The government and private sector are being urged to provide support and incentives for persons who do unpaid domestic and care work.

This in a bid to boost the value of such categories of work, and to acknowledge the contribution of care and domestic work to the country‘s gross domestic product.

The matter was highlighted by researcher, at the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, Pryia Alexander, during a presentation, entitled “Who cares: the real cost of unpaid care and domestic work“.

Unpaid care work, such as caring for household members, and unpaid domestic work, such as doing household chores, are mainly carried out by women.

She opined that, if unpaid works were to be part of Jamaica’s GDP, its value would be more than the combined value of other recognised sectors.

Ms Alexander noted that the economic value of unpaid care and domestic work is largely unknown, adding that unpaid work remains statistically invisible to policymakers, economists, and planners because it is not compensated.

If these types of work were to be attributed a dollar figure and calculated, then its value to the country’s economy would be shown.

The Capri researcher made 2 recommendations, aimed at resolving the problem.