Unpaid household labor valued at $6 trillion annually

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that unpaid household labor in the United States is worth up to $6 trillion annually, representing approximately one-fifth of the nation's GDP.

While these activities—such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare—are essential to a functioning formal economy, they are excluded from official GDP calculations because no money changes hands. The GAO found that 87% of Americans aged 15 and older performed unpaid household work on a typical day, averaging 3.72 hours.

Economists note that this omission can distort perceptions of economic growth and living standards. For instance, historical data from 1965 to 2020 shows that while conventional GDP grew at an average of 6.3% annually, measures accounting for household labor showed a slightly lower average growth of 6.1%. This discrepancy suggests that as more individuals enter the formal workforce, the corresponding loss of unpaid domestic labor is not captured, which can artificially boost reported growth rates.