Sustainable finance
Unpaid Care Work
Definition
Unpaid care work is the non-remunerated work of caring for household members and maintaining the household: cooking, cleaning, fetching water and fuel, caring for children, the sick and the elderly. Time-use data show women perform roughly three-quarters of it globally — an ILO-estimated 16.4 billion hours daily, valued at around 9% of global GDP — yet it is excluded from GDP, largely absent from policy, and the single largest structural driver of gender gaps in pay, pensions and leadership.
References
Source imported for editorial provenance.
This reference provides supporting context for how “Unpaid Care Work” is defined and used.
Overview
How it is used
The concept structures SDG 5. 4 monitoring, care economy investment, gender-responsive budgeting, and the 5R framework (recognise, reduce, redistribute, reward, represent).
Why it matters
Until care work is counted and shared, gender equality is arithmetic fantasy; unpaid care is the economy's largest hidden industry.