Speaker 1: Julia Raskin always knew that she wanted kids, but by
Speaker 1: the time she got married, she was climbing up the
Speaker 1: corporate ladder in the UK banking world, and she wasn't
Speaker 1: sure that the two were compatible. I sort of realized
Speaker 1: that there really weren't a lot of women with children
Speaker 1: around me on the trading floors in London. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have a lot of peers who stayed on and
Speaker 1: didn't have children until later on, But for women who
Speaker 1: had children my own age, very few of them stayed
Speaker 1: in finance. She felt that if she stayed in London,
Speaker 1: she'd have to cut back on her career to raise
Speaker 1: her kids, and she was probably right. Once kids arrived,
Speaker 1: the question becomes who's going to take care of them.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's cheaper for one parent, usually a mom, to
Speaker 1: stop working and stay home at least for a little while.
Speaker 1: But even if parents pay for childcare, there are new
Speaker 1: constraints on their days. Someone has to pick the kid
Speaker 1: up from daycare or make dinner, and that's usually the
Speaker 1: mom too. So women often find jobs that allow them
Speaker 1: to do that, but those jobs they pay less and
Speaker 1: they rarely lead up the corporate ladder. This is called
Speaker 1: the leaky pipeline, and it's one of the main reasons
Speaker 1: for the gender pay gap. The fewer women that get
Speaker 1: to high paying senior jobs, the wider the pay gap is.
Speaker 1: At City Group where Julia works now, women make percent
Speaker 1: less than men do because women like Julia don't often
Speaker 1: make it to the highest paying jobs. Quite often, parenting
Speaker 1: really hits you like a ton of bricks, and I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time with women who are really
Speaker 1: making what often amounts to lifetime career choices in the
Speaker 1: first few months of having a young child. This isn't
Speaker 1: just a phenomenon in banking. Women we talk to who
Speaker 1: work in all sorts of industries told us they're feeling
Speaker 1: the childcare squeeze too. We don't have any family nearby
Speaker 1: to help out, and it was becoming quite stressful to
Speaker 1: try to juggle family responsibilities during working hours, or if
Speaker 1: someone had a fever and couldn't go to daycare. Today
Speaker 1: my kid was sick and I had had him with
Speaker 1: his babysitters and nanny share and I've gotten a call
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day, and I felt bad
Speaker 1: because I had to work in the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: And then I felt awful because I brought him sick
Speaker 1: to the baby sits ear infection and it was just
Speaker 1: a big mess. The only way to make it was
Speaker 1: to ask for help from pretty much everyone and anyone.
Speaker 1: My mother in law and my mother are both in town,
Speaker 1: so they can watch my kids if I really had
Speaker 1: something I have to get done during the week, but
Speaker 1: otherwise there is no strategy. We were scrambling to find
Speaker 1: a babysitter so that my husband and I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to constantly call out of work. Julia and her husband
Speaker 1: didn't want to have to make these kinds of impossible decisions.
Speaker 1: No one does to be fair, but they worked in
Speaker 1: an industry but allowed them to do something drastic. They
Speaker 1: moved to Singapore, where around the clock high quality childcare
Speaker 1: is cheap and plentiful. You know, everybody I met from Asia,
Speaker 1: including a lot of working women, spoke very highway about
Speaker 1: the infrastructure, the the help that people have in Asia,
Speaker 1: the quality of life and the quality of the school systems.
Speaker 1: The fact that I don't have to worry whether the
Speaker 1: kids have eaten or laundry, or errands or logistics. I
Speaker 1: think it's a huge peace of mind. It really allows
Speaker 1: one to concentrate on work, going dow, I'm at work
Speaker 1: and you know, on home when I'm at home. For
Speaker 1: the last forty years, childcare in Singapore has been a
Speaker 1: huge advantage for working women in the city, state expats
Speaker 1: and high paying jobs like Julia she has three kids now,
Speaker 1: by the way, and everyone else. Cindy, a Singaporean woman
Speaker 1: who asked that we not use her last name to
Speaker 1: protect her privacy, says it's a huge help. So I
Speaker 1: think in the sea ball we are quite less. It's
Speaker 1: really the peace of mind because the times ware shoes.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, I can feel the pressure even though I
Speaker 1: can see handle and I need to handle a new
Speaker 1: born and my son is like screaming all side. But
Speaker 1: it's I can really feel the pressure of win if
Speaker 1: I have to do it every day and if I
Speaker 1: go back to what I really kind of meagin you
Speaker 1: have to handle today. One in seven households in Singapore
Speaker 1: has a live in domestic helper. This didn't happen by accident.
