Invisible work is a type of labour for which there is no pay, yet most of us do it – even without recognition or appreciation. This includes domestic work and voluntary work. The performance of domestic tasks is taken for granted by many, but its absence is all the more conspicuous. It takes a lot of time, energy, mental resources and physical effort to run a household and look after a family. According to the latest survey, the Hungarian population performed 10.76 billion hours of unpaid work in 2010, of which 10.3 billion hours, or an average of 205 minutes a day, were spent on household chores. It is more telling if we assign unpaid household work a market value; in this case, the gross value added of household production in Hungary amounted to HUF 6.836 trillion in 2010, equivalent to 25% of GDP at the time. So if unpaid household productive labour had been part of GDP, it would have been 25% higher. This also shows that domestic work is ‘real’ productive work, but it is difficult to quantify and assign a market value to it, making it more difficult to truly value and appreciate. We will analyse the basics of domestic work, the time spent on household work and its monetary value, both in Hungary and internationally.
About domestic work in general
Members of society not only work for money, but also spend a significant amount of time doing unpaid work. This includes unpaid, ‘invisible’ labour, such as work done to care for their own household or household members, when they help other households without remuneration (e.g. caring for elderly relatives), or when they do voluntary work through an organisation. The term ‘invisible work’ was first coined by sociologist and writer Arlene Kaplan Daniels in 1987.
These kinds of labour are also called invisible because they do not appear on the market, are not paid for, and – partly as a result – a large part of them are not counted in national accounts, including GDP, the benchmark for measuring economic output and growth. The work done ‘invisibly’ is therefore not counted in the performance of economies, and so the numerical indicators, including GDP, give a distorted picture of the economy. However, without invisible labour, including domestic work, the labour market would be inefficient, and economic growth and overall welfare would decline (Bezzeg, 2023). Furthermore, it is invisible to household members because it is natural, becoming visible only when it is not being done.
However, this was not always the case. Until the Industrial Revolution, the home was also an economic unit, with family members sharing producing, maintaining and rebuilding tasks. There was no separation between paid work in the modern sense and domestic work – in practice, neither existed. With the Industrial Revolution, the household was also transformed: paid work was moved outside the household, into the public world (e.g. factory work, and men were usually the breadwinners), while the work around the house (or family, relatives, friends) and household chores remained in the private world, ‘invisible’, unpaid (Bánkuty-Balogh, 2023).
What is considered domestic work in the modern age?
According to the definition of KSH, goods and services produced by household members through unpaid work using purchased goods and equipment, which could be substituted by goods and services purchased from outside the household, are called household production. The goods so produced are directly consumed by the household. This is in fact the non-market production of households. The unpaid labour of household members is household (productive) labour. It is also part of household non-market production when work without pay is done for another household. This can be either assistance (altruism) or reciprocity.
The basic characteristic of domestic productive labour is that it is unpaid, unsold. The purpose of productive household work is to meet the needs of the household members and to increase the material well-being of the household. In this interpretation, the goods and services produced by household work contribute to the (in-kind) income of the household.
Of course, market production and household production cannot be separated from each other, they cannot be considered independent: products and services produced by households and purchased on the market are to a certain extent substitutes (e.g. meals at home, in restaurants) or complements (e.g. heating and serving prepared, quick-frozen food at home) of each other, and together they serve to satisfy social needs.
However, we are often unaware of what is involved in invisible work. The main purposes of a household are to house, feed, clothe, care for and educate. Related activities include:
- cleaning, repairs, DIY, watering, lawn mowing, other garden work,
- shopping, cooking, baking, washing up,
- doing laundry, sewing, ironing,
- raising and caring for children, helping and caring for older relatives: looking after them, supervising, reading, playing, teaching children, looking after adults, waking children up, sending them to school, or attending parents’ evenings.
Intellectual household chores also include dealing with official business, household/family logistics and planning, emotional (cognitive) work (a term coined in the 1980s by American sociologist Arlie Hochschild) such as keeping track of family birthdays and name days, children’s school and extracurricular activities, reading books, articles, etc. on child-rearing, and then incorporating the lessons learned into parenting and passing them on to a partner.
How much time do we spend on housework?
Hungary
Time spent on invisible, unpaid work (domestic and voluntary) was more than time spent on paid work, according to KSH, but, as explained earlier, it is not a full part of a country’s economic output. Information on the time spent on paid and unpaid work, leisure time and physiological needs (e.g. sleeping, eating, personal hygiene), and on the time use of the population can be obtained from the so-called time balance surveys. This survey shows how much time people spend on average on certain activities in a day or in a year.
