Unpaid work is substantial and unequally distributed, with women doing about 8.2 more hours per week than men, averaging 31 hours for women versus 22 for men in 2024, driven largely by housework.

The burden remains inequitable and cannot be shouldered by women alone while they participate in paid work; addressing it requires cultural shifts and policy actions to recognize and fairly distribute unpaid labor.

Mothers bear the majority of the rise in unpaid workload after childbirth, adding roughly 53 hours per week, while fathers’ increase is about 15 hours, and mothers’ paid work declines more than fathers’ increases.

Unpaid work is mainly domestic tasks: meal preparation (25%), housework (21%), shopping (8%), with childcare at 20% and adult care at 4%; volunteering makes up about 3%.

Australians collectively perform about 31 billion hours of unpaid labor annually, far exceeding paid work hours across sectors and nine times more than in healthcare and social assistance.

Unpaid domestic and caregiving labor constitutes Australia’s largest ongoing 'industry,' with roughly 31 billion hours yearly, dwarfing paid hours in major sectors like healthcare, social assistance, and construction.

Economic estimates of unpaid work vary; some put it at around $688 billion (about one-third of GDP), while other methods yield higher shares; women’s unpaid labor is valued higher per year than men’s ($40,092 vs. $25,636).

Overall estimates place unpaid work at roughly $1.1 to $1.6 trillion annually in Australia, representing about 40% to 58% of GDP, with women’s unpaid work estimated at around $40,092 per year.

Experts call for better, more frequent data on unpaid work and see potential in technology to alleviate the burden, provided there is government visibility and policy support, including promoting paternal leave to rebalance caregiving.

Over time, women have shouldered more of the mental load—planning and coordinating household activities—despite high workforce participation, with about 78% of respondents saying mothers usually handle this and 19% saying it’s shared.