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Speaker 1: Julia Raskin always knew that she wanted kids, but by

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Speaker 1: the time she got married, she was climbing up the

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Speaker 1: corporate ladder in the UK banking world, and she wasn't

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Speaker 1: sure that the two were compatible. I sort of realized

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Speaker 1: that there really weren't a lot of women with children

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Speaker 1: around me on the trading floors in London. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I have a lot of peers who stayed on and

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Speaker 1: didn't have children until later on, But for women who

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Speaker 1: had children my own age, very few of them stayed

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Speaker 1: in finance. She felt that if she stayed in London,

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Speaker 1: she'd have to cut back on her career to raise

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Speaker 1: her kids, and she was probably right. Once kids arrived,

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Speaker 1: the question becomes who's going to take care of them.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it's cheaper for one parent, usually a mom, to

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Speaker 1: stop working and stay home at least for a little while.

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Speaker 1: But even if parents pay for childcare, there are new

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Speaker 1: constraints on their days. Someone has to pick the kid

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Speaker 1: up from daycare or make dinner, and that's usually the

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Speaker 1: mom too. So women often find jobs that allow them

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Speaker 1: to do that, but those jobs they pay less and

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Speaker 1: they rarely lead up the corporate ladder. This is called

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Speaker 1: the leaky pipeline, and it's one of the main reasons

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Speaker 1: for the gender pay gap. The fewer women that get

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Speaker 1: to high paying senior jobs, the wider the pay gap is.

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Speaker 1: At City Group where Julia works now, women make percent

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Speaker 1: less than men do because women like Julia don't often

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Speaker 1: make it to the highest paying jobs. Quite often, parenting

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Speaker 1: really hits you like a ton of bricks, and I

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Speaker 1: spent a lot of time with women who are really

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Speaker 1: making what often amounts to lifetime career choices in the

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Speaker 1: first few months of having a young child. This isn't

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Speaker 1: just a phenomenon in banking. Women we talk to who

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Speaker 1: work in all sorts of industries told us they're feeling

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Speaker 1: the childcare squeeze too. We don't have any family nearby

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Speaker 1: to help out, and it was becoming quite stressful to

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Speaker 1: try to juggle family responsibilities during working hours, or if

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Speaker 1: someone had a fever and couldn't go to daycare. Today

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Speaker 1: my kid was sick and I had had him with

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Speaker 1: his babysitters and nanny share and I've gotten a call

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the day, and I felt bad

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Speaker 1: because I had to work in the middle of the day,

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Speaker 1: And then I felt awful because I brought him sick

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Speaker 1: to the baby sits ear infection and it was just

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Speaker 1: a big mess. The only way to make it was

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Speaker 1: to ask for help from pretty much everyone and anyone.

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Speaker 1: My mother in law and my mother are both in town,

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Speaker 1: so they can watch my kids if I really had

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Speaker 1: something I have to get done during the week, but

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Speaker 1: otherwise there is no strategy. We were scrambling to find

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Speaker 1: a babysitter so that my husband and I wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: to constantly call out of work. Julia and her husband

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Speaker 1: didn't want to have to make these kinds of impossible decisions.

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Speaker 1: No one does to be fair, but they worked in

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Speaker 1: an industry but allowed them to do something drastic. They

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Speaker 1: moved to Singapore, where around the clock high quality childcare

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Speaker 1: is cheap and plentiful. You know, everybody I met from Asia,

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Speaker 1: including a lot of working women, spoke very highway about

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Speaker 1: the infrastructure, the the help that people have in Asia,

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Speaker 1: the quality of life and the quality of the school systems.

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Speaker 1: The fact that I don't have to worry whether the

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Speaker 1: kids have eaten or laundry, or errands or logistics. I

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Speaker 1: think it's a huge peace of mind. It really allows

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Speaker 1: one to concentrate on work, going dow, I'm at work

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Speaker 1: and you know, on home when I'm at home. For

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Speaker 1: the last forty years, childcare in Singapore has been a

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Speaker 1: huge advantage for working women in the city, state expats

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Speaker 1: and high paying jobs like Julia she has three kids now,

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Speaker 1: by the way, and everyone else. Cindy, a Singaporean woman

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Speaker 1: who asked that we not use her last name to

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Speaker 1: protect her privacy, says it's a huge help. So I

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Speaker 1: think in the sea ball we are quite less. It's

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Speaker 1: really the peace of mind because the times ware shoes.