The last data collection took place between October 2009 and September 2010. According to KSH, the current time balance survey is still ongoing until April 2025, so for the time being we can draw conclusions from the results of the 2009/2010 survey.
In 2009-2010, 26.3% of the total annual time of the population in Hungary aged 15-84 living in private households (8,256,558 people) was spent doing paid and unpaid work combined. This means that more than a quarter of our time was spent with work, which is not a small proportion. 8-hour work accounts for 33% of the day, and the above 26% working time share includes weekends, public holidays, various holidays, and students and pensioners are also part of the average (Szép–Szőkéné Boros (ed.), 2018, p. 28).
Unpaid work accounted for nearly 15% of all time (10.76 billion hours per year), while productive work included in the national accounts accounted for 11.4% (8.25 billion hours per year). 1.5 percentage points of this was accounted for by construction and small-scale agricultural production for own use, also in the household sector (a total of 1.09 billion hours per year), which are included in the national accounts. Of the unpaid work, 96% was done by household members within their own household (nearly 4% was done by helping another household, and voluntary work accounted for 0.2%. Szép–Szőkéné Boros (ed.), 2018, pp. 28-29).
The data show that among the population aged 15-84, work done for the own household, which is not counted in national accounts, accounts for 10.3 billion hours per year, or an average of 205 minutes per person per day. Half of this was related to food (49.7%), a quarter to housing (24.6%), a fifth to caring (19.1%) and only 6.6% to clothing (Szép–Szőkéné Boros (ed.), 2018, p. 31).
The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/18891062/
Of all social groups surveyed, women receiving childcare benefits spent the most time on household chores, more than 9 hours in 2009-2010 (511 minutes, or 8.5 hours in 1999-2000). At the other end of the scale are students, who spent an average of one hour per day on household chores (Janák–Szép–Tokaji, 2017, p. 21).
By age group, men aged 60-69 and women aged 30-39 continued to do the most housework in 2009-2010. For men aged 60-69, retirement played a role, with a significant part of the time previously taken up by the labour market being shifted to household tasks, while the latter was associated with women having children at a later age (Janák–Szép–Tokaji, 2017, p. 21-22). Furthermore, the time spent on housework increased with age for both men and women.
The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/18891092/
In 2009-2010, the average time spent on running a household was 79 minutes a day for men and 185 minutes for women, an increase of 15 minutes for men compared to 1999-2000, while the result for women was essentially unchanged. For men, the time spent on organising their own home increases in parallel with age, while for women, the time spent by retired wives living alone with their husbands is particularly high, but mothers with small children and/or several children also spend a considerable amount of time on household chores (Janák–Szép–Tokaji, 2017, p. 24). Overall, men’s time spent on housework increased, but even so, it was only half of the time spent by women on the same activities in 2009-2010. Women’s time spent on running their own household (185 minutes per day) was more than men’s time spent on their main job per day (174 minutes).
The average time spent on childcare and child-rearing was 30 minutes a day in 2009-2010, an increase of 9 minutes compared to ten years earlier. The average time spent on child-rearing increased for both women and men: from 29 minutes for women in 1999-2000 to 41 minutes in 2009-2010, and from 13 to 18 minutes for men.
Overall, the gender gap in housework had narrowed by 2009-2010, with men spending increasingly more time on unpaid domestic work. This can be explained by structural factors, i.e. in 2009-2010, unemployment and retirement rates were higher among men, and economic inactivity had a positive effect on the length of time spent on domestic activities (Janák–Szép–Tokaji, 2017, p. 30). With the significant decline in the unemployment rate after 2010, men’s involvement in household activities may have also declined, but this will only be able to be inferred from the results of the still ongoing time balance survey.
Furthermore, education and increasing erudition play an important role: more educated men have less preference for the traditional division of tasks and therefore participate in household chores to a greater extent than men with secondary or primary education (Pongrácz–S. Molnár, 2011).
International data
Several international surveys have also looked at domestic work, although they focus more on gender differences. According to an OECD survey (2020), when paid and unpaid work (e.g. housework, child and adult care) are considered together, women worked more in almost all countries surveyed. On average in the OECD, women performed 25 minutes more work (paid and unpaid) per day than men, which is 12.5 hours per month. While men spend on average 90 minutes more per day in paid work, women spend on average about 2 hours more per day in unpaid work than men – so overall, women work on average nearly half an hour more than men (Bánkuty–Balogh, 2023).
