The opportunity of working time accounting for the problem of private reproductive labour

We received this contribution from the Initiative Demokratische Arbeitszeitrechnung (IDA). The IDA is a cooperation organisation in the Care Revolution network. There is currently a welcome trend in the organisations and discussion spaces that are striving to develop fundamental, consistent social alternatives to capitalism that are geared towards human needs: Increasingly, attempts are being made to explicitly integrate domestic and family work into the blueprints for a society without domination and exploitation - as an indispensable part of social labour and not just as something that still exists and that needs to be thought about once the important stuff is done.

The IDA is attempting such an explicit, serious integration into its concept of democratic economic planning here. The article is a second publication from their website. The original is publishedhere. A printable PDF version is also available here.

To avoid misunderstandings: Within the Care Revolution network, there are people and organisations with different ideas about how extensive the change must be in order to achieve a care-centred society, what this can look like and what steps will help us on our way. This is one of the positions in the network. We thank the IDA for sharing! The website editors

Abstract

How can private reproductive labour be socialised under socialism? The text analyses the political, cultural and structural characteristics of private reproductive work and shows to what extent working time accounting could be a tool for recognising it economically and thus also politically.

Introduction to the labour-time theory

The working time calculation according to the "Group of International Communists" (GIK) of 1930 describes a model of council-democratic socialisation in which working time, not money, is the measure of social production and distribution. An hour's work is remunerated as an hour's labour, regardless of what activity someone performs. No work is valued higher or lower than another, because differences in remuneration, however plausible they may seem, always provide ways and means for inequality and oppression in a society with existing structures of power and discrimination. The ideas of the American social scientist Robin Hahnel on his participatory planned economy(Parecon), for example, sound fair at first glance: labour should be remunerated according to time, effort and expenditure. (1) However, in a society that is still permeated by such strongly discriminatory structures (e.g. racism, patriarchy, queerophobia, ableism), even a radically democratic decision on remuneration can quickly lead to certain activities being devalued. (2) In today's economic liberalism, it is claimed that high salaries are justified by special responsibilities. However, a childcare worker who has to ensure that none of twenty-five children are harmed when colleagues are absent "earns" very little. Such assessments are not only an expression of capitalist interests, but also show how deeply unequal social standards of value are inscribed in the perception of labour. Only if every hour of labour is considered to be of equal value can people be prevented from being forced into material dependency and social inequality through their work.

Production in the model of working time accounting is based on the self-organisation of workers. For the work performed, the producers receive certificates (hereinafter referred to as "labour certificates") that correspond to their individual share of working time. With the labour certificates, workers can consume goods and services in a so-called "productive sector". There is also a "public sector" in which goods and services are freely available to everyone without the need for labour certificates. (3) Whether something belongs to the public or productive sector (e.g. education, health, mobility) is decided democratically. The public sector may not consume more labour, raw materials and means of production than is produced in the productive sector. This balance forms the basis of economic and therefore social stability. The "factor of individual consumption" (hereinafter: FIC) mathematically expresses the proportion of all labour that society allocates to the public sector. The larger the public sector, the lower the hourly value of the labour certificate. This means that for one hour of work performed, I receive correspondingly less working time for my certificate due to the proportion determined by the FIK. For example, if the FIK is 0.5, I only get half a certificate back for an hour's work. The part that is deducted from the hour I have worked represents the "taking as needed" by the public sector in accounting terms for everyone.

Discrimination and marginalisation in reproductive work

Some examples of private reproductive labour are described below to illustrate an economic and political problem. Some types of private reproductive labour are obvious, for example caring for relatives in need of care or looking after small children.

To simplify, the subject of private reproductive work could perhaps be divided into two areas of conflict: as a special form of work organisation in capitalism(socially necessary, but kept invisible and not remunerated) and as a symptom of discrimination, especially against people with a female social identity. In Germany, gainful employment in the care or education sector is also part of the low-wage sector, in which mainly women are employed. (4) Women, trans and non-binary people, are still largely financially worse off than men (5) or even dependent on them, are more likely to fall into poverty in old age and therefore have to work more (especially when paid and unpaid work are added together). This also means they have less time for political struggles.

In response to the ongoing material and social discrimination against women and gender non-conforming people, the vision of continually relativising heteronormative gender identities and thereby further dissolving the attribution of care, nurturing, compassion etc. to exclusively female social identities has been growing for decades. Although men can also perform reproductive labour at home, the decision to do so is made more difficult by the fact that families are confronted with the fact that they are dependent on the predominantly higher salaries of men. After nine months of pregnancy and the intense bond with the newborn (still almost sacredly romanticised in parenting forums and advice books), it is often taken for granted that the mother will take over the care. Recovery takes time and it is often not possible to return to paid employment for some time. Complications of a physical and psychological nature can occur after pregnancy, for example postnatal depression. An infant is dependent on a primary carer who must be available almost constantly. At the same time, the person who gave birth to the child is in a phase of physical recovery. Such circumstances very often lead to the woman giving birth capitulating to the circumstances, taking on most of the reproductive tasks at the beginning, but then actually growing into them very firmly over time. So it seems as if women (and all people with female socialisation) take on these tasks as if by nature, which are constantly imposed on them by their physical, material and social circumstances. Whether children are born or not is of interest to the state, but the exhausting labour involved appears to be "private" and voluntary.(6) Raising a child is immediately meaningful and at the same time so culturally exaggerated that many people still find it difficult to call it work.

