CAPRI conducts first-time study
GIVEN THE growing importance of the care economy in the mainstream policy debate on economic growth, CAPRI undertook a study to explore what the present iteration of the care economy means for Jamaica. An important aspect of the study was a pilot time-use survey (TUS), the first ever conducted in Jamaica or the English-speaking Caribbean. Time-use surveys measure how people use their time, and in so doing, supply empirical data on labour market activities, unremunerated work, production, consumption, and leisure. TUS data is a standard tool for labour market policymakers in many countries around the world. The difference in time spent on the various activities undertaken by women and men, in particular, the time spent on unpaid work, has been identified as one of the significant factors that contribute to women’s poverty. By providing sex-disaggregated, time-use data, the TUS allows for deeper insight into the patterns underlying the disproportionate resource – money and time – constraints that women face, and, using that data, how these constraints might begin to be ameliorated.
COSTS TO UNPAID WORK
The survey findings confirmed that the patterns that exist throughout the world hold true for Jamaica: Jamaican women bear the largest responsibility for unpaid reproductive work, at the same time as they have less access to resources and paid work than men do; and, women at all income levels do more unpaid care work than men do, lowerincome women do the most unpaid care work of all women, and the time women spend on unpaid care work is time that could be but is not spent on paid and productive work. The study showed clearly that the allocation of Jamaican women’s time to unpaid care work has a negative correlation with their labour force participation rates, labour exclusion and gender pay gaps. Based on the data, there are real costs to the economy of unpaid care work.
The report concludes that if Jamaica’s polic ymakers are concerned with increasing labour force participation and productivity in the quest for economic growth, if they are concerned with the composition and quality of the future workforce, and if they are concerned with the health and well-being of the entire society, whether as a means to overall greater productivity and economic growth or as an end in itself, women’s care needs must be addressed. By quantifying and monetising unpaid care work, calculations can be done that will show the extent to which relieving women of the burden of unpaid care work can redound to the effect of the firm and the broader economy, and can thus inform relevant policies. The report explores a variety of ways in which this can be done, ranging from fiscal policy, to state provision of/support for care services, to private sector provision of/support for employees’ care needs.
CAPRI’s Care Economy study will be published soon. You can email info@capricaribbean.org to join the think tank’s mailing list, and stay abreast of current research, report launches and public forums. You can also follow CAPRI on Twitter (@capricaribbean), Facebook (@capricaribbean) and Instagram (@capri.caribbean).