The Fact
Administrative-burden research identifies three recurring costs imposed on people dealing with institutions: learning costs, compliance costs, and psychological costs.
What This Means
A bill, insurance claim, benefits application, medical portal, tax form, or service problem can require hours of unpaid work before the underlying issue is even solved. People must learn the system, gather and submit information, and absorb the frustration and cognitive load. That is real household labor even though nobody pays the household for doing it.
Sources
- Herd, Pamela, and Donald P. Moynihan. Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2018.