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Speaker 1: Oh wait, I can feel the pressure even though I

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Speaker 1: can see handle and I need to handle a new

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Speaker 1: born and my son is like screaming all side. But

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Speaker 1: it's I can really feel the pressure of win if

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Speaker 1: I have to do it every day and if I

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Speaker 1: go back to what I really kind of meagin you

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Speaker 1: have to handle today. One in seven households in Singapore

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Speaker 1: has a live in domestic helper. This didn't happen by accident.

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Speaker 1: In the seventies, Singapore's economy was starting to take off

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Speaker 1: and they needed workers. Could they convince more Singaporean women

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Speaker 1: to join the workforce? In the government introduced what it

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Speaker 1: called its Foreign Domestic Servants scheme. There is a good

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Speaker 1: number of women in Singapore with special skills or training,

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Speaker 1: but who are not in gainful employment as they're being

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Speaker 1: burdened with household duties. In order to encourage these women

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Speaker 1: to take on gainful employment hence tributing to the economy,

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Speaker 1: the Ministry of Labor has recently implemented the government was

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Speaker 1: opening the door to women from poorer parts of Asia

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Speaker 1: who wanted to come work as domestic helpers so that

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Speaker 1: Singaporean women could work outside the home. And it was

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Speaker 1: a success. The labor force participation rate of women working

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Speaker 1: in Singapore increased a hundred between nineteen seventy and but

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Speaker 1: what about the women who made that possible. Over the years,

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Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of women have immigrated to work in Singapore,

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Speaker 1: making as little as around four hundred U S dollars

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Speaker 1: a month. And a lot of these women their moms too.

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Speaker 1: Some of the domestic workers who will come and say

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Speaker 1: their homesick, the one who you know they missed their children.

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Speaker 1: I said, this is not the nice things to say,

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Speaker 1: but from my experience that you need to think about

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Speaker 1: their future. I know it's not easy. I mean you

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Speaker 1: can choose to go back, but do have a job

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Speaker 1: back there? Do you think you will have a stable

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Speaker 1: chart to support Romano Novado has been a domestic helper

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Speaker 1: in Singapore for twenty four years. Her parents raised her

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Speaker 1: three kids back in the Philippines. Today, we're going to

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Speaker 1: hear her story. Women deserve people for equal work. Plenty

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Speaker 1: of women decided to step back from their careers after

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Speaker 1: becoming mothers. Some want to devote themselves to parenthood. Others

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Speaker 1: black affordable childcare, and nationwide, the median salary for men

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Speaker 1: is greater than women in nine point six percent of

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Speaker 1: major occupations. There's no single industry where women aren't punished

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Speaker 1: for appropriating. When women are financially stronger, it's good for

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Speaker 1: their families. It's put money into the economy, in the market,

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Speaker 1: it's good for everybody. Millions of women work in our

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Speaker 1: homes every single day as nanny's. It's the work that

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Speaker 1: makes all of work possible. Welcome to the paycheck. I'm

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Greenfield. The economics of childcare are bad. Either someone

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Speaker 1: has to stop working and stay home, or you have

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Speaker 1: to find someone else to watch your child. Occasionally, that's

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Speaker 1: family and it's free. But usually it's somebody else that

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Speaker 1: you're paying, and that's expensive. On average, it costs ten

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Speaker 1: dollars a year per kid for daycare. In some places

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Speaker 1: like Washington, d c. Or Massachusetts, the average is twice

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Speaker 1: as much. For most families, that's a big chunk of

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Speaker 1: their income. Half of households are bringing in less than

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Speaker 1: sixty dollars per year. So imagine spending more than of

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Speaker 1: all of your money just on childcare, and that's just

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Speaker 1: for one kid. It's a lot, and it's still arguably

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Speaker 1: not enough because the people, mostly women, who work in

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Speaker 1: those child care centers, they're earning only about a year.

