Makes economic sense to support unpaid work force, says Waring

Unpaid workers play a vital role in New Zealand's economy and should have the same rights as workers, says the author of a new book on work life balance in New Zealand.

"Paid workers have a secure future with many benefits, but unpaid workers don't have the same rights," says Professor Waring from AUT University's Institute of Public Policy and co-editor of Managing Mayhem: Work-life balance in New Zealand.

"They don't have rights to safe and healthy working conditions, education, leisure, paid holidays and sick leave, and schemes such as KiwiSaver."

Professor Waring says unpaid workers' contribution to the nation's economy and their role is not recognised by law makers.

"It's patently obvious that unpaid work furnishes the supply of labour for the production of economic goods and services."

New Zealanders spend on average 40 hours per week on unpaid work as a primary activity – equivalent to two million fulltime jobs. This compares to the 1.7 million fulltime jobs of the labour force.

Professor Waring says the majority of unpaid workers are women involved in volunteer projects, parents raising children and those caring for sick relatives and grandchildren.

According to Statistics New Zealand 60 per cent of men's work is paid and nearly 70 per cent of women's work is unpaid.

"It was a joke once to repeat the old adage that when a man married his housekeeper the GDP went down. But governments are desperate to have those housekeepers back as engines of productivity in the market of the national economy.

"But those who work the longest and the hardest are still marginal and largely invisible, and the extent of this exploitation is a major human rights issue," she says.

Managing Mayhem: Work-life balance in New Zealand is a collection of essays by 18 specialist contributors, including the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Judy McGregor and the foreword by Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Margaret Wilson.

The book is being launched on New Zealand Women's Suffrage Day, Wednesday September 19, 2007.

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Notes to editor

Book excerpt – Managing Mayhem: Work-life balance in New Zealand – Chapter 3 – Do unpaid workers have rights? By Marilyn Waring

In New Zealand

In New Zealand 60% of men's work is paid, but almost 70% of women's work is unpaid. The New Zealand time-use survey of 1998–1999 demonstrated how economically valuable the contribution of this work is to the nation's economy. In a year the time spent by men and women on unpaid work in New Zealand as a primary activity equated, at 40 hours per week, to 2 million full-time jobs. This compared with the equivalent of 1.7 million full-time jobs in time spent in labour-force activity (Statistics New Zealand, 2001a, pp. 17–18).

New Zealand also chose the imputation method (Statistics New Zealand, 2001b) that delivered the most conservative sum of the value of unpaid work. The Department of Statistics in New Zealand justified their selection in a number of ways. It followed the guidelines in a Eurostat Working Paper (as cited in Statistics New Zealand, 2001b). The next reason was that the replacement cost as the median housekeeper wage was relatively simple to apply. Finally, the reader was advised that the median was chosen as opposed to the average because average wages tend to be higher than median wages due to the influence of those with very high wages. At every point of making the imputation decision, the choice was the option which gave a lower percentage contribution to the whole economy. The sexist choice of the replacement housekeeper approach (despite the fact that New Zealand men claimed they did 36% of all unpaid work) delivered a contribution from unpaid social capital of the equivalent of 39% of the GDP. Using an opportunity–cost approach and the average weekly wage, the equivalent GDP contribution in the 1990 pilot time-use survey was 68%.

If it's not work, what is it?

What do we feel about these activities of ours? It's not leisure. But if it's not work, what is it? In the UNSNA – United Nations System of National Accounts rules, the household itself is not described as an enterprise. But if a household can be a school and a school is an enterprise, why isn't the home schooler an unpaid worker in an enterprise? If the household happens to be the residence of a doctor and the spouse has to constantly answer the telephone, is the spouse an unpaid worker in the enterprise?

If a woman or man is relieving an institution of the full-time responsibility of the care and attention of somebody, is she or he an enterprise or not? Are they an enterprise when the person in their care is not a family member, but not an enterprise when the person being cared for is a close relative? If the full-time caregiver wasn't 'working', the service would have to be performed in an enterprise. There is no other place for it to be done.

ENDS

www.dunmore.co.nz

www.aut.ac.nz

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