Save the American Time Use Survey!

Implemented in 2003, the ATUS is an annual survey that provides the only available information on how Americans use their time, including how much time they are engaged in paid work, childcare, home maintenance, volunteer work, commuting, relaxation, and more. 

Almost every other developed country in the world uses time use surveys similar to the ATUS to help them gauge their citizens’ changing realities, behaviors and needs; to measure the impact of public policies on their citizens’ quality of life; and to shape or update policy to improve their country’s quality of life.

Up until the ATUS was implemented, however, the US focused only on surveys and data that involved making or spending money. Even now, the US spends over $50 million a year to measure the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the market value of goods and services produced by labor and property in the United States. And we spend $500 million measuring labor statistics overall. These surveys provide important information about things in our society that are measured in monetary term, but the ATUS is the only federal survey that tells us "the WHOLE story" - how Americans spend their time doing paid work AND everything else. And at $4-6 million per year, the ATUS is a bargain, by comparison.

So what is the connection between the ATUS and a tree falling in a forest?  Think about the work you do – the work you don’t get paid for, the work that most people don’t see. You care for your family and your children. This work has value, but doesn’t get counted in other government statistics because no money is changing hands. If you cared for your neighbor’s child and were paid, it would be counted. That would be “market work,” as opposed to unpaid, or “nonmarket work.” But when you are caring for your own children your work is invisible. By leaving your work out of economic measurements, in effect, the value of your caregiving work is zero.

For more than 20 years Mothers & More has been raising awareness of the issue that all the work mothers do – whether paid or unpaid – has social and economic value. Over time women have won access to the paid workplace but mothers have not yet won social change that truly acknowledges the contributions to our economy and society made by the rest of their work – their unpaid caregiving work.

We believe that work needs to be redefined so that there is a broad acceptance that the work of caring for others is valuable and vital work that is essential to our families, communities, economy and society as a whole.  Until our public policy, private practices and cultural attitudes truly reflect the value and importance of unpaid caregiving work, mothers will continue to face higher rates of poverty, greater economic risk, and very real constraints on their ability to meet their own needs, those of their children, and those of their families.

Here’s a practical question:
If mothers devote significant amounts of their time and their lives doing unpaid work caring for their children and families but no one documents it or measures it, does it count when business, economic and social policies are made?

The American Time Use Survey makes caregiving work visible. By working together to urge our federal government to maintain its budget for the ATUS, we can make sure that our work and our lives as mothers are there for all to see.  Please join us in supporting the ATUS.

Sincerely,

Susan Willians President, Board of Directors Mothers & More

Joanne Brundage Executive Officer Mothers & More