{"id":474102,"date":"2021-04-08T16:56:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=474102"},"modified":"2021-04-08T17:25:38","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T21:25:38","slug":"time-for-universal-wage-for-housework-474102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/time-for-universal-wage-for-housework-474102\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it time for a universal wage for housework?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Sapere<\/a>, a PhD student in the Department of History<\/a> at the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½<\/a>, says now may be the time to introduce universal wages in the United States.<\/p>\n

In an essay<\/a> in the\u00a0Washington Post’s <\/i>Made by History\u00a0section, Sapere argues that while the pandemic has rendered housework more visible, it still has not become more valued. \u201cWithout monetary compensation, we won\u2019t adequately recognize how housework underpins the economy,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

Moreover, after a year of sheltering in place and social distancing, with all its consequences, including \u201coverworked and overwhelmed mothers\u00a0and women at their breaking point,\u201d the demand for this type of universal wage \u201cseems all the more relevant.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of a universal wage dates at least to the late 19th century, when feminists began advocating recognition and compensation for housework, based on its economic importance. Tracing the history of the Wages for Housework campaign, a small international movement based on the notion that housework was \u201cnot just economically important but central to the functioning of capitalism,\u201d Sapere contends that now, with lives upended by the pandemic, the moment might be right \u201cto refuse a return to \u2018normal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sapere is a student in American Health Politics and Policies, a class taught by Mical Raz<\/a>, the Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Policy and Health, who is an associate professor of\u00a0history at Rochester and a doctor at the\u00a0University\u2019s Strong Memorial Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an essay in the Washington Post<\/em>, history PhD student Kevin Sapere argues the pandemic has made it \u201call the more relevant\u201d to compensate housework. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":942,"featured_media":474132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29212],"tags":[21422,16072],"class_list":["post-474102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices-opinion","tag-department-of-history","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs it time for a universal wage for housework?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the Washington Post, Rochester history PhD student Kevin Sapere argues the pandemic has made it "all the more relevant" to compensate housework.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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