SEPTEMBER 6 — At 6.30 every morning, a mother prepares breakfast for her children before getting ready for work. Her husband checks on his elderly mother, who has become increasingly dependent on them after a recent illness.

By the time the couple leave home, several hours of work have already been done. None of it appears on a pay slip. Yet without it, someone in the household may not be able to go to work. This is the reality of caregiving for many Malaysian families. It happens quietly at home and is usually treated as a family responsibility rather than economic activity.

But perhaps we need to look at it differently.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), Malaysians spend an average of 5 hours and 12 minutes a day on unpaid domestic and care work. Women shoulder a particularly large share, spending an average of 6 hours and 7 minutes a day. Caregiving can mean leaving work early, taking unpaid leave or eventually leaving employment. For a working person, a decision made around the family dining table can therefore affect income, career progression and financial security.

In June 2026, 7.11 million people were outside Malaysia’s labour force, while housework and family responsibilities accounted for 43.3  per cent of the reasons reported. Malaysia’s unemployment rate stood at 3.0  per cent and labour-force participation at 70.9  per cent. Women are particularly affected. DOSS’s 2025 Labour Force Survey found that women accounted for 69.5  per cent of people outside the labour force, equivalent to about 4.89 million women.

So instead of asking only, “Why aren’t more women working?”, perhaps we should ask: “What would make it possible for people to work while caring for those who depend on them?” In 2026, people aged 65 and above accounted for 8.4  per cent of Malaysia’s population, up from 8.0  per cent in 2025. Meanwhile, children aged 0 to 14 made up 21.2  per cent, down from 21.6  per cent. Malaysia is changing. Families are becoming smaller, people are living longer and working-age adults remain under pressure to earn. For the so-called “sandwich generation”, supporting ageing parents while raising children can become a difficult balancing act.

And someone must absorb the cost.

The cost is not only medicine, transport or care equipment. It is also the income that is never earned, the EPF contribution that is never made and the promotion that is postponed. Malaysia has begun to respond. The government is developing the Malaysia Care Strategic Framework and Action Plan 2026–2030, alongside efforts to strengthen care standards and professionalize the care workforce. There is also a target to train 50,000 skilled elderly caregivers by 2030.

These are important steps. But as Malaysia builds a formal care economy, we must not overlook the family members who provide care without recognition or pay. They may never describe themselves as caregivers. They may simply say, “He is my father.” That is why their contribution is easily overlooked.

Malaysia’s care debate must go beyond building facilities and training professional caregivers. We also need to protect the economic security of family caregivers through accessible respite care, appropriate care leave, flexible working arrangements, social protection and pathways back into employment.

For years, Malaysian families have quietly subsidised the economy through unpaid care, enabling children to grow, older people to remain supported and working-age adults to remain employed. Malaysia is beginning to build a more structured care economy. The next step is to ensure that the people providing that care are not left behind.

Because when a caregiver sacrifices income, career progression and retirement security to care for someone else, the cost of care does not disappear. Someone is still paying for it.

And too often, that someone is the caregiver.

*The author is from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Universiti Malaya.

**This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.