New Global Health & Gender Policy Brief: The Global Care Economy

Care work enables all other work. It is also the fastest growing sector in the world and is projected to increase employment by 150 million people by 2030. With the COVID-19 pandemic, care work is becoming more important. It also revealed how women do most of their long-term care work. It is unpaid, low wage, and / or undervalued. Globally, women and girls account for more than 70% of the world’s long-term care time (paid and unpaid) and more than 75% of unpaid care work. Too much unpaid care work for women and girls can prevent them from earning paid income, contributing to widening gender inequality around the world.

The global long-term care economy (paid and unpaid work related to long-term care such as childcare, long-term care, and household chores) is an important sector that enhances economic growth, gender equality, and women’s empowerment. Carework is economically valuable, but globally undervalued. In the United States, contributions related to the long-term care economy amount to $ 648 billion annually. Globally, if unpaid care workers earn the minimum wage, they will add about $ 11 trillion annually to the global economy.

In the new policy brief, the Global Care Economy, the Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative is investigating the economic and social value of care work, the burden of care for women, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on caregivers. Investing in a paid and unpaid long-term care workforce, creating a family-friendly workplace, and addressing the harmful social norms and physical and mental burdens of long-term care is to support and evaluate long-term care activities globally. It is important.

Global Care Economy-P … Wilson Center

In the United States, women, especially colored women, are more likely to work in important front-line professions, including care work, and are at increased risk of COVID-19 illness and death. This is true globally, with women and girls accounting for two-thirds of the paid care workforce.

Unpaid care work presents additional challenges for women. Worldwide, 647 million full-time unpaid caregivers are not seeking work because of their long-term care responsibilities. Most (93 percent) are women. In the United States, more than one in five adults were unpaid family caregivers before the pandemic. Currently, an estimated 43% of adults in the United States are unpaid caregivers.

There have been some policy-level interventions to support caregivers in the United States and around the world, but more investment is needed to properly assess and support caregiving activities. Investing in paid and unpaid long-term care labor can lead to increased household income, a more gender-equal distribution of unpaid long-term care work, and improved working conditions in the paid long-term care sector. To support the parents of employees, it is important to support a family-friendly workplace through flexible vacation policies. In addition, policies and programs must address harmful social norms that contribute to the unequal distribution of care work.