Latest / Best of Business / Leonora Risse: Canberra University economics professor on the cost of unpaid labour

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Leonora Risse: Canberra University economics professor on the cost of unpaid labour · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Now we've got a dollar for give for you on
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  Speaker 2: how much unpaid labor people are doing for their households.
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  Speaker 2: Now this relates to Australia. Unpaid labor is basically the
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  Speaker 2: house housework, by the way, stuff like cock and clean
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  Speaker 2: and caring for family members turns out over in Aussie
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  Speaker 2: there's seven hundred and eighty seven billion New Zealand dollars
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  Speaker 2: of unpaid labor happening every year. The majority obviously is
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  Speaker 2: done by women. Leonora Reese is the Associate professor of
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  Speaker 2: economics at the University of canber who's done the numbers
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  Speaker 2: and is with us hig Leonora.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, Heather, great to join you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good to talk to you. Reckon. It's roughly
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  Speaker 2: the same in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Oh. I imagine New Zealand and Australia do have a
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  Speaker 3: lot of similarities. And a shout out to my New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand family members. I have a lot of family over
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand as well, so I think we do
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  Speaker 3: have similar cultural norms and patterns. So I imagine it's
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  Speaker 3: not too dissimilar in New Zealand, but also of course
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  Speaker 3: there's still variation in different households.
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  Speaker 2: We have to do this work, Leonora. No, you have
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  Speaker 2: to wash the dishes, you have to vacuum the floors,
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  Speaker 2: you have to look after the kids. So what's the
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  Speaker 2: value in putting a dollar value on it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you're right, I think you make a really good
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  Speaker 3: point there, Heather, that it's essential work. Right, So it
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  Speaker 3: is essential. We have to do it. It holds our economy together,
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  Speaker 3: it holds our society together. And yes, we don't do
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  Speaker 3: it to get paid. Often we do it because we
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  Speaker 3: have to do all because we really care, you know,
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  Speaker 3: when we're caring for our loved ones or family members
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  Speaker 3: with the disability, elderly parents. We do it altruistically. But
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  Speaker 3: the fact that most of it is done by women,
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  Speaker 3: so two thirds of this work is done by women.
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  Speaker 3: If we're not recognizing it, then what we're doing is
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  Speaker 3: we're not recognizing women's overall contribution to the economy, the
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  Speaker 3: productive activities that hold our economy together. So it's about
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  Speaker 3: shining a spotlight on it. And yes it's a scent.
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  Speaker 3: But because we've got such strong gender patterns, and we
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  Speaker 3: still see this gender gap in pay and decision making.
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  Speaker 3: You know, this is this still feeds into some of
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  Speaker 3: those inequities and those biases in our economic system.
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  Speaker 2: Leonora, I don't know how to break out of this though,
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  Speaker 2: because frankly, we're just women are just more efficient, better
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  Speaker 2: at washing the dishes, generally better at cooking, definitely have
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  Speaker 2: a better eye for a spot of dirt. So unless
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  Speaker 2: we want to live in filthy houses and eat gross food,
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  Speaker 2: we have.
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  Speaker 1: To do it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think there are some households where, you know,
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  Speaker 3: some there's an argument to be made head of that.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe men are quite intentionally I'm not saying, oh.
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  Speaker 2: Man, maybe are you going to come at me with
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  Speaker 2: that one as possible?
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  Speaker 3: Quite intentionally not you know, doing a high quality job
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  Speaker 3: so that it prompts households to specialize in economics. We actually,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we talk about households specializing and who specializes
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  Speaker 3: in you know, doing that, the kitchen cleaning, and who
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  Speaker 3: looks up you know, most of the lawn, and that
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  Speaker 3: can be a reflection of ability as well as preferences
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  Speaker 3: and priority. But I think, you know, things are also changing.
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  Speaker 3: If we're saying to women we're saying to women, step
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  Speaker 3: into the paid workforce, invest in your education, you know, study,
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  Speaker 3: work hard, in building your financial independence. And yet at
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  Speaker 3: the same time, if household work is still so unbalanced,
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  Speaker 3: then there's something, you know, something still unbalanced at home.
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  Speaker 3: How we got to achieve balance at Leonora paid.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, I really appreciate this is fascinating. Leonora Reice,
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  Speaker 2: Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Canberra. What
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  Speaker 2: the blokes do is called weaponized incompetence, and don't pretend
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  Speaker 2: you don't do it.
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