Speaker 1: In the seventies, Singapore's economy was starting to take off
Speaker 1: and they needed workers. Could they convince more Singaporean women
Speaker 1: to join the workforce? In the government introduced what it
Speaker 1: called its Foreign Domestic Servants scheme. There is a good
Speaker 1: number of women in Singapore with special skills or training,
Speaker 1: but who are not in gainful employment as they're being
Speaker 1: burdened with household duties. In order to encourage these women
Speaker 1: to take on gainful employment hence tributing to the economy,
Speaker 1: the Ministry of Labor has recently implemented the government was
Speaker 1: opening the door to women from poorer parts of Asia
Speaker 1: who wanted to come work as domestic helpers so that
Speaker 1: Singaporean women could work outside the home. And it was
Speaker 1: a success. The labor force participation rate of women working
Speaker 1: in Singapore increased a hundred between nineteen seventy and but
Speaker 1: what about the women who made that possible. Over the years,
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of women have immigrated to work in Singapore,
Speaker 1: making as little as around four hundred U S dollars
Speaker 1: a month. And a lot of these women their moms too.
Speaker 1: Some of the domestic workers who will come and say
Speaker 1: their homesick, the one who you know they missed their children.
Speaker 1: I said, this is not the nice things to say,
Speaker 1: but from my experience that you need to think about
Speaker 1: their future. I know it's not easy. I mean you
Speaker 1: can choose to go back, but do have a job
Speaker 1: back there? Do you think you will have a stable
Speaker 1: chart to support Romano Novado has been a domestic helper
Speaker 1: in Singapore for twenty four years. Her parents raised her
Speaker 1: three kids back in the Philippines. Today, we're going to
Speaker 1: hear her story. Women deserve people for equal work. Plenty
Speaker 1: of women decided to step back from their careers after
Speaker 1: becoming mothers. Some want to devote themselves to parenthood. Others
Speaker 1: black affordable childcare, and nationwide, the median salary for men
Speaker 1: is greater than women in nine point six percent of
Speaker 1: major occupations. There's no single industry where women aren't punished
Speaker 1: for appropriating. When women are financially stronger, it's good for
Speaker 1: their families. It's put money into the economy, in the market,
Speaker 1: it's good for everybody. Millions of women work in our
Speaker 1: homes every single day as nanny's. It's the work that
Speaker 1: makes all of work possible. Welcome to the paycheck. I'm
Speaker 1: Rebecca Greenfield. The economics of childcare are bad. Either someone
Speaker 1: has to stop working and stay home, or you have
Speaker 1: to find someone else to watch your child. Occasionally, that's
Speaker 1: family and it's free. But usually it's somebody else that
Speaker 1: you're paying, and that's expensive. On average, it costs ten
Speaker 1: dollars a year per kid for daycare. In some places
Speaker 1: like Washington, d c. Or Massachusetts, the average is twice
Speaker 1: as much. For most families, that's a big chunk of
Speaker 1: their income. Half of households are bringing in less than
Speaker 1: sixty dollars per year. So imagine spending more than of
Speaker 1: all of your money just on childcare, and that's just
Speaker 1: for one kid. It's a lot, and it's still arguably
Speaker 1: not enough because the people, mostly women, who work in
Speaker 1: those child care centers, they're earning only about a year.
