Wages for Housework

Wages for housework, an idea which has become a worldwide activist campaign, is compensation for domestic work or work associated with the functioning of the home or the family. Domestic work includes, but is not limited to, providing household services that facilitate a laborer’s entry into the public workplace (e.g., cooking, cleaning, etc.), reproductive activities such as bearing and rearing children, and caring for elderly parents and other dependent persons.

The wages for housework campaign is rooted in the Marxist critique of capitalism. Prior to the age of industrialism, the domestic sphere was not as sharply split from the productive sphere. Textiles and agricultural products were created within domestic units. With the rise of industrialism, the public workplace largely replaced the private home for the creation ...