LatinaLista — Cooking and cleaning for the family has always been known to be the biggest source of unpaid work by the women in families. But unpaid work is also volunteer work, helping neighbors and relatives, supporting charities, coaching Little League, being Girl Scout troop leaders, helping out at the kids’ schools, etc. — all actions that strengthen families and communities.
Most would think Americans do more unpaid work than the rest of the world — wrong. According to the new report, Society at a Glance, by France-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD, in a survey of 34 OECD countries, there is one country that outperforms the rest of the world in doing unpaid work — Mexico.
Mexicans spend about 4 1/2 hours a day on unpaid work. Who does the least? Korea, China and Japan. The United States falls a little below the middle.
When it comes to working the longest hours, whether for pay or not — Mexico wins that as well by logging in ten hours a day with Japan close behind at nine hours a day.
No surprise that women outperform men when doing unpaid work overall.
This was the first time the OECD analyzed unpaid work as part of the larger social trends in the world. Trends that are either evolving over time or remain unchanged.
Some other notable findings of the report are:
Canada was the most tolerant country regarding average community acceptance of minority groups defined as: ethnic minority, migrants and gay and lesbians.
Australia, New Zealand and the United States tended to be relatively tolerant as well. The less tolerant was dominated by southern and eastern European countries and the OECD Asian members.
Reading outcomes for 15 year-olds in 2009 are highest in Korea and Finland and lowest in Chile and Mexico.
On average, OECD countries spent $8,000 United States dollars (USD) per child per year on compulsory education in 2007. Luxembourg spent well over USD 15,000 per child. The next highest spender, Switzerland, spent nearly one-third less. Spending in Turkey was somewhat above USD 1,000. Spending was also relatively low in Chile
and Mexico.
Chile, Mexico and Turkey had the highest income inequality. OECD Anglophone countries had levels of inequality around or above the OECD average. Southern European and Mediterranean countries also tended to have higher than average inequality. Inequality was lower than average amongst the Nordic countries and continental European countries.
The United States was quite unequal in income equality, given its riches, while the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and Poland managed to be quite equal, given their relatively low income
The United States, Chile and Mexico, sharing quite high overall poverty rates, had relatively equally high poverty rates amongst both the elderly and children.
Countries where it was hard for parents of both types to get out of low income include Estonia, Switzerland, the United States.
