Unpaid caregiving constitutes the indispensable infrastructure upon which formal labor markets and economic productivity depend. Yet, the individuals who maintain this system—the primary administrators of health, education, and welfare within the home—are systematically excluded from its financial recognition and protections. This analysis quantifies the lifetime economic contribution of these caregivers to interrogate a profound question of systemic justice: what is the liability of a state that leverages an invisible workforce, only to abandon it in old age?
The Affluent Outsource the Work of Home
They hire specialists to build their human capital, and this expenditure is recognized as a valid, even savvy, investment. The annual salary for these specialists paints a clear picture of the market value of the work that women like Maria perform for free:
-
Nanny / Childcare Provider: The median annual salary for a full-time nanny in the United States is $40,000 - $50,000 (Source: International Nanny Association, 2023; Care.com 2024 Wage Report).
-
Private Chef / Cook: A personal chef serving a family can earn $45,000 - $70,000+ annually, depending on location and duties (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023 - "Chefs and Head Cooks" median pay: $55,380; Payscale.com data for private household chefs).
-
Registered Nurse (Home Health): The median pay for a home health aide is $30,000 - $35,000. For the more complex medical tasks often performed for elderly parents, a registered nurse's median pay is $81,220 annually (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2023 Occupational Outlook Handbook).
-
House Manager / Housemaid: A full-time house manager, responsible for cleaning, laundry, and shopping, commands a median salary of $35,000 - $45,000 (Source: Salary.com, "House Manager" median salary: $69,177 for managerial role; BLS data for "Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners" median: $29,580).
The CEO of the Household: Maria's Unpaid Portfolio
A woman in a low-to-middle-income family is not one of these specialists. She is all of them simultaneously, for decades. This is the most demanding, multi-faceted executive job you can think of. One that requires strategic foresight, financial acumen, deep emotional intelligence, and flawless logistical planning. For decades, she's managed a full portfolio of high-level careers, all without a title, a salary, or a single day off. Again, imagine that this job pays nothing. This isn't a corporate fantasy, it's the reality. Let's break down her CV.
-
-
As CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, she didn't just plan for the next quarter; she planned for the next generation. Her boardroom was the kitchen table, where she made critical long-term decisions about her children's education, her family's healthcare, and the overall welfare of her entire organization—her household.
-
As CFO, she managed the most constrained of budgets, performing financial alchemy to stretch a single income to cover an endless list of complex needs. Her skill wasn't just in balancing the books, but in ensuring that everyone was fed, clothed, and secure, no matter the economic climate.
-
As Head of HR, her days were spent in conflict resolution, talent nurturing, and safeguarding the emotional well-being of every family member. She was the therapist, the cheerleader, and the glue that held the entire organization's culture together.
-
As Logistics Manager, she was the master of the calendar, the coordinator of a thousand moving parts. From doctor's appointments to school events to family gatherings, she ensured the entire operation ran on time and without a hitch.
-
Over a 30-year career of active caregiving (for children and then aging parents), this represents an uncompensated economic contribution of over $3.2 million.
"(Prior to the pandemic, the International Labour Organization (ILO) valued unpaid care work globally at a staggering $11 trillion annually—a figure that would constitute the world's third-largest economy if it were a country. Subsequent analysis by the World Economic Forum and Oxfam in 2020 confirmed this breathtaking scale, valuing this invisible labor force at over $10.8 trillion and noting it is triple the size of the global tech industry. This is not a marginal economic activity; it is the bedrock upon which all paid work and formal economic growth is built."
The Compensation Package
In any organization, such a foundational contributor would be offered a golden parachute: a robust pension, stock options, and lifelong benefits. This is the standard for corporate CEOs whose work is quantifiable in financial statements.
What is Maria's compensation package?
After a lifetime of investing $3.2 million in unpaid labor into her family and the economy, her return is a system that offers her:
-
-
> POVERTY: A pension gap of 26--40% less than a man’s, if she has a pension at all.
> PRECARITY: The threat of poverty-driven homelessness or reliance on family she didn't want to burden.
> ISOLATION: A healthcare system unprepared for her needs and a society that renders her invisible.
