Domestic work, and caring for young and older people are essential to economic production and social reproduction. Collectively, this form of labour makes up the care economy. But it is often “invisible”, taken for granted, low waged, and low status work. Often, we do not think of it as work.

The care economy is - or should be - on every country’s national agenda. In Trinidad and Tobago, researchers Dr Shelene Gomes and Dr Bephyer Parey have authored a policy brief on the issue, “Reducing women’s vulnerabilities in the care economy: Recommendations from the Caribbean”. The brief was delivered at the 2024 Think20 G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Societies are dependent on the labour that makes up the care economy, both paid and unpaid. Women, for example, on average do three times more unwaged care work than men globally, according to a 2018 report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

If we were to quantify the value of unpaid care and domestic work, the ILO also estimates that it would be almost US$11 trillion globally. This is an especially acute concern for countries with aging populations such as in the Caribbean.

The cross-cultural pattern to care work is also situated within the increasing professionalisation of women and women in the waged workforce globally (especially in the Caribbean).

Enhancing social equity in the care economy

The G20 Summit was organised to address several issues and demands. These include civil society (C20), youth (Y20), women (W20), work (L20) and think tanks (T20).

Within this T20 Policy Group, on the theme “Fighting Inequalities, Poverty and Hunger,” the policy brief by Gomes and Parey points to the essential labour of care for the reproduction of life.

Drawing from empirical quantitative and qualitative research into social care, migration, and violence against women and girls, Gomes and Parey present prospects for enhancing social equality and equity in the care economy. They present scenarios from the multicultural Caribbean, where there is a high reliance on family and community care within an out-migration context to illustrate the wider consequences of undervaluing care work. While care providers typically come from within families, this practice increases women’s disproportionate responsibilities.

These are some of their recommendations:

• Implementing flexible work hours in the public sector forprofessional women with care responsibilities
• Strengthening social protections in the form of care grants for older persons with immigrant relatives
• Encouraging the rewarding of care work and concurrently subsidising training for care providers
• Investing in more robust community-based care systems
• Tailoring national care policies for culturally specific and ethnic-based patterns of care

At the centre of these recommendations is the critical role of the state in enhancing social protections to advance social inclusion. Trinidad and Tobago’s public sector reform regarding proposals for employees’ flexi-time, for which feminists have advocated over decades, signals a significant steps towards recognising and facilitating these essential labours within the care economy.