Unpaid care work

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Unpaid care work

EIGE defines care work as the ‘work of looking after the physical, psychological, emotional and developmental needs of one or more other people’. Unpaid care work usually takes place within a household, towards family members or towards friends. It comprises domestic work such as caring for children or elderly, sick and disabled people and includes services such as washing, cooking, cleaning and shopping. Outside of families these services are often outsourced and underpaid. In the Global North, they are also commonly outsourced within families, e.g. nannies, nurses, cleaners. Immigrants and/or racialised persons and/or women often have these occupations. In the vast majority of cases, unpaid care work is not recognised and/or included in the calculations of a country’s economy and therefore not recorded in labour force surveys or in gross domestic product (GDP) figures. Women are still responsible for a disproportionate amount of unpaid as well as underpaid care work. As confirmed again by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, care work is essential labour and a fundamental, universal human need. It should be recognised and remunerated as such (“Towards gender equality in the cultural and creative sectors”, report of the OMC (open method of coordination) working group of member states’ experts, June 2021).