Recognising invisible work

What if we were paid for all the unpaid work we do at home? This includes caregiving, cleaning, child minding, cooking and so on. Although some may argue that this is part and parcel of our daily lives, the problem arises when it's overwhelmingly one gender that ends up doing most of this unpaid work.

It is especially problematic when unpaid work becomes the reason women (who shoulder the bulk of it) cannot participate in the workforce or paid labour. 

According to data from the Department Of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), women account for just 38.8% of the workforce compared to men (61.2%). This does not tally with the almost equal enrolment of boys and girls in higher education institutions. According to World Bank data in 2018, 60% of Malaysian women who left the workforce cited childcare and domestic work as the main reason. 

The Malaysian Employers Federation's Man-Days Lost and Absenteeism Survey 2019 showed that only 4% out of the 140 respondent companies provide or set up childcare centres at the workplace, with only 1% providing childcare subsidies or allowances. 

"Family responsibilities" was the most common reason given by employees for work absenteeism, which is at 94.2%. The truth is that although we don't pay a mother or father wages for caring for their own children, or cleaning up the home or caring for the elderly, these tasks have a huge impact on our economy and society. It is an unresolved issue that needs attention. 

We asked The Star readers what they thought about the value of unpaid work done at home, in our poll The Worth Of Unpaid Work, and the results showed that a majority of the 648 respondents – females especially – thought that these tasks should be valued monetarily. 

In fact, 82% of female respondents feel that they should be paid for work done at home, 18% disagreed; 57% of male respondents agreed that they should be paid for work done at home, while almost half (43%) disagreed. How much time do we spend on these tasks daily? The majority of female respondents (37.5%) say they spend between two and five hours daily on unpaid work, 20.8% say they spent more than eight hours, 13.6% spent more than five hours a day on these tasks, 23.2% spent an hour or two, and just 5% say they spend less than an hour on household tasks. 

Most male respondents (35.2%) say they spend between one and two hours a day doing these tasks, 8.3% say they spend more than eight hours, 8.8% spend more than five hours daily, 29.2% spend between two and five hours and 18.1% spend less than an hour. 

This division of home tasks is in keeping with the global findings: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reports that women do up to four times more unpaid work than men. Respondents of the poll were a varied bunch comprising full-time workers, part-timers/freelancers, retirees/unemployed, students and those who are self-employed. 

The majority of respondents (41%) say their primary task at home involved cleaning, followed by cooking (22%), caregiving, babysitting and laundry (10% respectively). In terms of gender, 48% of male respondents say their primary task is cleaning, 14.6% cited laundry, 13.6% cooked, 10.8% did child-minding work while 9.9% participated in caregiving. In comparison, 36.6% of female respondents say their primary task at home was to clean the house, 24.4% cited cooking, 11.2% were involved in caregiving, 10.3% babysitting, 6.7% do the laundry and 5.7% said they did all of the said tasks. 

As for the value of their work, about 40% say they should be paid between RM100 and RM500 per week, 27% think they should be paid between RM501 and RM1,000 per week,15% valued their work at between RM1,001 and RM2,500 per week and 16.8% want more than RM2,500 per week. 

Shared responsibility

The comments from respondents were varied: Some felt strongly that work done at home should be valued ("Cleaning and cooking can be professional jobs, ya. Not free labour"), others felt that these were duties done out of "love" ("Creating lesson plans, correcting notebooks, planning good lessons, liaising with parents ... Doing out of love to give care to loved ones in the family. How to attach a value to 'love'"). 

Some respondents shared how they've had to sacrifice a career because of the home care burden: "All in all, sacrifice a full-time job to take care of others." 

There were also some who felt that the burden on women could be reduced if men pulled more weight at home. "Could be less workload if men do their duty and not wait to be waited upon like handicapped," said one respondent. "It's part of shared responsibility," said another. 

Another respondent shared how balancing formal work with unpaid work left her with little time for rest. "I look after my grandson, cook, clean, (do) laundry, cook for the baby, feed, bathe and put him to sleep in addition to doing housework. I have less than four hours' sleep, and not a sen of extra pay," she said. Another commented that tasks at home are akin to having a second "job" which should be shouldered by the family. "When you have kids, these become daily after-office chores. It's important to not bring work home as there's 'work' waiting for you at home. The work at home is part and parcel of having a family and 'payment' should come from the spouse or children in the form of love and support," she says. 

One respondent said that the work of women at home was "priceless". "As a mother, you are not replaceable, you do the work more perfectly and with more care and more quality. It is priceless. I don't expect to be paid, just keep the cost of living low, and my husband's wages higher." The issue, says Omna Seeni-Ong, founder and principal consultant of Engender Consultancy, a social enterprise that promotes gender equality and women's empowerment, is promoting shared responsibilities in families. "It's not about getting paid to do these tasks at home because we are talking about the everyday lives of families. However, it is more about promoting shared responsibilites – a family coming together to share the burden of unpaid work so that both husband and wife can seek a career and achieve their potential. "What is the government doing to promote this? Because, by not providing targeted and effective social services and protection that allow women to go out and work, the country is losing out," she says. 

Public policy changes 

Organisations play a big part in helping to address the burden of unpaid work by implementing family-friendly, gender-positive policies, such as paid leave (for both male and female employees) for tasks like caregiving or flexibility in working arrangements, for example. However, change is also needed in public policies – in providing services that recognise the value of unpaid work and reduce the unpaid care burden. 

The recent introduction of an insurance protection scheme for housewives is a step forward in recognising the contributions of housewives – the Women's Aid Organisation has urged the government to extend this to househusbands too, to avoid reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. Another public policy initiative that must be looked into is the provision of free or affordable, high quality childcare. 

This is a basic and crucial need for many families, particularly (but not exclusively) for those in the lower income bracket who find it difficult to afford childcare and therefore have no choice but to survive on a single income.

"We need to reconceptualise and formulate innovative, transformative strategies for social protection and support services in consultation with target groups and civil society groups about things on a macro level. "What this means is, for example, initiating gender-responsive budgeting and policies that recognise the needs, aspirations and potential of each member of society, regardless of gender, and allowing them to develop their potential," says Omna.

The Star Malaysia, published this article on the occasion of National Women's Day to highlight why it's important to put value to work done at home as one way to support and keep women in the workforce.