This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 4, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Government investment in the childcare sector could add as much as 0.4% to real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and also prompt greater female participation in the labour force, as well as the creation of some 3,380 jobs annually, according to Khazanah Research Institute (KRI).

The issue of care work is becoming an urgent matter as Malaysia’s life expectancy has increased while the total fertility rate had declined, thus translating into a higher care burden, KRI deputy director of research Christopher Choong said at the launch of the think tank’s pilot study “Time to Care: Gender Inequality, Unpaid Care, Work and Time Use Survey (TUS)” yesterday.

“The sheer scale of unpaid care also worsens gender inequalities both in the workplace and the household since women bear most of the burden of care. Moreover, current measures of poverty and inequality do not factor in unpaid care, so we do not have a true picture of household living standards,” Choong said.

KRI has proposed for a childcare allowance to be distributed among eligible parents. Upon receiving the allowance, parents would have to place their children in the Welfare Department’s day care centres (Taman Asuhan Kanak Kanak).

KRI research associate Nazihah Muhamad Noor said a monthly RM100 allowance [for childcare] could contribute to 0.4% GDP growth annually, while female labour force participation would increase by an estimated 1.6% within a year, to reach 63% in the next five years from 55.8% at present.

Choong said the proposed allowance was for children below four years old, and based on KRI’s simulations would cost RM100 million. The think tank was also of the view that paid parental leave should be increased, KRI in full support of the government’s plan to raise paid maternity leave to 90 days, from 60 days.

“We need to have paid paternity leave, not just in the public sector but also in the private sector. As we have seen [from] the global population and our sample population, women are contributing more to the market work, more than men are contributing to unpaid care work,” she said, adding that paid parental leave would enable families to more equally take on care responsibilities, and make Malaysia more gender-inclusive.

On the added cost, Nazihah said one option was to shift the cost of parental leave for instance from the employer to social insurance.

Another policy proposal would see a set of minimum care standards that have to be met by informal childcare providers.

Nazihah said a balance has to be struck between ensuring children placed in these informal care centres are safe, and ensuring the compliance cost of of these informal childcare centres are reasonable. This is as most Malaysian parents utilise these centres, which are usually cheaper than their formal counterparts, as the latter are government registered.

The study reviews how Malaysians allocate their time for different activities based on a TUS. Therefore, the study uses time as a barometer for the value of the activities stated, as unpaid care work does not have a market value.

The study’s sample was 125 respondents, comprising 63 males and 62 females. Top 20% earners accounted for 10% of the respondents, with the middle 40% and bottom 40% segments accounting for 20% each. The respondents were aged 20 to 64, representing the working-age population who are more likely to be net caregivers.