobs going to women.

Nearly 60 per cent of the mothers with newborns do not receive any maternity benefit, and just 42 per cent of countries worldwide currently meet ILO standards for maternity leave period, benefit level and source of benefit.

Focus and factoids by Ashish Singh.

PARI Library’s health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.