Expectations of socialism

As everyone is paid the same in the working time calculation model, there is no longer any dependency on who does the work at home. Occupational health and safety and working conditions in general could be significantly improved through company self-management. This opens up broader access to different areas of work, allowing people to switch between different jobs according to their current needs, rather than being tied to a single occupation for most of their lives. There are ideas for communally organised neighbourhoods to overcome the isolation of the nuclear family. Access to food, cleaning and care could be organised at a lower threshold through collective offers, thus relieving people in care work. (7) Forms of reproductive work that cannot be institutionalised, even in today's socialist visions, should continue to be examined for the possibilities of economic recognition.

For example, as soon as a walk with the child to the playground is considered socially necessary work, it is possible to take it into account in the working time calculation model. (8) However, until such determinations are made collectively, considerable disputes are to be expected because the exclusion, delegitimisation, ignorance and devaluation of this work is deeply rooted in patriarchal power relations. The phenomenon of "mental load" only became apparent when the one-sided, permanent empathic thinking for others was perceived as so stressful that those affected introduced their own terminology for this experience.

To date, there have been too few surveys and political discussions on what exactly those affected by private care work consider to be work. This may also be due to the fact that these activities have not really been discussed as worthy of remuneration for a long time. The federal government's Time Use Survey (ZVE), which attempts to record every 10 years how people use their time for paid and unpaid work, as well as leisure and education, does at least provide some statistics. (9) Such approaches are very important to start the discussion. As soon as the remuneration of private reproductive labour is seriously discussed, an extensive and ongoing political negotiation process could begin.

Labour certificates for private reproductive work

How do consumption possibilities change and what dynamics and decisions play an economic role when we begin to remunerate private reproductive labour? Mariarosa Dalla Costa's (1972) call for "wages for domestic labour", for example, is also described as illusory in current left-wing discussions. (10) On the one hand, because no surplus value can be derived from the remuneration of domestic labour, and therefore such demands cannot be made under capitalism. On the other hand, however, because inflation is to be expected as a result of a new large increase in consumer demands through remuneration. If we assume that capitalist relations have been abolished, i.e. that the economy is run for social needs rather than for profit, then superfluous labour would be eliminated and new productive forces would be freed up. These are already better conditions. In fact, however, we should take a closer look at economic dynamics such as inflation for the model of labour time accounting.

The public sector provides goods and services free of charge. Private reproductive labour would belong to the public sector within the model logic of working time accounting, because nobody has to give work certificates for it so that it can be consumed. Remunerating it nevertheless means a relatively large, new share of consumption claims in the form of labour certificates. (11) If private reproductive labour is now remunerated, goods become "more expensive" because the share that is paid to me as a certificate decreases. So, at least for the beginning of this transition, I have to work more in order to consume something from the productive sector. (12)

Through public accounting, which transparently shows all economic processes, and with the help of the FIK, a society can rationally plan and assess how the social workload would have to change if we decide to remunerate this or that reproductive labour so that economic stability is not threatened. In our case, the main theoretical shift is in the social allocation of consumption entitlements: reproductive labourers receive direct remuneration - negotiated transparently - whereas previously their entitlements were only covered indirectly by the income of others or by state benefits. The political debate on the recognition of reproductive labour can be conducted in detail and on a factual basis, as it becomes clear to all workers what consequences the remuneration of certain private reproductive labour would have for overall economic development. It can be assumed that some people will decide against restricting the consumption entitlement for their own labour in order to enable the remuneration of private reproductive work, but this is precisely the political struggle that needs to be waged.

