How Much Should Women's Housework Be Paid

The unpaid care and domestic work performed by women in the family is enormously valuable. Estimates based on ISTAT data indicate that unpaid care work generates approximately 26% of the national GDP: without women, who effectively perform the vast majority of household chores, Italy would already be a failed country.

From an economic perspective, the value of that work, currently done almost exclusively by women, can be estimated using replacement cost: if a person performs, for example, 4-6 hours a day of housework and care, the value can easily reach several hundred or thousands of euros a month, depending on the tasks considered.

In many countries, especially in Northern Europe, and even in America, there is talk of recognizing women's domestic work and paying it a minimum wage. According to research by Oxfam , if American women received a mini-salary for housework, they would earn something like $1.500 trillion a year. Back in 2015, Melinda Gates launched a call to unite women in this fight for the recognition of a job that is currently completely undeclared. And she presented a very interesting calculation: if all the women who perform domestic work and care for their families constituted a nation, it would be the fourth-largest economy in the world.

Some countries have systems that recognize the economic value of family care work. Here are some examples:

Iin Germany, France and other European countries there are forms of financial support, pension contributions or allowances related to the care of children or non-self-sufficient family members.
In Norway and other Nordic countries Subsidies have been introduced at various times for families who choose to look after their young children at home rather than using public services.
In the United Kingdom Some people who care for family members with disabilities or serious needs may receive specific financial support.

In reality, without actually requiring a salary, the first way to fully recognize the value of domestic work is to provide women with the services they need to care for their families of origin and the families where they are mothers and wives: daycare , incentives for working fathers to take parental leave, home care for the elderly who are unable to care for themselves, babysitters, and carers. These services, which today draw a line between civilized and developed countries and less civilized and less developed ones, must increase, and the money is there, especially if wasteful public spending is cut, as a fair indirect compensation for the domestic work monopolized by women. The second solution, even quicker and more feasible than the first, is to involve men head-on and directly. Either with their hands or with their wallets. Men, who among other things advance their careers and earn money thanks to the support of their women at home, must choose. Either he shares this work and takes on part of it, easing the burdens and strains of women, or he digs into his wallet and pulls out a salary—yes, a salary—for his wife, partner, or cohabitant, who takes on the housework in the home where they live together. And considering the precedents and some of the notoriously bad habits of men, I feel like saying to women: put us with our backs against the wall, our hands up, and our wallets on the table. Not to rob us, but to finally ensure that the value of women's domestic work is recognized in a concrete, not theoretical, way.

How much should be paid for domestic work that only women do?

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