Study Shows Valuing Unpaid Household and Care Work Narrows US Income Inequality, But the Equalizing Effect Has Weakened Since 1965
A recent study published in the March 2026 issue of the Journal of Public Economics examines how including the economic value of unpaid housework and child care alters our understanding of income inequality and living standards in the United States from 1965 to 2018. Researchers valued unpaid domestic work—such as cooking, cleaning, and caregiving—using the typical hourly wage for housekeepers and incorporated it into measures of 'extended income' and 'extended consumption.' The findings reveal that unpaid labor historically acted as a significant equalizer because households across income levels spent similar amounts of time on these tasks. For example, adding the value of extra unpaid hours in lower-income families (often with a stay-at-home spouse) substantially reduced apparent income gaps between high- and low-earning households. However, over the five decades, the time devoted to unpaid work declined sharply, primarily due to women reducing their hours from 37 to 24 per week as more entered paid employment, while men's contributions rose only modestly from 12 to 15 hours. This shift eroded the buffering effect of unpaid work, particularly impacting lower-income households where it represented a larger share of total resources. As a result, inequality in extended income grew by 66% (compared to 40% in conventional measures), and extended consumption inequality rose by 18% (versus 4% conventionally). Single-parent families, mostly led by mothers, experienced no net gain in living standards relative to married couples when unpaid work was factored in, despite increases in paid earnings. Overall, extended income for a typical family grew only 40% over the period, far slower than the 69% rise in market income, highlighting that conventional metrics may overstate improvements in living standards for lower-income Americans by ignoring the loss of self-provided services.
Study Shows Valuing Unpaid Household and Care Work Narrows US Income Inequality, But the Equalizing Effect Has Weakened Since 1965
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