However, we can also get a picture of unpaid work relating to the total population (15-64-year-olds). According to the OECD’s time use database, most daily domestic work is done in Mexico (263 minutes/day, or nearly 4.5 hours), followed by Australians with 243 minutes/day of unpaid work (4.1 hours) and Slovenians (230 minutes/day, or 3.8 hours). The OECD recorded the least amount of housework in Asian countries: in Japan, people spend only 125 minutes a day (2.1 hours) on domestic work, in South Korea 131 minutes (2.2 hours) and in China 164 minutes (2.7 hours). In Hungary, the OECD survey shows that on average, we perform 229 minutes of unpaid (domestic) work a day, which amounts to 3.8 hours a day (16% of our day). This is roughly comparable to the time spent in paid work (17% of the day), while in Japan and South Korea for example, paid work accounts for a quarter of the day (and unpaid work is less than 10%).
The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/18891154/
Looking more broadly at the daily time spent on household work by sex, not just in the OECD which covers the world’s advanced economies, the UN Human Development Report shows that, after Mexico, women spend the most time on domestic work in Costa Rica, Turkey, Iraq, Peru and Tunisia, and the least time in Qatar, Cambodia and Thailand (along with South Korea). Furthermore, Northern European countries lead the way in terms of daily housework by men: Sweden, Denmark, Norway. The countries where men perform the least unpaid (domestic) work are Pakistan, Mali and Cambodia. Hungary is ranked in the middle globally in terms of the time spent by men and women on domestic work, according to UN data.
The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/18891225/
Measurement and value of household work
Hungary
In order to estimate the monetary value of the work done at home, some kind of wage must be assigned to it. KSH (2018) mentions basically two methods:
- The substitution cost method uses the labour market wage of someone who could do the job as a “third person”, e.g. a cook, a kindergarten teacher – babysitter, a financial manager, a cleaner. It is important to see that the efficiency of such professionals can be significantly different from that of someone working in a domestic setting. However, in the repetitive daily activities of domestic work, practice and experience can lead to similar efficiency (Varjonen et al, 2006).
- The opportunity cost method uses the labour market wage of the person doing the household work. This is based on the economic theory that the owner of the labour is seeking to maximise profits, and therefore how much the person foregoes in wages when they work at home instead of on the labour market. In this case, the amount of wages employed differs from person to person. This method has several pitfalls (see details in KSH’s description) and is therefore considered by KSH to be less applicable, in line with international recommendation too.
Within substitution cost, KSH uses both gross and net wages. In favour of net wages is the fact that if household production is interpreted as a substitute for the household’s own income, net wages are a better indicator of the contribution to household welfare. OECD (2013) also argues in favour of net wages, saying that if households directly employ labour, it remains in the informal economy without being reported and taxed. At the same time, under the substitution principle, if the household were to buy the service in the market (or have someone else do the work), then the gross wage should be taken into account. However, in the market, taxes are actually paid and, for example, they are also associated with pension entitlements; but in the case of household work, these taxes are not actually paid, nor are they associated with entitlement to any social benefits (e.g. pension, health care or unemployment benefits). Therefore, overall, KSH considers the use of net wages appropriate, but has also calculated the market value of domestic work on the basis of gross wages.
Of course, it is important to add that KSH used the 2010 earnings figures for the calculations, both gross and net, under the tax and contribution rules of that year. Furthermore, in the substitution method, both general and special substitutes have been used: the wage of a special substitute is generally higher than that of a general substitute due to the specific expertise, but also for general substitutes it depends on the occupational wages chosen by KSH.
Based on different assessment methods and wage data used (net, gross, employer charges), in 2010:
- the value of time worked for one’s own household in Hungary ranged from HUF 5.314 billion to HUF 11.822 billion,
- while the value of time worked for another household ranged between HUF 216-465 billion.
In the view of KSH, the value calculated using the special substitution method and net wages best captures the true market value of household labour. Calculated in this way, the gross value added of household production not included in national accounts was HUF 6.836 trillion in 2010 (KSH, 2018, p. 84). In 2010, the value of GDP at current prices was nearly HUF 27.5 trillion (revised data since the KSH study was completed); that is, GDP would have been 25% higher in 2010 if household production had been fully included.
Methodological additions:
- “A special substitute is the equivalent of a skilled worker’s wage. In addition to specialised knowledge (doing laundry, cooking), domestic work requires specialised knowledge of local needs and environmental conditions, and also includes certain non-separable management and organisational tasks. In the case of the household as a mini plant, the special substitute is a good choice, since the decisions to be made here can be identified with the competence of a middle-level manager” (KSH, 2018, p. 42).
- “Since the value of labour time is the most important component of gross value added produced in household production, the results may vary considerably depending on the different methods of estimating the value of labour time. The higher the wage, the higher the input contribution of household production” (KSH, 2018, p. 84).
- “The inclusion of household production increases the value of GDP by 22-47%, depending on the assessment method chosen (general substitute, special substitute, opportunity cost, and within these, gross wage and employer charges, gross wage, net wage)” (KSH, 2018, p. 84).
