Volume 149 (2010), Number 4

Special issue: Workers in the care economy

• Underpaid and overworked: A cross-national perspective on care workers

  Shahra RAZAVI and Silke STAAB

  This article defines paid care work and explains why it has become an important arena for research and policy. Drawing on cross-national and country-level analyses of selected occupations, it highlights three findings: first, the employment situation of care workers often mirrors broader, country-specific labour market conditions and problems; second, the State’s role as an employer of care workers is changing as governments increasingly outsource such work; and third, social policy regimes also shape opportunities for and conditions of care employment. It concludes that both care workers and care recipients are likely to benefit from improved employment conditions of care work.

  KEYWORDS: CARE WORK, CARE WORKER, UNPAID WORK, DOMESTIC WORKER, WAGES, WORKING CONDITIONS, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

• The globalization of nurse migration: Policy issues and responses

  Nicola YEATES

  Many countries are involved in the “production” and overseas recruitment of care workers in a major international response to the “care crisis” affecting advanced industrialized economies. But the distribution of gains and losses from care-labour migration is becoming increasingly unequal, and the pressure to develop alternative policies is intensifying. The author assesses the relevance of different policy approaches to nurse migration in promoting sustainability, social equity, the “care commons” and social development. She argues for sustained international cooperationand coordination to address the major global challenges that nurse migration currently poses for public health, social reproduction and social development.

  CARE WORK, LABOUR MIGRATION, INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, CARE WORKER, NURSE, MIGRANT WORKER, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

• How care-work employment shapes earnings in cross-national perspective

  Michelle J. BUDIG and Joya MISRA

  This article investigates the wage effects of employment in care work – conceptualized as work providing face-to-face client services that strengthen the health, skills or safety of recipients – in 12 countries representing a range of economic and policy contexts. While previous research has found an earnings penalty for care work, this article finds remarkable cross-national variation in that effect. The authors find that worker characteristics and job characteristics shape the effect of care employment on earnings. They also consider how country-level factors – earnings inequality, size of public sector, and trade union strength – impact upon cross-national variation in the effect of care employment on earnings.

  KEYWORDS: CARE WORK, CARE WORKER, EMPLOYMENT, WAGES, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

• The expansion of social care and reform: Implications for care workers in the Republic of Korea

  Ito PENG

  A falling fertility rate, increasing longevity, government “social investment” strategies to achieve the transformation from industrial to post-industrial economy, and increased state support to help women balance family and work responsibilities – all these influences have produced mixed results for the poorly paid female care workers in low-status jobs in the Republic of Korea. The author summarizes policy changes and reports on interviews with childcare and elder-care workers, policy experts and researchers, showing that though increased regulation and expansion of public childcare have led to some improvements, the deregulation and marketization of eldercare have resulted in worsening conditions for elder-care workers.

  KEYWORDS: CARE WORK, SOCIAL WORK, CARE WORKER, ELDER CARE, HOME CARE, CHILD CARE, SOCIAL POLICY, WAGES, WORKING CONDITIONS, REPUBLIC OF KOREA.

  
  

• Care workers in Argentina: At the crossroads of labour market institutions and care services

  Valeria ESQUIVEL

  In Argentina, one third of all employed women, but only 3 per cent of all employed men, are care workers. Their relative pay and working conditions depend not only on applicable labour market regulations (and enforcement) but also, crucially, on the organization of care service provision, including the degree of public-sector engagement in the provision of particular services, the different care providers, and the locus of care provision (institutional vs. other contexts, e.g. households). Comparing two childcare-related occupations (early-education teaching and domestic service), the author argues that those two – possibly mutually reinforcing – dimensions intersect to explain differences between care workers’ labour market positions

  KEYWORDS: CARE WORK, CARE WORKER, WAGES, WORKING CONDITIONS, ARGENTINA.

  
  

• Hierarchies of care work in South Africa: Nurses, social workers and home-based care workers

  Francie LUND

  This article examines care-worker hierarchies in South Africa, notably since the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the structural changes it has brought. The nurses, social workers, home-based care workers and volunteers are mostly women, of varying racial, socio-economic, demographic and educational backgrounds; they work in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Recent changes in care provision have brought improved earnings for some, but the “care penalty” remains, and task-shifting because of the epidemic has been mostly downwards, increasing the burden onthe lowest paid – or even unpaid – in the worst working conditions, thus increasing inequality between women.

  KEYWORDS:CARE WORK, SOCIAL SERVICE, CARE WORKER, NURSE, SOCIAL WORKER, CARE OF THE DISABLED, HIV, AIDS, HOME CARE, WOMEN WORKERS, WAGES, SOUTH AFRICA.

  
  

• Care arrangements and bargains: Anganwadi and paid domestic workers in India

  Rajni PALRIWALA and N. NEETHA

  This article explores state and social understandings of care work in India by examining two categories of non-family care workers – hired domestic workers and Anganwadi Workers/Helpers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme. Classified as “volunteers” in a government programme, the Anganwadi Workers/Helpers enjoy some social standing and relatively extensive unionization compared with domestic workers. Also, domestic workers have to make much harder trade-offs between their family’s livelihood and daily care needs. The economic undervaluation of the care work they perform, however, is common to both categories of workers.

  KEYWORDS:CARE WORK, CARE WORKER, DOMESTIC WORKER, CHILD CARE, WAGES, WORKING CONDITIONS, INDIA

  
  

• Nurses and home-based caregivers in the United Republic of Tanzania: A dis-continuum of care

  Ruth MEENA

  Home-based care (particularly by non-household caregivers) has been presented as a way to lighten the HIV/AIDS care burden on families in the United Republic of Tanzania. It is also meant to reduce the pressure on the country’s formal health facilities, which are collapsing under the care demands imposed by the pandemic as well as severe resource constraints. The work of home-based caregivers falls between unpaid and professional work on the “care continuum” – a continuum which in Tanzania suffers from gaps caused by weak referral systems, an overburdened professional health cadre, and serious staff shortages.

  KEYWORDS:CARE WORK, NURSE, CARE WORKER, CARE OF THE DISABLED, HIV, AIDS, HOME CARE, TANZANIA.