Understanding Unpaid Caregiving

Unpaid caregiving includes raising children, preparing meals, cleaning the home and caring for elderly or sick relatives. While these responsibilities are essential to families and communities, they can be taxing for the caregivers themselves. Interviews conducted with unpaid family caregivers have highlighted the financial and emotional burden of balancing caregiving with work. Some caregivers reported reducing their work hours or leaving employment altogether to care for relatives, while others described the stress of managing caregiving responsibilities with little outside support. Their experiences illustrate how unpaid care can shape economic opportunity in everyday life.

The burden of unpaid care work falls especially heavily on low-income households. According to the World Bank’s 2025 Jamaica Poverty Assessment, persistent gender norms continue to limit women’s economic participation, making it harder for many families to escape poverty.

Impact on Women

For many Jamaican women, the challenges are not simply theoretical. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 80% of unpaid caregivers were women. The responsibilities of unpaid caregiving often come at the expense of women’s educational and professional opportunities. Time spent providing care is time that cannot be spent earning an income, pursuing additional training or advancing in a career.

The gender imbalance is strikingly consistent in Jamaica. According to the World Bank’s Jamaica Gender Assessment, Jamaican women spend 18.1% of each day on unpaid household and care work, compared with 8.2% for men. This disparity limits women’s time for paid employment, career advancement and income generation. These unequal caregiving responsibilities contribute to lower labor force participation among women, fewer opportunities for full-time employment and persistent gender gaps in earnings.

Broader Economic Consequences

The consequences of unpaid care work in Jamaica extend far beyond individual households. When women face barriers to employment because of caregiving responsibilities, families lose income, businesses lose skilled workers and the country loses productive economic potential. The International Labour Organization has emphasized that reducing unequal unpaid care responsibilities can increase women’s participation in the workforce and promote more inclusive economic growth.

These findings are echoed across the Caribbean. Researchers have found that women throughout the region continue to perform the vast majority of unpaid domestic work, despite increasing participation in education and the workforce. As a result, many women experience what experts describe as a “double burden,” balancing paid employment with extensive unpaid responsibilities at home, usually unaided by their male counterparts or other members of the household.

Shifting Perspectives

While statistics demonstrate the broader economic effects of unpaid caregiving, lived experiences are constantly shifting, hopefully toward improvement. In an interview with the International Women’s Forum, First Global Bank President Maureen Hayden-Cater reflected on gender equality, saying progress “happens when women and men have access to the same opportunities to be successful.” She added that while gender bias has not disappeared entirely, she believes the next generation, including her own daughters, will face a lower barrier than she did.

Policy and Development

Recognizing the value of unpaid care work in Jamaica is becoming an increasingly important part of development policy. International organizations, including the World Bank, the International Labour Organization and UN Women, argue that investments in affordable childcare, paid family leave and flexible work arrangements can help reduce barriers to women’s employment. Expanding access to quality childcare, for example, benefits working parents. It also strengthens labor markets and supports long-term economic growth because aiding parents with childcare allows them to participate more fully in the workforce.

Jamaica has already taken steps toward promoting gender equality through national gender policies and programs designed to improve women’s economic participation. However, experts note that continued investment in caregiving infrastructure and social support services could help more women enter or remain in the workforce while reducing poverty among families.

The World Bank, in partnership with the Government of Jamaica and the Government of Canada, launched the Jamaica Gender Assessment to identify barriers to women’s economic participation. The report highlights unequal unpaid care responsibilities and recommends actionable steps like expanding childcare services and workplace policies that enable more women to participate in the labor force.

Experts also emphasize that unpaid caregiving should not be viewed solely as a women’s issue. Care work sustains households, enables children to learn and allows older adults and people with disabilities to receive essential support. Recognizing its economic value can help policymakers design more effective labor, education and social protection policies that benefit entire communities.

Future Opportunities

As the country continues pursuing sustainable and inclusive economic growth, addressing unpaid care work in Jamaica will remain an important part of expanding opportunity. By recognizing care work, investing in services that support caregivers and creating policies that make it easier for women to balance family and employment responsibilities, Jamaica can unlock economic potential that has long gone unrecognized. Supporting caregivers is not only a matter of equality, though that is more than enough of a reason, but also an investment in sustainable development and economic growth.

Momentum is already building. As Jamaica continues expanding gender equality initiatives and international organizations increase support for childcare, labor protections and social services, policymakers have growing opportunities to reduce unpaid care burdens while strengthening economic resilience. Continued investment in caregivers could help thousands more women participate fully in the workforce while reducing poverty for families across the country.