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Careworn: the economic history of caring labor

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  • Humphries, Jane

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.

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  • Humphries, Jane, 2024. "Careworn: the economic history of caring labor," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122725, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:122725
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sukti Dasgupta, 2024. "The Political Economy of Care: A Developmental Perspective," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 67(3), pages 615-636, September.

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