At the international level
Beike Biotechnology’s 2024 research surveyed the cost of outsourcing household and childcare tasks in 80 cities around the world, including Budapest, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Dubai, Zurich, Seoul and Rome. The study examined how much performing four typical household tasks (cleaning, shopping, cooking, doing laundry) and four childcare-related tasks (transport, tutoring, emotional support, planning-administration) would be worth at market prices in a given city, i.e. if these tasks were not performed by the stay-at-home parent but outsourced, paying for these tasks, e.g. to cleaners, nannies, teachers (see here for the methodological background of the study).
According to the survey, in the case of rearing two children, the value of the stay-at-home parent’s household and childcare work was highest in Zurich, Switzerland, at €5,390 per month, or roughly HUF 2 million. Of course, the value of unpaid work should be compared to the Swiss standard of living and price levels. In addition to Zurich, the value of outsourced domestic work was also high in two other Swiss cities, Basel (€4,978) and Geneva (€4,879), but the top 10 included San Francisco (€4,890), Copenhagen (€4,284), Oslo (€4,270), Washington (€4,164), New York (€4,117), Los Angeles (€3,999) and Helsinki (€3,919). Furthermore, in the ten cities where the researchers found the lowest monetary value, the total monthly cost ranges from €450 (HUF 175,000) in New Delhi to €1,089 (HUF 423,000) in Johannesburg.
The figure can be referenced here: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/18891382/
The value of work undertaken fully by a stay-at-home parent in Budapest was EUR 1,326 per month, or nearly HUF 515,000, ranking 68th in the world (out of 80 cities surveyed). A similar value was estimated for cities in the region: in Prague, the value of domestic and childcare work per month was EUR 1,607, in Tallinn EUR 1,562 and in Warsaw EUR 1,294.
Summary
Members of society work not only for money, but also spend a significant amount of time doing unpaid work. Unpaid, “invisible” labour includes domestic work. This “invisible” work is not counted in the performance of economies, hence numerical indicators – such as GDP – give a distorted picture of the economy. Domestic work includes not only cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, repairs around the house, mowing the lawn as classic tasks, but also raising and caring for children (e.g. playing with children, studying together, “school logistics”), helping and caring for elderly relatives, as well as various administrative tasks, family logistics/planning tasks as emotional (cognitive) work.
According to the latest KSH time balance survey, the population aged 15-84 spent 15% of their total time per year on unpaid work, totalling 10.76 billion hours per year, of which work for one’s own household, which is not counted in national accounts, accounted for 10.3 billion hours per year, or an average of 205 minutes per person per day. By age group, men aged 60-69 and women aged 30-39 continued to do the most housework in 2009-2010.
By gender, the average time spent on running one’s own household was 79 minutes a day for men and 185 minutes for women. The time spent by men on housework increased compared to ten years earlier, but was still only half the time spent by women on the same activities in 2009-2010. The time spent by women on running their own household (185 minutes per day) was more than the time spent by men on their main (paid) job per day (174 minutes). According to KSH, the current time balance survey is ongoing until April 2025, after which updated data on time spent on household work will be published. Internationally, there is also a higher level of unpaid work performed by women. In OECD countries, men spend on average 90 minutes more per day in paid work, while women spend on average around 2 hours more per day in unpaid work – so overall, women work on average nearly half an hour more per day than men.
According to the OECD’s time use database, Mexican residents undertake the most household work per day (263 minutes/day, or nearly 4.5 hours), followed by Australians with 243 minutes/day of unpaid work (4.1 hours) and Slovenians (230 minutes/day, or 3.8 hours). The OECD recorded the least amount of housework in Asian countries: in Japan, people spend only 125 minutes a day (2.1 hours) on domestic work, in South Korea 131 minutes (2.2 hours) and in China 164 minutes (2.7 hours). In Hungary, the OECD survey shows that we perform 229 minutes of unpaid (domestic) work a day on average, which amounts to 3.8 hours a day (16% of our day).
There are different methods for estimating the market value of household labour, depending on the wage that researchers assign to the time spent on domestic work. According to the analysis of KSH, the gross value added of household production not included in national accounts was HUF 6.836 trillion in 2010, which means that Hungarian GDP would have been 25% higher if household production had been fully included.
An international survey has quantified the market value of unpaid domestic and family work in 80 cities around the world. In the case of raising two children, the value of a stay-at-home parent’s household and childcare work was found to be highest in Zurich, Switzerland, at €5,390 per month, or roughly HUF 2 million. The value of work undertaken fully by a stay-at-home parent in Budapest was €1,326 per month, or nearly HUF 515,000, ranking 68th in the world.
