2.1
This inquiry into work and care has brought to the fore cultural and social inequalities in our society which are reflected in our workplace structures and systems. This report considers the impact of these inequalities and structural barriers at each stage of people's lives, with particular focus on the experiences of women, as well as specific demographic groups and community sectors.
2.2
This chapter explores the ways in which the socio-economic devaluation of care work, and in particular care work undertaken by women, has entrenched gender and other inequalities in our workplaces. This chapter considers the impact of these inequalities throughout people's lives, revealing a lifelong pattern whereby the cost of care is disproportionately borne by women through lower wages, insecure employment and low retirement incomes.
2.3
The committee acknowledges recent reforms to Paid Parental Leave (PPL) and other arrangements as significant steps forward.
2.4
The policy goal of raising women's workforce participation coupled with piecemeal reforms and incentives have not addressed the underlying systemic issues and barriers faced by women workers with caring responsibilities. Policies have also not addressed the stresses and burdens of the 'double-day' for workers with caring responsibilities.
2.5
While women are engaged in the paid labour force at a greater rate than ever before, the terms and conditions of that participation remains inequitable, as women are predominantly in work that is part-time, low-paid and precarious. Furthermore, as the committee noted in its Interim Report, women are also overrepresented in lower paid, 'female-dominated' industries including the health, childcare and aged care, disability support and retail and hospitality sectors.
2.6
All Australians require care over the course of their lives. The key question before the committee is how the need for adequate care is provided within the constraints of a workplace structure and system that is not designed for working carers. The committee noted in its Interim Report that addressing the inequitable gender structures that underpin our workplace system and the unpaid care economy requires, as a starting point, placing care at the heart of policy design. It also requires valuing and supporting unpaid care and providing incentives for it to be shared more equitably. This report considers a range of reforms, including structural reform, to address these matters.
Socio-economic value of care
2.7
Care is a social and community responsibility and serves as a key component of our social contract—the care of others is a collective social responsibility. As Ms El Gibbs noted in her submission, care is 'often seen as an individual, private, act' and yet care is something we do together, 'for the communities we are part of'. Similarly, the Antipoverty Centre made the point that care is a communal act of reciprocity that 'develops and maintains bonds for a healthy community'. Care is recognised as part of the fabric of society and integral to social development.
2.8
Associate Professor Elizabeth Hill drew on research which demonstrated that care serves as a foundation of a good society and dynamic and prosperous economy, noting:
High quality care, both paid and unpaid, enables the development of human capabilities, wellbeing and economic productivity, whereas inadequate investment in care infrastructure, including both our services and workforce, weakens our economy, exacerbates inequalities and leaves communities vulnerable.
2.9
The reality is that everyone will require care at various stages of—or throughout—their life, and many of us will provide some form of care to loved ones or friends at various stages. As Ms Gibbs explained:
We all move between these states of well and sick throughout our lives, moving in and out of caring and being cared for. For those of us who are sick and disabled, we are not separate from other citizens, but essential parts of our community. The care we give and receive is how those communities are built and grow.
2.10
Access to, and the provision of care in Australia affects both the quantity and quality of the labour force as well as the pattern and rate of economic development. Evidence to the committee revealed that our economy is reliant on the continuation of unpaid care which underpins the formal care workforce and workplace structures. Yet, many workplace policies and practices in Australia remain inflexible, thereby limiting the choices and opportunities for workers to balance caring responsibilities with work obligations.
2.11
This point was made by several submitters to the inquiry, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) as well as the Victorian Branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation which argued that current workplace laws remain inadequate in supporting the needs of employees to balance work and care responsibilities. In this regard, the ACTU argued that workplace laws aimed at directly addressing the historical undervaluation of work in female-dominated sectors had largely failed.
2.12
The committee was told how decades of care and support policy reform in Australia have 'devolved' responsibility for social service provision (including care and support services) from the state to the market, voluntary and not‑for‑profit sectors.
2.13
This trend, coupled with a shift in 'risk and responsibility' away from the state and onto individuals and families in relation to financial security, care, and support, has left workers to manage the care of others in their own time and at their own financial and employment‑related expense and often at the cost of their own health and wellbeing, or that of those they care for.
Economic contribution of Australia's unpaid carers
2.14
As a starting point, unpaid care is seen as informal and unskilled. As it is not recognised in mainstream economics and is devalued accordingly, it remains largely invisible in national data. As it is often considered to be 'non-work', government spending on care and carers is seen as a cost rather than an investment.
2.15
The resulting economic inequality experienced by unpaid carers remains a structural feature of our economy, and the significant contribution that unpaid carers make to the social and economic wellbeing of the nation is overlooked. Yet, our economy relies on unpaid care work to function and its unpaid care labour force to drive productivity. It is an essential foundation of our economy.