Speaker 1: All over the world, childcare depends on this kind of
Speaker 1: wage arbitrage. It depends on having enough people, again, almost
Speaker 1: always women and often immigrants, who are working for very
Speaker 1: little money, which brings us back to Singapore. Professional women
Speaker 1: are in a sense exploiting the cheap labor of other women,
Speaker 1: and part of the reason they have to do that
Speaker 1: is because the local state is not providing them, or
Speaker 1: let alone less well off women, with the option of
Speaker 1: affordable childcare. Nicole Constable is an anthropologist at the University
Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh who studies migrant domestic workers in Southeast Asia.
Speaker 1: The reason they go abroad is because they can't earn
Speaker 1: what they should be earning in their own trees, and
Speaker 1: that the countries that import them to work as domestic
Speaker 1: workers aren't paying them even the local minimum wage. They
Speaker 1: justify it by saying, well, they're willing to come, so
Speaker 1: we're not exploiting them. But really, if they paid local
Speaker 1: workers to do that work, they would have to pay
Speaker 1: an awful lot more, which tells you about the problem
Speaker 1: with the market. Tomoko Yamazaki is a reporter in Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: Singapore bureau. She spent some time with Romina Novado, the
Speaker 1: domestic helper in Singapore. Orchard Road is Singapore's main shopping street,
Speaker 1: lined on both sides with massive luxury mass If you
Speaker 1: want to buy a rolling swatch or could tear gown
Speaker 1: from Chanel, you can find it here. This is also
Speaker 1: home to a mall called Lucky Plaza. It's got lots
Speaker 1: of Philippine restaurants, stores, and placement agencies for domestic workers.
Speaker 1: On Sundays, the day most helpers have off, it's packed
Speaker 1: with women shopping for food or products that remind them
Speaker 1: of home. My name is Robina Novato. My friends called
Speaker 1: me Being. I've been working as a domestic worker here
Speaker 1: in single worker all twenty four years, and I'm from Manila, Philippines.
Speaker 1: Being is in her mid forties now, and when I
Speaker 1: met her, I was struck by her confidence and her
Speaker 1: charming smile. But she was just twenty two when she
Speaker 1: left her parents and six younger brothers and sisters in Manila.
Speaker 1: She had finished three years of college, but she also
Speaker 1: had three young children, and the job market in the
Speaker 1: Philippines wasn't good. The ages were low, poverty was high,
Speaker 1: and her parents weren't thrilled about her boyfriend. It was
Speaker 1: my father who urged me to come here because I
Speaker 1: need a stable job to support my children. That's that's
Speaker 1: what they want me to do, and to be away
Speaker 1: from my living partner at the time. Here's how her mother,
Speaker 1: Angelita Nevato, remembers it. Apple As for me, well, her
Speaker 1: papa's views were different from mine. I approved because of
Speaker 1: the situation I was seeing then. It's like I felt
Speaker 1: that nothing will happen here. It was like nothing good
Speaker 1: will happen for her children if she stays here, her
Speaker 1: children will be really separated from her Another thing, of course,
Speaker 1: is that her Papa and I would be the ones
Speaker 1: looking after her two children. Then knew someone who could
Speaker 1: help her find her get a job, and so she
Speaker 1: went moving in with the Chinese family. It was the
Speaker 1: first time she slept in her own room. The Millers.
Speaker 1: We have small house, but most of the families back there,
Speaker 1: you know, will be just all sleep in one. So
Speaker 1: having my own room, I always remember feel like I
Speaker 1: wished my kids were here. So every time I eat,
Speaker 1: I always, you know, think that I wish my children
Speaker 1: is eating the same. That's the hardest point. And then
Speaker 1: every time I missed them, I just look out out
Speaker 1: of the window. It was difficult, but because I was young,
Speaker 1: and I always think of, you know, like I need
Speaker 1: to do this because who will do this for them.
Speaker 1: In the beginning, all of her extra money went to
Speaker 1: pay the agency back in the Philippines that set her
Speaker 1: up with the job in the first place. After that,
Speaker 1: she sent money home about hundred dollars a month, money
Speaker 1: that went for food and school and other household expenses.
