Man ordered to pay ex-wife R120k for housework over the course of marriage

The Chinese divorce court situated in Beijing has ordered a man to pay his wife $7,700 (roughly R120k) as part of the divorce agreement to compensate her for the housework she did over their five-year marriage.

Read: Nigerian man buys South African man a luxury car as compensation for impregnating his wife

This order follows after a new marriage law went into effect in China in January, which includes a clause stating that the spouse who spends more time raising the children and doing housework in a marriage is entitled to ask for compensation for that labour in a divorce. 

The Beijing man who requested the divorce, Chen, met his wife, whose last name is Wang, in 2010. The couple married in 2015 but started living separately in 2018, with their son living with Wang. But things changed when in 2020, Chen filed for divorce.

When this happened, the wife asked for a division of property and compensation for housework and childcare, saying Chen wasn't involved in housework or raising their son, which seems fair. 

But to make matters even juicer, she also reported that her husband had cheated on her.

When granting the divorce, the Beijing court gave the mother, Wang, custody of their son and ordered Chen to pay alimony of about $300 (R4,500) per month. But the court also ordered Chen to pay Wang a one-time payment of about $7,700 (R120k) for the housework.

The judge presiding over the case said that splitting a couple's assets in a divorce usually involved tangible assets, but he also added that:

 But one divorce lawyer spoke out and said that the amount the husband paid his wife was too low. 

According to a study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, women in China spend nearly four hours a day doing unpaid housework, as compared to men putting in about 1.5 hours. And it's not only an issue in China. Around the world, women are more likely to take on a disproportionate amount of unpaid labour like household chores and childcare.

China's new law is not its first marriage-related law to draw some international attention. Another new law in 2021 requires couples considering divorce to undergo a 30-day "cooling off" period before they file for divorce. 

In 2017, some divorce registration offices across China started requiring couples to take a "marriage and family exam" before they were granted a divorce. The exam asks questions like, "What responsibilities have you fulfilled to your family, and what do you think have you done well or not well?" In one case, a couple was denied a divorce because they scored too highly on the exam. 

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