Another option for remuneration would be lump sums, which may be easier to account for than individual hours. They can cover work that was once recorded on average and on whose temporal validity (perhaps also in different gradations) it was possible to reach a social agreement. However, even a flat rate must first be well justified and worked out. In order to obtain material and data for this, a process would have to be set in motion in which people first record their hours defined as work in a standardised method over a longer period of time and exchange information about them. (13)

A thought experiment for a change

Suppose the manufacture of bicycles was not simply possible in a company and all bicycles were always available free of charge because, for cultural reasons, men in particular had always manufactured bicycles for society privately in addition to their paid work. So it feels like we have always been able to get our bikes for free. The men build these bikes, for example, by looking at their construction plans on the way home from work and discussing them with other men. At home, they continue to work on the bikes, overworked. Their partners look on anxiously, desperately hand over a few tools and sometimes postpone an appointment or two to help out. Many men suffer from the double burden, have to seek mental health treatment, can't work as much and are therefore dependent on their partners. At some point, they ask: "Can't the rest of you make the bikes or can't we finally have some realistic economic recognition for this important work that we have been doing for free for a long time, perhaps in the form of consumer entitlements? After all, the whole of society needs bicycles!" What would be an appropriate response from the rest of us? Would we say: "How illusory! Who is going to produce all the goods that you suddenly want with your consumer demands? We'd rather give you a few more of ours and then all will be quiet! Building bicycles has always been in your nature, where is that 'work' anyway? Is greasing chains suddenly supposed to be work, when you've been doing it all your lives and sometimes even without training? Besides, there is so much happiness and fulfilment in building bikes, you don't think about anything else anyway! It's totally intimate and none of society's business. If we have to, we can offer you something in compensation to make it easier for you to build bikes, for example a lump sum, compensation or someone to bring you some food and clean your workshop. But that's the end of it, because someone has to pay for it!" This answer would of course be understandable to a certain extent, but you can also understand if the bike builders didn't accept it.

Footnotes

1) More on our critique of Parecon: "Decentralised Socialist Economic Planning. The Report of Labor-Time Accounting's Death Was an Exaggeration" by IDA and Amittai Aviram

2) For an example of this, see Hans Böckler Foundation Study No. 014, June 2018 " Comparable Worth. Labour evaluations as a blind spot in the root cause analysis of the gender pay gap?" Project report: Ute Klammer, Christina Klenner, Sarah Lillemeier

3) Work certificates are occasionally criticised because they are misinterpreted as an expression of a "democratic work constraint" due to their formal similarity to the wage form. However, there are several convincing counter-arguments:

• The development towards the principle of "taking as needed" is already inherent in the model of working time accounting. The public sector can be democratically expanded in such a way that all basic needs are covered and free access without certificates becomes possible.

• A purely demand-orientated economy without any form of quantity regulation presupposes high productivity and ignores real shortages. Labour time accounting, on the other hand, offers a transparent link between production and consumption that avoids arbitrariness and abuse of power - especially in times of crisis and transition. It is also not primarily understood as a final state, but also as a transitional form from capitalist commodity production to a free socialist society.

• Labour certificates are not capital: they cannot be hoarded, invested or earn interest. This rules out the possibility of anyone being able to appropriate the labour of others by owning certificates.

4) See the results of the Federal Statistical Office on the gender pay gap.

5) When we refer to men in the following, we are primarily referring to male-read or male-socialised and, depending on the case, socially privileged persons. Of course, trans men and non-binary people can often be affected by other forms of marginalisation and are therefore not fundamentally equated with the assumed privileges. When women, trans and non-binary people are mentioned, reference is made to the fact that these marginalisations can also manifest themselves with a socially mediated background of female identity or with female ascription, depending on the situation.

6) See also "Community Capitalism" by Silke van Dyk, Tine Haubner

7) Socialist infrastructures of care work: "Socialising care work. Municipal policy toolbox for a 'caring city'" by Barbara Fried and Alex Wischnewski (eds.)

8) For reflections on the amount of time spent on private care work, see "Embracing the Small Stuff. Caring for Children in a Liberated Society" by Heide Lutosch

9)See also, for example, "A few results from the 2022 time use survey" by Matthias Neumann, May 2024

10) E.g. Ole Nymoen and Wolfgang M. Schmitt in the podcast "Prosperity for all" (Ep. 199) May 2023

11) Even if mothers are not remunerated while caring for children at home (but their partners in the workplace are), they have of course always had consumption rights. However, these are covered by the income of their partners, which leads to dependency.

12) Example: Let's assume that a bicycle costs 10 hours after the average working time. Before the introduction of remuneration for private reproductive labour, the FIK is 0.7, for example, which means that 0.7 hours are paid out as a certificate for every hour worked. In order to receive the 10 hours of labour certificates for the bicycle, you would effectively have to work 14.3 hours. If the FIK falls to 0.5 due to the introduction of remuneration for private reproductive labour, the working time required to purchase the bicycle increases, as only 0.5 hours are now paid out as a certificate for every hour worked. This means that you would effectively have to work 20 hours to purchase the bicycle.

13) With funding from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Lina Schwarz, Sophie Obinger, Hannes Breul and Elise Schwarz have developed an app called "WhoCares" to track the time spent on care work. This has nine different areas such as caring, cooking, cleaning, children, etc. The app even makes statistical analyses possible. Unfortunately, this app can no longer be installed on newer smartphone models.