Valuation of Unpaid Care Work Through a Comparison of Economic Measures in Korea: Focus on Mean Earning Approach and a Generalist Approach

This paper examines the value of unpaid care work using the 2004 time use survey and compared them to economic measures such as GDP, tax revenue, value of paid work, government expenditure on care-related personnel expenditure and remuneration of paid care workers. It employs the mean earnings approach and generalist approach. It finds that the value of unpaid care work (compared to GDP) is between 18% and 29% using different approaches. The value of care of household members and for others in the community (person care) is between 5% and 8%. Furthermore, the value of unpaid care work is greater than that of direct tax regardless of the approach used. In addition, the value of person care is estimated at between 22% and 35% of the total value of the paid economy. The value of unpaid care work far exceeds the value of government expenditure on care-related personnel and the remuneration of paid care workers. This research suggests that unpaid care work (mostly conducted by women) should be recognized as part of production activities. This is because caring and household maintenance activities are necessary for individual well-being but also it contributes to the national economic competitiveness particularly through human resource development.