Counting Care Work: The Empirical and Policy Applications of Care Theory

The adequate provision of quality care to the elderly, children, and those who are ill or disabled is one of the pressing social problems of our time. Despite the far-reaching formulations of care in the theoretical realm, advocacy and policy-making efforts around care work remain largely atomized. Translating the wide-ranging insights of care scholarship into tools for public policy solutions requires a practical application of the concept as well as empirical measurement. In this article, we integrate the insights of care theory with feminist economic analysis to conceptualize care as a single sector at the foundation of the state's human infrastructure. We then measure the scope of care work across paid work, unpaid labor, and government investment in one U.S. state. We estimate that the care sector in Massachusetts comprises 22 percent of the paid labor force, 20 percent of the average resident's daily time, and 57 percent of state and local government spending. Such data gives policy makers and advocates an empirical foundation to make a case for the human and economic impact of the care sector and to build on framing a broader vision of care policy. Strengthening the human infrastructure in Massachusetts and elsewhere is an economic and ethical imperative, and our goal is to provide both empirical data and a practically useful conceptual frame that can be used as tools by those working towards the social transformation of care.