As described by The Let Down Reflex curators Amber Berson and Juliana Driever, “Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyên’s The Wages Due Song (2015) works through historic precedents of feminist calls to action, and attempts to create intergenerational solidarity while also seeing where new shifts in the politics of gendered labour and social reproduction can occur. In the 1970s, the collective Wages Due Lesbians supported the Wages for Housework campaign, which demanded compensation for domestic work and called attention to how capitalism exploits the affective labour of women. Feminist campaigners had protest songs to go with their demands: “If women were paid for all they do, there’d be a lot of wages due,” they sang. Based on the lyrics of The Wages Due Song, written by Boo Watson in 1974, Hoàng Nguyên presents a version of this sound piece made in collaboration with Thunder Tillman.”

As part of Care Crisis, Care Connective: An Open Forum on Cultural Work during Take Care’s first circuit, Hoàng Nguyên and Watson led a workshop aimed at exploring the history of the original Wages Due Song and imagining a new version to reflect today’s struggles.