By Kadie Ward, Commissioner and CAO, Ontario Pay Equity Commission
The economic impacts of unpaid care work and the undervaluation of paid care work by women are large and measurable.
Last month, we talked about the clustering of women in certain sectors in the workforce and how those sectors tend to be undervalued. In part two of our series on Women’s Worth, I want to focus on unpaid care work.
There are longstanding gender gaps and norms around caregiving. COVID has laid bare the negative consequences of those gaps and norms. The International Labour Organization estimates that unpaid care and domestic work by country is valued to be 10 to 39 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In some economies, this can contribute more to the economy than the manufacturing, commerce or transportation sectors.
How much is that worth in dollars? International Labour Organization research provides estimates based on time-use survey data in 64 countries that show that 16.4 billion hours are spent in unpaid care work every day. This is equivalent to 2.0 billion people working 8 hours per day with no remuneration. If that care work was valued on the basis of an hourly minimum wage, it would amount to 9 per cent of global GDP, which corresponds to US$11 trillion.
Here’s the reality. The economy is propped up by “unpaid care work”. It’s the work that enables households to function so adults in the household can participate in the labour force. It’s the work that subsidizes public care services when they are not available. Unpaid care work makes a substantial contribution to countries’ economies, as well as to individual and societal well-being. Most unpaid care work remains mostly invisible, unrecognized and unaccounted for in decision-making. This imbalance not only robs women of economic opportunities. It is also costly to society in the form of lower productivity and forgone economic growth.
Unpaid care work also constitutes a significant barrier to women’s participation in labour markets, which impacts pay equity. Women are more likely to work part-time because of care responsibilities, therefore making less and consequently having less financial security.
Up until the start of the pandemic, women’s participation in the labour market in Ontario had increased dramatically over the past half-century: between 1976 and 2019, the participation gap between men and women in Ontario narrowed from 39 percentage points to nine points, according to Statistics Canada. However, it has been reported that 1.5 million women in Canada lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic and in April 2020, women’s employment dropped to 55 percent, the lowest it’s been since the 1980s. Many women chose to, or were forced to leave the labour market with rolling lockdowns and the closure of childcare centers and schools.
In the last publicly available Ontario Labour Market Report, growth in employment was slower for women than it was for men; with some good news that employment overall for both is up above pre-COVID levels. But this is “moment in time” data with the story unfolding in real time.
As a province, and country, we cannot recover from this recession without women’s equitable participation in the labour market.
Having women in the labour force matters for several reasons including their personal economic wellbeing. But also at a macro-economic level. An often-cited report by McKinsey estimated that, by 2026, Canada could add $150 billion to its annual GDP by supporting women’s participation in the workforce. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) puts the number at $100 billion. While the numbers are not disaggregated by province, it is safe to assume that Ontario would receive a significant boost to its GDP by supporting women’s participation in the labour force. The increased participation of women over time contributes to productivity growth.
Women’s representation in the labour market has both social and economic benefits driving income equality, workforce productivity and increasing household income. Increasing household income is a salient fact given that 57 percent of Canadian GDP is driven by household spending, and household spending is overwhelmingly overseen by women.
How do we support women in the labour market? We need to rethink “care” and divisions of labour and support women who want to work. Legislation like Ontario’s Right to Disconnect can help women manage their work-life responsibilities, but it also takes employers willing to support and accommodate women at work.
Fundamentally, attitudes about the division of care work need to shift. Social norms play an important role in the distribution of tasks in the household. Furthermore, gender inequalities in the home and in employment originate in the gendered representations of productive and reproductive roles that persist across different cultures and socio-economic contexts. With regional variations, the “male breadwinner” family model, overall, remains very much ingrained within the fabric of societies, and women’s caring role in the family continues to be central. But this is changing.
Changes to family structures and ageing societies point to an increase in the number of both women and men confronting unpaid care work and employment. For progress to continue, policy makers, employers, and communities need to support gender-egalitarian approaches such as changes in attitudes towards working mothers and what is considered to be an appropriate work–family arrangement with a more egalitarian division of paid work and unpaid care work between women and men. Attitudes toward paternity leave need to change starting with supporting men in taking parental leave and taking on more care responsibilities. Finally, as the International Labour Organization noted in its report, Care Work and Care Jobs – For The Future Of Decent Work, “the heart of change in care work is a change in the power relationship between men and women in unpaid work so women can be present in the workforce.”
You can learn more about the care economy at levelthepayingfield.ca. Level the Paying Field is a 6-part series looking at economics, equity, women, work, and money. Episode one looks at global trends in women in the workforce and unpaid care.
THIS POST IS A PART OF A SERIES WITH ONTARIO’S PAY EQUITY OFFICE
