Putting a price on 2 decades of full-time housework in China
- A court in the country’s northwest granted a woman about US$7,000 as part of her divorce settlement
- But just how much is enough when domestic workers are paid much more?
What is the value of 20 years of full-time housework?
For one woman in the northwestern Chinese city of Xian the amount was 50,000 yuan (about US$7,000).
That was how much she asked for – and received – as part of a court-backed divorce settlement outlined in a case review published earlier this month.
The cash payout amounted to about 200 yuan per month – and the court held it up as a good example of how to resolve family matters.
But with the national average monthly wage for domestic workers at around 9,600 yuan, commenters online suggested the payout was too low.
Most of the burden for caregiving in Chinese families is still shouldered by women, according to research by China Women’s University and Social Sciences Academic Press published in April. The researchers found that only 7.5 per cent of couples shared childcare responsibilities.