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Careworn: The Economic History of Caring Labor.
- Source :
- Journal of Economic History; Jun2024, Vol. 84 Issue 2, p319-351, 33p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Economists ignore caring labor since most is provided unpaid. Disregard is unjust, theoretically indefensible, and probably misleading. Valuation requires estimates of time spent and the replacement or opportunity costs of that time. I use the maintenance costs of British workers, costs which cover both the material inputs into upkeep and the domestic services needed to turn commodities into livings, to isolate the costs of paid domestic labor. I then impute the value of unpaid domestic labor from these market equivalents, and aggregate across households without domestic servants. Historically, unpaid domestic labor represented c. 20 percent of total income, a contribution that suggests the need to revise some standard narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- ECONOMIC history
HOUSEKEEPING
UNPAID labor
GROSS income
LABOR market
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00220507
- Volume :
- 84
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Economic History
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 177400758
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050724000147