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Speaker 1: All over the world, childcare depends on this kind of

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Speaker 1: wage arbitrage. It depends on having enough people, again, almost

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Speaker 1: always women and often immigrants, who are working for very

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Speaker 1: little money, which brings us back to Singapore. Professional women

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Speaker 1: are in a sense exploiting the cheap labor of other women,

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Speaker 1: and part of the reason they have to do that

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Speaker 1: is because the local state is not providing them, or

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Speaker 1: let alone less well off women, with the option of

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Speaker 1: affordable childcare. Nicole Constable is an anthropologist at the University

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Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh who studies migrant domestic workers in Southeast Asia.

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Speaker 1: The reason they go abroad is because they can't earn

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Speaker 1: what they should be earning in their own trees, and

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Speaker 1: that the countries that import them to work as domestic

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Speaker 1: workers aren't paying them even the local minimum wage. They

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Speaker 1: justify it by saying, well, they're willing to come, so

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Speaker 1: we're not exploiting them. But really, if they paid local

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Speaker 1: workers to do that work, they would have to pay

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Speaker 1: an awful lot more, which tells you about the problem

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Speaker 1: with the market. Tomoko Yamazaki is a reporter in Bloomberg's

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Speaker 1: Singapore bureau. She spent some time with Romina Novado, the

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Speaker 1: domestic helper in Singapore. Orchard Road is Singapore's main shopping street,

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Speaker 1: lined on both sides with massive luxury mass If you

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Speaker 1: want to buy a rolling swatch or could tear gown

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Speaker 1: from Chanel, you can find it here. This is also

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Speaker 1: home to a mall called Lucky Plaza. It's got lots

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Speaker 1: of Philippine restaurants, stores, and placement agencies for domestic workers.

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Speaker 1: On Sundays, the day most helpers have off, it's packed

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Speaker 1: with women shopping for food or products that remind them

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Speaker 1: of home. My name is Robina Novato. My friends called

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Speaker 1: me Being. I've been working as a domestic worker here

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Speaker 1: in single worker all twenty four years, and I'm from Manila, Philippines.

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Speaker 1: Being is in her mid forties now, and when I

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Speaker 1: met her, I was struck by her confidence and her

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Speaker 1: charming smile. But she was just twenty two when she

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Speaker 1: left her parents and six younger brothers and sisters in Manila.

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Speaker 1: She had finished three years of college, but she also

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Speaker 1: had three young children, and the job market in the

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Speaker 1: Philippines wasn't good. The ages were low, poverty was high,

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Speaker 1: and her parents weren't thrilled about her boyfriend. It was

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Speaker 1: my father who urged me to come here because I

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Speaker 1: need a stable job to support my children. That's that's

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Speaker 1: what they want me to do, and to be away

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Speaker 1: from my living partner at the time. Here's how her mother,

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Speaker 1: Angelita Nevato, remembers it. Apple As for me, well, her

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Speaker 1: papa's views were different from mine. I approved because of

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Speaker 1: the situation I was seeing then. It's like I felt

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Speaker 1: that nothing will happen here. It was like nothing good

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Speaker 1: will happen for her children if she stays here, her

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Speaker 1: children will be really separated from her Another thing, of course,

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Speaker 1: is that her Papa and I would be the ones

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Speaker 1: looking after her two children. Then knew someone who could

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Speaker 1: help her find her get a job, and so she

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Speaker 1: went moving in with the Chinese family. It was the

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Speaker 1: first time she slept in her own room. The Millers.

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Speaker 1: We have small house, but most of the families back there,

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Speaker 1: you know, will be just all sleep in one. So

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Speaker 1: having my own room, I always remember feel like I

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Speaker 1: wished my kids were here. So every time I eat,

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Speaker 1: I always, you know, think that I wish my children

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Speaker 1: is eating the same. That's the hardest point. And then

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Speaker 1: every time I missed them, I just look out out

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Speaker 1: of the window. It was difficult, but because I was young,

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Speaker 1: and I always think of, you know, like I need

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Speaker 1: to do this because who will do this for them.

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Speaker 1: In the beginning, all of her extra money went to

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Speaker 1: pay the agency back in the Philippines that set her

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Speaker 1: up with the job in the first place. After that,

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Speaker 1: she sent money home about hundred dollars a month, money

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Speaker 1: that went for food and school and other household expenses.

