Slavery is a horrific and an anathema to the evolution of humanity. Yet every day, billions of women are in a forced choice to work for emotional wellbeing. Not a tradeable commodity, nothing tangible just feeling good.
Thirty years ago, Marylin Waring wrote a book, Counting for Nothing, that exposed how the success of the global economy completely ignores the value of unpaid labour and the environment. I’m not talking about subsistence slavery, where women and children work for a marginal income in countries that number China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey and even the United States, but women who live in households who are in the top 10% of earnings – that’s about US$120,000+ per year.
Women’s unpaid labour numbers 311 minutes a day spent on housework, caring for the family and chores related to running a home. It’s a staggering amount of time that’s one of the highest in the OECD. My initial thought was that it could be related to the size of our homes and distances we travel for work, to shops and schools. Nonetheless, it’s time that goes completely unvalued by its beneficiaries: children, husbands, communities and the economy as a whole.
"I know what I want for my birthday - you to be my slave for a week. Oh... wait... you already are"
- My 10 year old son. February, 2019
As mothers (and later in life as daughters), we’re responsible for thankless tasks that have a very low monetary value on the open market. The average income for a pre-school teacher in Australia is less than $30 an hour. That’s the average. Meanwhile, families in that top 10% are employing housekeepers and cleaners at upwards of $30 an hour. We pay elderly care workers about the same as we pay early childhood professionals, as if those years that surround productivity have no value because so many women will do it for free.
As mothers and daughters, women in Australia are raised to work five hours a day without a clear measurable or quantifiable value. From cooking meals to wiping bottoms, homework assistance to chauffeuring services, bookkeeping to laundry, our work is uncelebrated and even derided as efforts of little value. The only way we currently have to value work is money. So if we gave our unpaid workforce a minimum wage of $20 an hour, seven days a week, unpaid workers would be worth $700. That’s money that could go to better educating children, keeping mothers healthier and in turn, lowering healthcare and elderly care costs over time for every Australian family and individual.
Imagine if we as Australians took a stand for our unpaid workforce and demanded equal pay.
Then imagine what these women could do to emancipate slaves in the bottom 90% of the global economy.