Outsourcing Domestic Chores In Slovak Households ? Preconditions And Barriers

The article deals with the outsourcing of 11 types of domestic chores in order to better understand consumer behavior of Slovak households in a group of market services which could replace the unpaid work done in households. On the basis of data obtained by a primary research in Slovakia on the sample of 1,142 households, we have identified that Slovak households outsource mainly catering the food, vehicle maintenance services, services connected with reconstruction and repairs of dwelling and catering and preparing fuels for heating. On the other hand, activities such as cleaning and ironing are outsourced rarely. We have also investigated what factors households perceive as important for making decisions about outsourcing domestic chores for each category of housework. The outsourcing of certain domestic chores could be partially explained by household resource argument and also by demand capability argument. The barriers to outsourcing domestic chores are in categories catering the food, cleaning and laundry and ironing affordability and in all categories strong orientation of Slovak households toward self-service economy.