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Speaker 1: Families that want to hire domestic helper have to follow

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Speaker 1: a rule set by the Ministry of Manpower. There are

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Speaker 1: rules for the helpers too. Then could only stay as

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Speaker 1: long as she was employed. If she lost her job,

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Speaker 1: she'd have just two weeks to find another placement, or

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Speaker 1: she'd have to leave female these workers have to take

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Speaker 1: a pregnancy test every six months. If they get pregnant,

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Speaker 1: their work permit can be revoked in two thousands folve.

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Speaker 1: So just seven years ago, the Ministry of Manpower said

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Speaker 1: domestic workers are entitled to one day off a week.

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Speaker 1: Not everyone follows the rules. Since that hasn't been the

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Speaker 1: law for as long, a lot of women still don't

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Speaker 1: get days off in Singapore, or they get one off

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Speaker 1: a month or something like that, and there's not the

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Speaker 1: same understanding that it's required that. I think employers in

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Speaker 1: Singapore think they can buy it out. That's nickel constable.

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Speaker 1: They've all heard about going abroad all their lives. Most

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Speaker 1: of them have college degrees, and even with college degrees,

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Speaker 1: they often either can't find jobs or can't find jobs

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Speaker 1: that pay much at all. So I remember when I

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Speaker 1: first was interviewing Filipinas back in the nine ten nineties,

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Speaker 1: and they could make more as a domestic worker then

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Speaker 1: they could as a nurse or a school principle. After

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Speaker 1: six years in Singapore. Ben went home for the first time.

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Speaker 1: It was two thousand one, and I cannot forget the

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Speaker 1: expression of my children at that time. My youngest one

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Speaker 1: don't want to come to me because he grew up

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Speaker 1: with my parents and they always think that my parents

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Speaker 1: are their parents. And I remember my daughter looking at

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Speaker 1: me inside the taxi. She asked me, are you on, like,

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Speaker 1: are you really my mom? And then I said yeah,

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Speaker 1: and then I asked a white people looking at and

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Speaker 1: then she said, you're beautiful. As time and on, being

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Speaker 1: has been able to go back more often. The money

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Speaker 1: that she and other overseas workers and home really helps.

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Speaker 1: In two thousand twelve, being bought a house back home.

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Speaker 1: Her parents and one of her sisters lived there. She

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Speaker 1: also sends money to her children, who have families of

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Speaker 1: their own. She has seven grandchildren. The economics of it

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Speaker 1: are complicated. Nicole says the money that mag and workers

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Speaker 1: send Poeme does improve the quality of life for their families.

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Speaker 1: It creates jobs in their communities, but it's only sustainable

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Speaker 1: as long as someone's abroad, and workers will only go

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Speaker 1: abroad if their options at home are worse. Everyone thinks

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Speaker 1: I'll go for one two year contract. I'll save enough

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Speaker 1: and then I'll be able to change our lives. And

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Speaker 1: most of the people I've heard say that they've ended

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Speaker 1: up having to um keep working abroad, or they go

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Speaker 1: home and they have you know, maybe a new concrete

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Speaker 1: floor of their house to show for it, but then

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Speaker 1: they always want more. Um. It's never quite as much

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Speaker 1: as they think that it will be. The longer you're away,

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Speaker 1: the harder it is, I think, to go back and

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Speaker 1: to have things be the way you thought they would

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Speaker 1: be before you left. At this point, Bing's mother doesn't

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Speaker 1: want her to come back. It s well, she's the

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Speaker 1: one who doesn't like it here. I was asking her

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Speaker 1: when she will stop working, and she answers that until

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Speaker 1: she is strong and able to work, She's okay there,

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Speaker 1: her situation is better. She finds it difficult here. There's

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Speaker 1: the transportation fare and if you work here, how much

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Speaker 1: salary do you get. Being is not ready to go

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Speaker 1: back either. She doesn't think she saved enough money and

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Speaker 1: she doesn't want to be a burden on her children. Plus,

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Speaker 1: her sister is working in Singapore now and Being also

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Speaker 1: works as a volunteer with a group that advocates for

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Speaker 1: better conditions for domestic workers. She's considered kind of an

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Speaker 1: elder in the community, someone new arrivals can turn to

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Speaker 1: for advice. I'm part of the help this team. We

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Speaker 1: give advices to them, so it's kind of like sharing,

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Speaker 1: how you know. I stayed until twenty four years without

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Speaker 1: getting into trouble for a time. Thing thought she'd helped

