Global Breaking News - Monday, December 23, 2024

Wages for Housework
Housework is a necessary labor for families, but it is largely unpaid, except when others are hired to do it. Families may pay others to cook, clean or take care of their children, but they don’t pay themselves. This year, Italy considered a proposal in which the government, or in some cases the husband or partner, would pay wives for this thankless task. And a few years ago, India considered a similar bill. Should the family member who does most of the housekeeping be compensated?
* unpaid = 무보수의, 무급의/ thankless = 힘들기만 하고 보상은 못 받는, 생색 안 나는/ compensate = 보상하다

 대부분의 집안일을 하는 가족 구성원은 (금전적으로)보상되어야 하나요?

1. Taking Unpaid Housework for Granted Is Wrong
Devaluing housework for one’s own family also means discounting its importance when done by others.

2. A Better Solution: Work-Family Balance
If everybody were to put in 30 or 35 hours a week, then there would be enough time to not only do well at work but also do some of those chores at home.

3. Give Women Equitable Opportunity
If monetary value were placed on housework, marriage would be an employee-employer relationship, creating disparity and inequality since money means power.

4. Compensation Should be a Family Decision
The job of a homemaker is often taken for granted. But I don't think laws are beneficial or practical in this situation.


Sample Essay

Give Women Equitable Opportunity in the Public Sphere

If monetary value were placed on housework, marriage would be an employee-employer relationship, creating disparity and inequality since money means power.

Whoever pays a partner to take care of the family would be able to exert further control. Although this is completely acceptable within the public domain, it would be pernicious for a family. Children would feel dejected when they learn that the person who loves them, and whom they have called mother or father, was in fact getting paid to raise them.

The real way to achieve the equality is to give all women real equitable opportunity in the public sphere, where they could use the money they earn to hire someone to do the housework. That's an employee-employer relationship that would not harm any personal relations.

What is the true value of housework? The prospect of seeing your children grow up, healthy and happy.