Salceda bats

for housewives'
rE compensation
ll C'l
STAY-AT-HOME wives or mothers
who are unable to work outside since
they are compelled to care for their hus-
N bands and children firll time may soon
l'i
receive regular token compensations.
a Albay Rep. JoeY Sarte Salceda on
f, Tuesday said he will strongly push for
t the approva! of the Housewjves Com-

#
6 pensation Act he earlier liled in Con-
z eress, which seeks to provide compen-
o ;ation for stay-aFhome housewives and
B mothers for their full-time services ren-
dered to their childrcn and families.
A study by the Philippine Institute
for Development Stu$ies showed that
the monetary value of tbe time women
spend doing housework - caring for
children and the elderlY, cleaning,
cooking, and washing - accounts for
about P3.3 trillion or 20olo ofthe coun-
try's gross domestic Product (GDP),
Salceda said in a statement.
House Bill 80 is seen as an im-
portant social relorm scheme for the
country, where unemPloYed mothers
are referred to as "mere housewives"
and considered "unproductive," or
"doing nothing," despitt tlreir valuable
services to sociely.
It will break the conv-entional prin-
hviork that is
ciple in econorn ics'lhat
not paid for does not count as produc-
tive lab<ir."
This includes the work of "stay-at-
home housewives who take care of
their children, walk them to school
and help them in their school home-
work, manage meager familY budgets,
do grocery shopping" and other do-
mestic chores, Salceda noted.
He stressed it is high time to recog-
nize the work ofhomemakers as valu-
able economic activity, highlight their
worth in nation-building, and "pay for
the work they perform at home."
The PIDS study showed that as of
January 2018, some 12 million indi-
viduals were out of work. Of the total,
11.2 million were women. TheY were
deemed not in the labor force since
they performed unpaid homecare work,
tending to their families, 4.168 million
of whom have at least one child under
t2 vears old, with some 1.790 million of
them living below the poverty line.
Salceda's proposal initially focuses
on women with at least one child un-
der 12 years old, living under poverty
line and seeks to provide them with a
' monthly P2,000 compensation until
ort1ea-
they either graduate from poverty or -tsq r
no longer have children under 12.