In light of ongoing discussions surrounding productivity, gender equality and the value of unpaid labour, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will ramp up its effort in collecting time use data.
This data, derived from the Time Use Survey, has the potential to significantly influence policy development across sectors such as employment, infrastructure, social services and gender equality, according to Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury, and Employment.
He has announced that the ABS will conduct the Time Use Survey on an ongoing basis starting this year.
The survey documents the time Australians spend daily on activities including paid and unpaid work as well as leisure activities.
Economist Dr Leonora Risse, an Associate Professor at the University of Canberra, says running the survey on a regular basis will help recognise the importance of care as a core component of the economy.
How Australians spend their time
How Australians over 15 years of age spend their time based is organised into four categories. These include:
- Necessary activities – On average, 10 hours and 35 minutes daily are devoted to essential tasks such as sleeping, eating, personal care, and health-related activities.
- Contracted activities – This category encompasses paid work and educational pursuits with an average time spent of around 3 hours and 40 minutes per day.
- Committed activities – Unpaid domestic work, childcare, adult care, and voluntary undertakings take up an average of 3 hours and 30 minutes a day.
- Free time activities – An average of 5 hours and 13 minutes each day are devoted to leisure activities, social interactions, and entertainment.
A breakdown of time allocation in the most recent Time Use Survey shows women involved in a disproportionate amount of unpaid work – something that affects total productivity.
Lisa Scanlon, Director of Social Surveys and Statistics for the ABS says that, on average, females spent more than 4.5 hours doing unpaid work activities. Males spent over an hour less on these activities, averaging 3 hours and 12 minutes a day.
The survey found 42 per cent of males spent time on housework, compared to 70 per cent of women. Overall, women spent an average of almost 1.5 hours compared to less than an hour for men.
Research into childcare activities also highlighted disparities with mothers spending an average of 3 hours and 34 minutes a day, and fathers 2 hours and 19 minutes.
Putting a dollar value on the hours spent on unpaid work and care adds up to Australian women, on average, each undertaking $771 worth of unpaid work weekly, says Dr Risse. Men’s unpaid work amounts to less than $500.
“This is activity that has productive value, but is not counted in official economic statistics,” she says.
Among those who participated in employment related activities, males spent 8 hours and 13 minutes a day on these activities, compared to 7 hours and 12 minutes by females.
Increasing productivity
Rising women’s workforce participation improves productivity particularly in areas where “human capital” or people skills matter, says Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood.
If you consider that women could potentially work nearly five more hours a week if unpaid work was evenly split, that adds up to another 260 productive hours a year per person.
Small businesses, in particular, can contribute to increased participation by offering flexible working arrangements and accessible childcare options.
Dr Risse says a higher women’s workforce participation rate can flow through to higher productivity, because we are seeing more women maintaining their workforce involvement, rather than dropping out especially after having children.
“These are the ingredients that boost labour productivity,” she says. “Supporting women to participate in the paid workforce, and spend less time on domestic work and care, also fuels productivity because it facilitates better skills-matching across the economy.
Dr Risse says this doesn’t take away from the immense importance of domestic work and care, which she described as ‘essential work’. “It means that, in addition, we support the workers whose strengths and skills are best suited to this type of work, to specialise in what they do best,” she says.. And that we fully recognise the economic value of this work.”
A 2022 report by KPMG examining recognition for unpaid work suggested several measures to increase gender balance in this area. These included: the introduction of a Carers’ Income Tax Offset for caregivers returning to work in recognition of the value of their unpaid work; ensuring employers are able to enact affirmative policies to provide workplace benefits to female employees, including superannuation guarantee contributions in the Commonwealth paid parental leave scheme; and increasing the number of weeks of paid parental leave to 26 weeks over a six year period. Investing in capital infrastructure may bolster output and counteract declines
The Productivity Commission says the 3.7% decline for the whole economy in 2022-23 underscores the importance of ensuring workers have adequate access to machinery, tools, and equipment to support their efficiency.
Reducing stress
Beyond economic implications, the Time Use Survey also sheds light on the prevalence of workplace stress.
More females (38%) reported always or often feeling rushed or pressed for time than males (32%), says Scanlon.
Females aged 35 to 44 years (55%) were the group most likely to report always or often feeling rushed for time.
People in couple families with children under 15 years (52%) were more likely to report feeling rushed or pressed for time than couple families with no children (29%).
Addressing workplace wellness, therefore, emerges as a pressing concern for businesses seeking to optimise productivity and employee well-being.
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