Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics

Abstract

Certain types of work-like behavior are not treated as paid labor in the law and are therefore not taxed or given workplace protections and are often not understood to be work by ordinary people. This kind of “invisible work” is exceedingly common. It encompasses not only the frequently discussed example of household labor, but also the work, or some of the work, of athletes, soldiers, students, artists, volunteers, religious and political figures, and consumers who implicitly trade work—and money—for products and services. Invisible work is the product of cultural understandings left over from the past or manufactured by businesses, which become a source of monopsony power and enable employers to push down wages, often to zero. Workers and their advocates can push back by reclassifying invisible work as real work; which is to say, to commodify it.

Number

25-22

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