08.03.2023

THE INVISIBLE CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN TO THE ECONOMY

Bulgarian women, along with millions of other women around the world who are part of the "sandwich" generation, taking care of both their children and their elderly parents, continue to be among the untapped potential of the world's economies. At the same time, these women subsidize their national economies with unpaid domestic labor and pay a "time" tax for the period of unpaid and socially unappreciated activities in which they could be upgrading their skills and education.

This was commented in an interview for BTA by Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova from the Burgas Free University, contacted by BTA on the occasion of today's International Women's Day.

According to data from the International Labor Organization (ILO), based on time budget research in 64 countries, between 10 and 39 percent of GDP is contributed by unpaid domestic work, the scientist said. In some economies this contribution is greater and in others less, depending on the hours of unpaid work that women perform.

In general, we are talking about the so-called care economy, which is the invisible part of the economy and is not included in the GDP reporting, but is reported by the statistics in the "Time Budget" study, said Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova.

Women in Bulgaria spend 4.4 hours a day on household chores

The last study of the time budget for Bulgaria is from 2011, and according to it, women in the country spend 4.4 hours a day on household care, while men - 2.49 hours. The NSI is about to release data from a new study, which is being conducted from March 2022 to March 2023.

According to the ILO's research, 16.4 billion hours each day are spent on unpaid care work, which is equivalent to 2 billion people working 8 hours a day without pay, the scientist commented. Women and girls take on more than 75 percent of the world's unpaid care work. If this is recalculated by multiplying the time spent on such "services" by the hourly minimum wage, we get $11 trillion in unpaid home care provided primarily by women around the world. This is ten percent of the world GDP, which for 2022 amounts to 104 trillion dollars, which is not accounted for, does not find a place in government programs and social policies, comments Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova.

In this way, according to the scientist, women subsidize those public services - the care of children and the elderly, which rest mainly on the shoulders of women of the so-called "sandwich generation" - 50+ years, who care for both children and adults people. Women also subsidize business, because this unpaid work reduces the cost of labor in the macroeconomics, noted Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova.

When public spending is cut in order to have fiscal stability, spending on health, education, and public services is automatically cut, which in turn increases the unpaid work that women do, which, according to the economist, is a countercyclical behavior of unpaid work in the economy.

If women's domestic caregiving, in particular childcare and elder care, became part of the labor market, the ILO estimated that global employment in caregiving would increase from 206 million jobs to 358 million. by 2030. According to Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova, this could add 152 million jobs based on socio-demographic processes related to the aging of the population.

The scientist reminded that already in 2015, the UN adopted sustainable development goals related to education, healthcare and long-term care for the elderly. In this context, estimates suggest that employment in aged care could grow to 475 million jobs or an additional 269 million jobs by 2030. For this to happen, it is necessary to integrate this unpaid domestic work into the macro economy, which will allow its measurement and inclusion.

The cost of these jobs can be covered by both public sector and private investment. According to ILO data, it is about 5.4 trillion dollars in annual investments or 4 percent of world GDP, said Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova. At the same time, she pointed out that high returns cannot be expected from such investments, but emphasized that they are the basis for the creation of human capital.

Women taxed "time" all their lives

This unpaid work is a kind of "time" tax on women throughout their lives, because it takes up some of their free time that goes into unpaid and unappreciated activities. If it is assumed that during this gap women could develop by getting additional education, for example, this means that they are deprived of this opportunity, which does not allow the realization of their full potential, the scientist commented. This imbalance not only deprives women of economic opportunity – it also costs society dearly in the form of lower productivity and missed economic growth. If this changes, the first effect will be on the growth of GDP and the economies in general, comments Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova.

The time banks

However, it is not necessary to make monetary investments in order to value women's care of children and the elderly. Time banks come to the rescue. Time banking is a service barter system in which people exchange services for credits based on time rather than money.

The term "Time banking" was coined by the American lawyer Edgar Kahn, who recommended its use as a supplement to state social services, said Prof. Dr. Diana Sabotinova. In Japan, in a period of shortage of funds to finance these social cares, they implemented the idea of the time bank. In this way, it was possible for a working person in Tokyo to take care of his parents in Osaka while caring for an elderly person in the city where he worked and to "pay" with the time spent on this care to another person who lives with his elderly parents in Osaka, the scientist said. This also applies to childcare if the grandmother does not live in the city where the parents work and raise their child.