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Speaker 1: her daughter find work in Singapore, set her up with

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Speaker 1: a good family, But in the end she wants something

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Speaker 1: better for her life of a domestic workers. That is,

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Speaker 1: I had good employers to whole time, but I'm worried

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Speaker 1: that she might not be the same, and I don't

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Speaker 1: want to see her as her mom. Uh No, I'd

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Speaker 1: rather have her back in the Philippines spending time. I

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Speaker 1: don't want her. I don't want her children to experience

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Speaker 1: what she had experienced. Advocates for domestic workers in Singapore

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Speaker 1: say that they should be paid at least the local

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Speaker 1: minimum wage, that they shouldn't be forced to live with

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Speaker 1: the family they work for, that they should eventually have

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Speaker 1: the rights and privileges of other permanent residents. But Singapore

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Speaker 1: system only works if the childcare workers don't get paid more.

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Speaker 1: That's pretty much how it works. Everywhere. Affordable childcare depends

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Speaker 1: on low wage childcare providers, But is there any other way?

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren wants voters to consider that question in the

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Speaker 1: US presidential campaign, and that's why I'm proposing a big

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Speaker 1: structural change, universal childcare and early education for all our babies.

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Speaker 1: People today are paying more than a thousand dollars a

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Speaker 1: month could get the highest quality child care and pay nothing.

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Speaker 1: That would be life changing for millions of mothers and

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Speaker 1: fathers all around this country. And here's the fun part.

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Speaker 1: We already know how to pay for it. Part of

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Speaker 1: her presidential platform is a proposal for universal subsidized childcare,

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Speaker 1: and a plan ch hanveiled earlier this year. Parents would

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Speaker 1: pay no more than seven percent of their income for daycare,

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Speaker 1: and that low cost it wouldn't come at the expense

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Speaker 1: of the salaries of those taking care of our kids.

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Speaker 1: Under Warrant's proposal, daycare workers would get paid the same

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Speaker 1: as public school teachers. My plan pays childcare workers like

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Speaker 1: the professionals. They are more training, higher standards, and much

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Speaker 1: better pay. These childcare workers are disproportionately black and brown women,

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Speaker 1: and they have been undervalued and underpaid for far too long,

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Speaker 1: how do we pay for this all? She says, higher taxes,

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Speaker 1: and her argument for doing that is that when we

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Speaker 1: help women secure your affordable childcare, and when we pay

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Speaker 1: women to do the work of raising our kids, everybody benefits.

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Speaker 1: The economists that Moody's estimate that making childcare more affordable

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Speaker 1: would boost the US GDP by seven hundred billion dollars

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Speaker 1: over ten years. Even if you don't agree with this plan,

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Speaker 1: that's a big economic stimulus. Next week on The Paycheck,

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Speaker 1: The Secret to Women's equality. Men, how do you handle

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Speaker 1: family responsibilities during work? Come? Come here? What would I

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Speaker 1: do if you poop your pants at school? Well, first

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Speaker 1: of all, I don't poop my pants because I'm a

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Speaker 1: second career. But if I did, um, you would probably

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Speaker 1: tell momm and have her come take me up. That's right.

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Speaker 1: I would probably tell my wife to go pick him up.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to The Paycheck. If you like the show,

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Speaker 1: please head on over to Apple pod Casts or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to rate, review, and subscribe. This show was

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Speaker 1: reported and hosted by me Rebecca Greenfield and reported by

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Speaker 1: Tomoko Yamazaki and Singapore Andrea Colonso and Manila and Janet

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Speaker 1: Paskin in New York. Translation was provided by Bloomberg's localization

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Speaker 1: team in Global Data. This episode was edited by Janet

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Speaker 1: Paskin and produced by Liz Smith. We also had production

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Speaker 1: help from Samantha Gatzick, Billian Goodman, Francesca Levi, Stephanie Fawn,

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Speaker 1: and Jody Schneider. Our original music is by Leo Sidron.

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Speaker 1: The illustrations which you can find on our show page

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Speaker 1: at bloomberg dot com. Slash the Paycheck are by Pamela

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Speaker 1: Guest and thanks to all the moms we spoke to

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Speaker 1: for the show. Francesca Levy is Bloomberg's head of Podcasts