Counting unpaid work in Kenya: Gender and age profiles of hours worked and imputed wage incomes

Muriithi, M., Mutegi, R., and Mwabu, G. 2017 “Counting unpaid work in Kenya: Gender and age profiles of hours worked and imputed wage incomes.” The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, in press.

ABSTRACT:

The paper first presents profiles of unpaid work by age and gender before turning to profiles of their monetary values. We value unpaid work using a novel data set on hourly wages from the Kenya Gazette on salaries of workers covered by minimum wages mandated by the Government in 2015 (Republic of Kenya, 2015).

We count unpaid work performed by men and women at home, on the farm, and within household enterprises. In particular, focus is on unpaid work that is also typically performed away from home, such as child care. We value unpaid work using the delegation or third party criterion (Reid, 1934; Donehower, 2014).

We find that men work longer hours in household enterprises and earn more than women, but the reverse is true on the farm. The imputed wage incomes from unpaid work on the farm vary by gender and age over the life course, with men’s imputed wage-income profiles dominating women’s at older ages. General policy implications of the findings are briefly discussed.