The care economy encompasses a wide range of activities—both paid and unpaid—such as childcare, eldercare, health and social care services, education, and domestic work. These activities are indispensable to societies and economies, ensuring wellbeing, sustaining productivity, and enabling others to participate in the labour market.
Despite its essential role, the care economy is often undervalued in economic and labour policies. Globally, unpaid care work is estimated at over USD 11 trillion annually (around 9% of global GDP), while paid care work makes up about 11.5% of total employment. Yet, stark gender gaps persist: women carry out over 76% of unpaid care work and represent about two-thirds of the paid care workforce. Much of this work is informal, poorly paid, and marked by limited rights, unsafe conditions, and weak social protection.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed and deepened these structural weaknesses, intensifying the unpaid care burden on women and girls while exposing paid care workers to high health and safety risks with inadequate protections. These challenges are further compounded by ageing populations, changing family structures, and rising global demand for care services.
At the same time, the care economy offers significant opportunities. If properly supported, it can generate millions of jobs, advance gender equality, and drive inclusive and sustainable growth. The central question is how to make care work decent work.
According to the ILO, “decent work” means opportunities for productive work that deliver fair income, security in the workplace, social protection for families, freedom to organize and participate in decisions, and equality of opportunity and treatment.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) plays a leading role in shaping this agenda. Its 5R Framework offers governments and social partners practical tools for reform.
The five elements of this framework are:
Recognize — Acknowledge that care work—both paid and unpaid—is real work that is essential for families, communities, and economies.
Reduce — Cut down the amount of unpaid care work that falls mostly on women and girls.
Redistribute — Make sure unpaid care work is shared more fairly between women and men, and also between families, the state, employers, and communities.
Reward — Ensure that care workers receive fair wages, safe working conditions, and social protections like healthcare and pensions.
Representation — Make sure care workers, especially domestic and migrant workers, have a voice in decisions that affect them. This means supporting unions, workers’ organizations, and including care workers in policy discussions.
Improving and investing in care work is not only about creating better jobs. It is also about building more inclusive societies where everyone can thrive.
80 Years Engaging Global Citizens