STAGES IN ANY BATTLE FOR EQUALITY

September 20, 2001

The struggle to get equal rights has historically been a difficult one, for blacks, for the handicapped, for visible minorities, for women and for gays.  In the movement by all UN nations to value unpaid labor, there is going to be a progression of steps also.  These things do not happen overnight.

If we look at the feminist movement in  Canada first we can notice that getting the vote, getting property rights, getting admission to the Senate as Persons, getting into faculties of engineering, getting into corporate offices were all achieved separately and over time.

Anyone who is part of a liberation movement has to recognize that there will be small victories, many setbacks and that one must be committed to being in there for the long haul.

The civil rights movement ended slavery, gave blacks the vote, admitted them to buses and schools, admitted them to professions and corporate offices in stages over the past several decades. 

So what are the stages of the recognition of unpaid labor? Some are easier than others mostly because the ones that cost no money usually are easiest to achieve.

1. inclusion of this type of labor as ‘working’ in official government documents.

    Unfortunately even that goal is not yet attained. Caregivers may put in 18

    hour days but the state still says they ‘don’t work’. However there are inroads

    being made as government documents are starting to speak of the ‘paid labor

    force’ implying at least that there is also an unpaid labor force. Government documents

   are starting to mention a ‘choice’ for men and women about how to raise children,

   including caregiving arrangement choices. The Nova Scotia government is

   currently funding a study of  the impact of Canadian women’s unpaid caregiving.

2. recognition that a nonearner is still a full adult contributor to society if doing

   caregiving tasks.  This would include letting that person get full personal

    deductions on a tax form, not reduced rate spousal  deductions. (This is already the

    case in several Canadian provinces, but regrettably not all, and not on the

    federal tax form)

3. permission of the caregiver to contribute his/her own money to the Canada

   Pension plan so that the caregiving years were a credit not omitted in the

   calculation and so that caregivers were able to provide for their own old age,

   to reduce their risk of poverty and to not force them to be dependent on

   others. 

4. permission of caregivers to contribute their own money to their own RRSPs.

   Currently they cannot, which deprives them of a basic strategy for financial

    independence

5.  recognition of costs borne in caregiving as genuine costs – for child care,

    elder care, care of the handicapped – and that these costs could be deducted

   equally with the deductions permitted if the care were provided by a third

   party (CCED)

6.  recognition of the individual income or lack of it of caregivers so that

   taxation was based on their individual income only, and benefits were

   allotted for their caregiving roles based on their individual income only

   not, as currently, on family income ( CTB)

7. recognition of the contribution of caregivers to family income and

   to the earner’s career freedom and advancement, in divorce law

   (this is already happening in several rulings in the Supreme Court

   - Griffore, Moge)

8.  recognition of the contribution of caregivers to family income

    and the reality of income-sharing and income-splitting in many

    households.  (Taxation based on family income not individual income

    is already a reality in many European countries and in the US)

9. counting unpaid labor in the GDP and System of National Accounts.

    Dr. Marilyn Waring, New Zealand economist has argued internationally

    that traditional economics ignores the unpaid sector and therefore is

    unable to correctly predict trends. In Canada several studies are being

    done to change this including time use surveys, and concept of

    Genuine Progress Indicators which include unpaid labor.

It is my belief that all of these are vital stages in the movement to clearly recognize the value and equality of caregiving roles.

One might notice that they do not ask for ‘salary ‘ for caregiving roles, though some have in the past even made a case for such a salary-“Wages for Housework”.  That is a contentious issue mainly because it is unclear who would pay because the benefits for housework are often personal.

The benefits for caregiving of the sick, young, handicapped, elderly and dying however are social benefits. These are ESSENTIAL tasks to the community and the person who performs them is saving the state money because he/she is working unpaid.  In this sense then, caregivers are already givers to the state and should be eligible for some of the social benefits given to people actually paid for their work.