Speaker 1: Families that want to hire domestic helper have to follow
Speaker 1: a rule set by the Ministry of Manpower. There are
Speaker 1: rules for the helpers too. Then could only stay as
Speaker 1: long as she was employed. If she lost her job,
Speaker 1: she'd have just two weeks to find another placement, or
Speaker 1: she'd have to leave female these workers have to take
Speaker 1: a pregnancy test every six months. If they get pregnant,
Speaker 1: their work permit can be revoked in two thousands folve.
Speaker 1: So just seven years ago, the Ministry of Manpower said
Speaker 1: domestic workers are entitled to one day off a week.
Speaker 1: Not everyone follows the rules. Since that hasn't been the
Speaker 1: law for as long, a lot of women still don't
Speaker 1: get days off in Singapore, or they get one off
Speaker 1: a month or something like that, and there's not the
Speaker 1: same understanding that it's required that. I think employers in
Speaker 1: Singapore think they can buy it out. That's nickel constable.
Speaker 1: They've all heard about going abroad all their lives. Most
Speaker 1: of them have college degrees, and even with college degrees,
Speaker 1: they often either can't find jobs or can't find jobs
Speaker 1: that pay much at all. So I remember when I
Speaker 1: first was interviewing Filipinas back in the nine ten nineties,
Speaker 1: and they could make more as a domestic worker then
Speaker 1: they could as a nurse or a school principle. After
Speaker 1: six years in Singapore. Ben went home for the first time.
Speaker 1: It was two thousand one, and I cannot forget the
Speaker 1: expression of my children at that time. My youngest one
Speaker 1: don't want to come to me because he grew up
Speaker 1: with my parents and they always think that my parents
Speaker 1: are their parents. And I remember my daughter looking at
Speaker 1: me inside the taxi. She asked me, are you on, like,
Speaker 1: are you really my mom? And then I said yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I asked a white people looking at and
Speaker 1: then she said, you're beautiful. As time and on, being
Speaker 1: has been able to go back more often. The money
Speaker 1: that she and other overseas workers and home really helps.
Speaker 1: In two thousand twelve, being bought a house back home.
Speaker 1: Her parents and one of her sisters lived there. She
Speaker 1: also sends money to her children, who have families of
Speaker 1: their own. She has seven grandchildren. The economics of it
Speaker 1: are complicated. Nicole says the money that mag and workers
Speaker 1: send Poeme does improve the quality of life for their families.
Speaker 1: It creates jobs in their communities, but it's only sustainable
Speaker 1: as long as someone's abroad, and workers will only go
Speaker 1: abroad if their options at home are worse. Everyone thinks
Speaker 1: I'll go for one two year contract. I'll save enough
Speaker 1: and then I'll be able to change our lives. And
Speaker 1: most of the people I've heard say that they've ended
Speaker 1: up having to um keep working abroad, or they go
Speaker 1: home and they have you know, maybe a new concrete
Speaker 1: floor of their house to show for it, but then
Speaker 1: they always want more. Um. It's never quite as much
Speaker 1: as they think that it will be. The longer you're away,
Speaker 1: the harder it is, I think, to go back and
Speaker 1: to have things be the way you thought they would
Speaker 1: be before you left. At this point, Bing's mother doesn't
Speaker 1: want her to come back. It s well, she's the
Speaker 1: one who doesn't like it here. I was asking her
Speaker 1: when she will stop working, and she answers that until
Speaker 1: she is strong and able to work, She's okay there,
Speaker 1: her situation is better. She finds it difficult here. There's
Speaker 1: the transportation fare and if you work here, how much
Speaker 1: salary do you get. Being is not ready to go
Speaker 1: back either. She doesn't think she saved enough money and
Speaker 1: she doesn't want to be a burden on her children. Plus,
Speaker 1: her sister is working in Singapore now and Being also
Speaker 1: works as a volunteer with a group that advocates for
Speaker 1: better conditions for domestic workers. She's considered kind of an
Speaker 1: elder in the community, someone new arrivals can turn to
Speaker 1: for advice. I'm part of the help this team. We
Speaker 1: give advices to them, so it's kind of like sharing,
Speaker 1: how you know. I stayed until twenty four years without
Speaker 1: getting into trouble for a time. Thing thought she'd helped
Speaker 1: her daughter find work in Singapore, set her up with
Speaker 1: a good family, But in the end she wants something
Speaker 1: better for her life of a domestic workers. That is,
Speaker 1: I had good employers to whole time, but I'm worried
Speaker 1: that she might not be the same, and I don't
Speaker 1: want to see her as her mom. Uh No, I'd
Speaker 1: rather have her back in the Philippines spending time. I
Speaker 1: don't want her. I don't want her children to experience
Speaker 1: what she had experienced. Advocates for domestic workers in Singapore
Speaker 1: say that they should be paid at least the local
Speaker 1: minimum wage, that they shouldn't be forced to live with
Speaker 1: the family they work for, that they should eventually have
Speaker 1: the rights and privileges of other permanent residents. But Singapore
Speaker 1: system only works if the childcare workers don't get paid more.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much how it works. Everywhere. Affordable childcare depends
Speaker 1: on low wage childcare providers, But is there any other way?