-
The affluent outsourced this work and paid the market rate. The state benefited from this work because it didn't have to provide it. The economy grew on the back of this work. But the worker herself—Maria—is the only one who paid for it, with her time, her career, and her financial security.
The $3.2 Million Question
The question is no longer a sentimental, "Who will care for her?" It is a financial, policy, and justice imperative:
How will we settle this $3.2 million debt owed to each of the 774 million Marias retiring by 2030?
The answer cannot be charity. It must be restitution. This requires:
-
-
> PENSION CREDITS: Legislating that years spent providing full-time care for children or elderly dependents count as years of paid employment for pension contribution calculations.
> CAREGIVER STIPENDS: Developing public programs that provide direct financial support to those undertaking full-time care work, recognizing it as a valid and essential profession.
> TAX REFORMS: Offering significant tax credits for caregiving expenses and acknowledging the economic value of this labor in the tax code.
-
Maria loved her job. She wouldn't have traded it. But love is not a currency that pays pthe rent
The Unsettled Account: A Final Reckoning for the Architects of Our Prosperity
For decades, policymakers have viewed the unpaid labor of women like Maria as a statistical externality—an invisible, infinite, and cost-less resource that conveniently props up formal economic indicators. Economists have treated it as a footnote in GDP calculations, a blurry sector outside the clean lines of national accounts. For corporate owners, it has been the ultimate subsidy: a hidden workforce that prepares, sustains, and repairs their employees at no cost to the balance sheet.
This myopic view is about to collide with a stark demographic reality. We now face the retirement of 774 million Marias. The "infinite resource" is finite. The "cost-less" input now presents the single largest contingent liability on our societal balance sheet. The question is no longer academic; it is brutally practical.
After a lifetime of serving as the Chief Operating Officer of her household—the nurse, the teacher, the chef, the logistician, the emotional steward—what is Maria’s compensation package?
The market valued her combined job portfolio at over $3.2 million across her career. Yet, as she steps down from this relentless, multi-decade role, her pension statement reflects not a dividend on this investment, but a penalty for it. The skills that built human capital—patience, nurture, resilience—are not tradable on the job market she aged out of.
So, we must ask the questions that policymakers have systematically avoided:
- 1. Can Maria afford to shop for groceries without choosing between nutrition and cost, after a lifetime of ensuring her family never had to?
- 2. Can she see a doctor without the cold fear of a co-pay derailing her budget, after being the first and last line of health defense for her loved ones?
3. Will her final years be spent in dignity, or in a desperate, quiet negotiation with poverty?
The fate of Maria is not a personal tragedy; it is a national referendum on our values. A system that extracts $3.2 million in labor and offers poverty in return is not an economy. It is a pyramid scheme, and its collapse is imminent. The reckoning is here. We can either continue to be willfully blind to the architecture of our own prosperity, or we can finally, formally, pay the architect.
The choice is between moral bankruptcy and a new economic model—one that finally adds up the most important column in the ledger: the debt we owe to the women who built everything, and now have nothing left to spend.
--------copyright notification------
© 2025 by Mariza L. Lendez. All rights reserved. www.chikicha.com
This article "The Maria Pension Plan: Quantifying a Lifetime of Unpaid Labor?" is forms part of my dissertation. All materials herein are protected by copyright and academic intellectual property laws. No part of this work may be reproduced, published, or distributed in whole or in part without express written permission from the author, except for academic citation or fair use with proper attribution. Based on verified data, peer-reviewed literature, and insights from national and global agencies and with the help of AI for deep research.
Citation Format
Lendez, Mariza (2025). [The Maria Pension Plan: Quantifying a Lifetime of Unpaid Labor] In "Designing a Purpose-Driven Retirement Model Based on the IKIGAI Philosophy" (unpublished dissertation). Philippine Women's University.
REFERENCES
1. International Labour Organization. (2018). Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work. International Labour Office.
https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_633135/lang--en/index.htm
2.mWorld Economic Forum. (2020, January 17). The $10.8 trillion global value of unpaid care work is triple the size of the tech industry. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/unpaid-care-work-women-economic-growth/
3. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Pensions at a Glance 2023: OECD and G20 Indicators. OECD Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1787/19991363
4. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2022). World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results. UN DESA/POP/2022/TR/NO. 3.
https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/wpp2022_summary_of_results.pdf