Photo: CFP

A political advisor's proposal during China's two sessions this year calling for raising the amount of economic compensation for full-time housewives has stirred up heated discussions on China's social media. 

Huang Qi, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), proposed that the Supreme People's Court should issue judicial interpretations and guideline opinions to quantify and monetize housework and raise full-time housewives' economic compensation during divorce because the current compensation is usually not enough in practice. 

According to Huang, despite that the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China has improved by stipulating that stay-at-home housewives should be compensated economically when getting a divorce for their devotion to their families, such as doing housework, taking care of children and senior family members and sacrificing their careers, it is difficult to practice the stipulation. 

Article 1088 of the Civil Code stipulates that "Where one spouse is burdened with additional duties for raising children, looking after the elderly, or assisting the other spouse in his/her work, they said spouse has the right to request for compensation upon divorce against the other party, and the other party shall make due compensation."

The reason for the situation is that it is very difficult in practice for the courts to evaluate the value of housework which is not a social work, whereas economic compensation is meant to measure housework in the monetary value. 

Although there were a few legal precedents after the Civil Code was enacted, the amount of compensation in these cases is not enough. 

Thus, Huang proposed that the Supreme People's Court should issue judicial interpretations, guideline opinions and some guideline precedents in quantifying and monetizing housework. 

The factors that can be taken into consideration include how many years the couple has been married, how many children they have, the health condition of the elderly family members, whether the housewife has a part-time job or not, and whether the housewife sacrificed her career for the marriage. 

Huang also pointed out that the amount of the joint property of the spouse should also be taken into consideration when deciding the proportion of the wife's contribution.

A woman in Beijing received a 50,000-yuan compensation for household labor during divorce proceedings in February 2021. It was the first time for a divorce case to reach such a decision in China after the Civil Code was enacted. The case triggered heated discussions on Chinese women's status on Chinese social media.

Despite the growing calls for protecting full-time housewives' legitimate rights and interests in recent years, Huang's proposal still stirred controversy online with netizens' opinions divided. 

Some netizens think the proposal is particularly necessary since the economic compensation for both full-time housewives and full-time husbands in the past was not enough. 

Some netizens also expressed concerns about the fairness of the proposal. One netizen said although doing housework is making contribution to the family, so is working outside. The netizen pointed out that the key to this issue is that it is very difficult for housewives to start working again after they get divorced, so they need compensation.

Global Times