The burden of unpaid work still falls unfairly

September 7, 2026 — 5:00am

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Australia’s biggest industry has no payroll, operates 24 hours a day and almost every adult contributes, but there are no payslips, job descriptions or regulated hours and there is no reliable measure of who manages the work.

The unpaid labour involved in cooking meals, washing clothes, caring for children and maintaining homes makes the rest of the Australian economy possible.

But in research that shows some things change, some don’t, Gianni La Cava, an economist at the e61 Institute, found 31 billion hours of unpaid labour were performed each year in Australia – between nine and 14 times more than the time spent on the largest sectors for paid hours: healthcare, social assistance........

© The Sydney Morning Herald