New report examines unpaid domestic work in the EU

The study aimed to provide a methodology to analyse the size and value of unpaid family care work in Europe. The first objective was an analysis of unpaid family care work at the EU level based on harmonised European surveys. The second objective was a comparison between two EU Member States - Italy and Poland - whose time-use data contain additional detailed information on child and adult care. In both cases, the aim was to improve the indicators on unpaid family care work in order to have a reliable quantitative picture to use in discussions on this issue.A new report on gender equality in the EU has been published by the European Parliament's Policy Department Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, with work from researchers in Italy, France, Poland and the UK including PSI's Francesca Francavilla(right).

Unpaid family care work is defined as those caring activities mainly provided without any monetary return by members of a household to children and adults of the same household or to relatives living outside the household. A care activity is defined as productive if it can be delegated to another person. This is the so-called ‘third party’ criterion.