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Warren wants voters to consider that question in the
Speaker 1: US presidential campaign, and that's why I'm proposing a big
Speaker 1: structural change, universal childcare and early education for all our babies.
Speaker 1: People today are paying more than a thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: month could get the highest quality child care and pay nothing.
Speaker 1: That would be life changing for millions of mothers and
Speaker 1: fathers all around this country. And here's the fun part.
Speaker 1: We already know how to pay for it. Part of
Speaker 1: her presidential platform is a proposal for universal subsidized childcare,
Speaker 1: and a plan ch hanveiled earlier this year. Parents would
Speaker 1: pay no more than seven percent of their income for daycare,
Speaker 1: and that low cost it wouldn't come at the expense
Speaker 1: of the salaries of those taking care of our kids.
Speaker 1: Under Warrant's proposal, daycare workers would get paid the same
Speaker 1: as public school teachers. My plan pays childcare workers like
Speaker 1: the professionals. They are more training, higher standards, and much
Speaker 1: better pay. These childcare workers are disproportionately black and brown women,
Speaker 1: and they have been undervalued and underpaid for far too long,
Speaker 1: how do we pay for this all? She says, higher taxes,
Speaker 1: and her argument for doing that is that when we
Speaker 1: help women secure your affordable childcare, and when we pay
Speaker 1: women to do the work of raising our kids, everybody benefits.
Speaker 1: The economists that Moody's estimate that making childcare more affordable
Speaker 1: would boost the US GDP by seven hundred billion dollars
Speaker 1: over ten years. Even if you don't agree with this plan,
Speaker 1: that's a big economic stimulus. Next week on The Paycheck,
Speaker 1: The Secret to Women's equality. Men, how do you handle
Speaker 1: family responsibilities during work? Come? Come here? What would I
Speaker 1: do if you poop your pants at school? Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, I don't poop my pants because I'm a
Speaker 1: second career. But if I did, um, you would probably
Speaker 1: tell momm and have her come take me up. That's right.
Speaker 1: I would probably tell my wife to go pick him up.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to The Paycheck. If you like the show,
Speaker 1: please head on over to Apple pod Casts or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to rate, review, and subscribe. This show was
Speaker 1: reported and hosted by me Rebecca Greenfield and reported by
Speaker 1: Tomoko Yamazaki and Singapore Andrea Colonso and Manila and Janet
Speaker 1: Paskin in New York. Translation was provided by Bloomberg's localization
Speaker 1: team in Global Data. This episode was edited by Janet
Speaker 1: Paskin and produced by Liz Smith. We also had production
Speaker 1: help from Samantha Gatzick, Billian Goodman, Francesca Levi, Stephanie Fawn,
Speaker 1: and Jody Schneider. Our original music is by Leo Sidron.
Speaker 1: The illustrations which you can find on our show page
Speaker 1: at bloomberg dot com. Slash the Paycheck are by Pamela
Speaker 1: Guest and thanks to all the moms we spoke to
Speaker 1: for the show. Francesca Levy is Bloomberg's head of Podcasts