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Wages of Virtue: The Relative Pay of Care Work (2001)
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BibTeX
@MISC{England01wagesof,
author = {Paula England and Michelle Budig and Nancy Folbre and Wages Of Virtue},
title = {Wages of Virtue: The Relative Pay of Care Work},
year = {2001}
}
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Abstract
We examine the relative pay of occupations involving care, such as teaching, counseling, providing health services, or supervising children. We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Care work pays less than other occupations, after controlling for the education and employment experience of the workers, many job characteristics, and (via individual fixed effects) unmeasured, stable characteristics of those who hold the jobs. Both men and women in care work pay this wage penalty. However, the penalty is paid disproportionately by women since more women than men do this kind of work. As you read this, parents around the world comfort crying children. Teachers instruct children in reading. Child care workers exhort children to get along with each other. Aides in a nursing home wash the body of an elder. Counselors work with men who batter women to reduce their violent reactions. Professors give lectures. Librarians show students how to find journal articles on the web. Mid-wives deliver babies. Doctors and nurses scramble to give emergency care to accident victims. A young mother at home prepares lunch for her two children as well as three she takes in for pay. All these activities involve care work. We use the term "care work" (or caring labor) to refer to work that provides a face-to-face service that develops the capabilities of the recipient. By "human capabilities" we refer to health, skills, or proclivities that are useful to oneself or others. These include physical and mental health, physical skills, cognitive skills, and emotional skills, such as self-discipline, empathy, and care. Examples of caring labor include the unpaid work of parents, and the paid work of teachers, nurses, child care workers, and therapists. This paper provides empir...
Keyphrases
care work relative pay child care worker nursing home home prepares lunch mid-wives deliver baby national longitudinal survey unpaid work care work pay professor give lecture face-to-face service accident victim stable characteristic panel data health service emotional skill cognitive skill wage penalty journal article mental health term care work physical skill young mother individual fixed effect paid work employment experience violent reaction human capability many job characteristic emergency care world comfort
