Cooking, washing clothes, cleaning, buying food, maintaining the house and taking care of children, among others, are necessary activities that are carried out daily in homes. Despite not having an assigned price when executed by household members, they have an economic value and carry an opportunity cost, since they represent the amount of time invested and money that a person could have obtained in the labor market or other productive activity.

For this reason, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) measures each year the economic value of the unpaid work that people aged 12 or over do in their homes, and calculates their equivalent participation in the national economy.

What was the value of housework and care in 2020?

In 2020, the household and care tasks carried out by the population aged 12 or over had a value amounting to 6.4 billion pesos, equivalent to 27.6% of GDP. This figure is similar to what was contributed by Mexico City and the State of Mexico to the national GDP in 2019 (25%).

The lockdown led to increased demand for such tasks, reflected in a five percentage point change in the economic value of unpaid work between 2019 and 2020: the largest annual change since 2003.

How is the impact of the pandemic reflected in household dynamics?

In the first year of the pandemic, the participation of both men and women in the economic value of unpaid work in households increased. Male participation in activities such as food preparation and home maintenance, clothing and footwear increased more than female participation. Despite this change, domestic and care activities fall disproportionately on women: in 2020, they contributed 2.7 times more economic value for this type of work than men.

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How much is unpaid work worth in the Mexican economy?

If unpaid work were a sector, it would be the largest in the country by its economic value. The estimate for 2020 was 47% higher than the value of the commerce sector and five times larger than the transport sector.

Does the marital status of women weigh on the unpaid workload?

Family structures are constantly evolving. Although they are increasingly far from the traditional standard where the man is the one who provides the income and the woman is the housewife, in many cases the social norm that points to women as responsible for domestic and care work still permeates. When analyzing the data by marital status, married women contribute almost half of the economic value of household unpaid work , compared not only to married men (16%) but also to single women (25%).

Measuring the value of unpaid domestic and care activities makes it possible to measure their importance and make visible the unequal burden that women face when performing most of these types of tasks. Running them reduces your time available to engage in paid work, develop professionally, or spend time on education.

In Mexico, women represent only 39% of the workforce, one of the lowest rates among OECD countries. However, increasing the representation of women in the labor market would have economic benefits. The IMCO estimated that the country's GDP could grow 15% in the next 10 years if they add 8.2 million female workers by the year 2030. For this, it is necessary to resume the discussion on the creation of the National Care System, accompanied by a public budget for its implementation, as well as actions that promote the redistribution of unpaid work within households, for example through paternity leave. To make Mexico a more competitive country in which more women achieve economic autonomy.