2.16
The contribution of Australia's unpaid carers (comprising one in every 10 Australians) to the economy and society is substantial. In monetary terms, unpaid care work in Australia has been estimated to amount to $650.1 billion per annum—the equivalent of 50.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Of this, Australians aged over 65 years contribute an estimated $39 billion per year in unpaid caring and voluntary work. Deloitte estimated that in 2020 alone, 2.2 billion hours of unpaid care was provided by 2.8 million informal carers at an estimated value of $78 billion.
2.17
However, unpaid care work is not included in the calculation of GDP. There is a clear disjunction, therefore, between what is counted in GDP and what is both essential and valuable to our society.
2.18
At the same time, there are significant socio-economic costs borne by both carers and their families, including lost earnings for time out of paid employment to care for a loved one. In 2020, the lost earnings of unpaid carers were estimated at $15.3 billion, or 0.8 per cent of GDP.
2.19
The economic impact on lifetime income and retirement savings for informal carers is substantial. Estimates suggest that the most affected 10 per cent of carers who undertake unpaid care for extended periods will forego at least $940 000 in lifetime income and $444 500 in superannuation.
2.20
The lack of social and economic value placed on care work was described by the Australian Human Rights Commission in the context of childcare:
There are a range of payments and tax benefits to support individuals with childcare responsibilities. However, these do not adequately reward the considerable benefit this care provides to communities and the economy, nor do they compensate for the serious financial penalties that result from these responsibilities. Despite its significant contribution to the economy, the care of children still does not have the status or value of paid work. Indeed, this is clear in the very conception of the superannuation system, which does not recognise the care of children as a form of work.
'A woman's work is never done … I don't stop (Take care of everyone)'
2.21
As the committee's Interim Report revealed, the reality for women in Australia today is that they are far more likely than men to take on informal, unpaid care. Care activities are disproportionately absorbed by women at home, at work, in communities and social organisations. For many women, this work is additional to paid employment, thereby creating a 'double burden' of work.
2.22
Throughout their lives, women are more likely to take time off work to care for children and parents, more likely to work part-time or in insecure positions, and are more likely to work in lower-paid jobs than men.
2.23
In taking on most of the responsibility for the care of children, as a case in point, women are often considered as the secondary income earner in their household. The unequal distribution of unpaid care work reflects and reinforces gender stereotypes regarding men as the primary earners and women as, primarily, carers.
2.24
The gendered division of labour which underpins our society and workplaces entrenches the unequal distribution of care. The more time women spend in unpaid care work, the lower the female workforce participation rate. Put differently, unpaid care work is a major factor in determining whether women enter and stay in paid employment, and it constrains their hours of work. It also determines the quality of their work. In fact, the provision of more than 10 hours of care per week significantly reduces a carer's likelihood of being in paid employment.
2.25
The disproportionate burden of unpaid care in Australia has serious and unequal consequences for women at every stage of their lives, including in relation to:
education, including higher studies;
entering the paid workforce for the first time and re-entering the workforce;
workplace participation and job security including equal pay with men for equivalent work;
career stability, progression and promotion, including securing leadership roles;
pregnancy, maternity, and parental leave;
superannuation and financial security (including lost earnings during periods out of the workforce);
divorce and separation; and
retirement and housing security.
2.26
Women disproportionately exit the workforce after the birth of a child to take on the additional unpaid care load. Furthermore, when children are born and the overall domestic workload increases, men's time on housework tends to decline. Even as children grow, this imbalance is 'never fully rectified, with women's workforce participation remaining lower for all age groups through to retirement'. In fact, unpaid care work is the most significant contributing factor to the gender gap in retirement savings and retirement income in Australia.
2.27
The unequal burden of care work has a direct impact on women's opportunities and choices, including the ability to secure any form of paid employment. It also has serious and unequal consequences for women in relation to their own wellbeing, physical and mental health, and sense of self‑worth.
2.28
In this regard, submitters made the point that the nature of care is such that it is continuous and unpredictable, unrelenting and must often be prioritised over other activities. It can also significantly change family dynamics, as one submitter, juggling higher studies and work with care of her mother explained:
I constantly feel like I am not giving enough to my work, or my study. My relationship with mum has become strained as her demands increase and my time with her is no longer spent as mother and daughter but as nurse, maid, servant, and coordinator.
The costs to men of an inadequate system
2.29
The negative consequences of combining a job with caring responsibilities are not confined to women. Many men currently care for children, older parents and others needing care. They struggle with similar costs, barriers and inflexibility that affect women. However, as the data shows, the main consequences disproportionately affect women, given the disproportionate level of care they undertake.
2.30
Many men would also like the opportunity to provide more care to their children and loved ones, alongside their jobs. However, their longer hours and the cultural norms and expectations of their jobs frequently prevents this.
2.31
The committee heard evidence about the circumstances of young men and women caring for family members and its impact upon their physical and mental health and their participation in education and work.
2.32
Improvements in work and care architecture must assist both men and women to participate in both work and care over their lives.
Piecemeal approach, disincentives, and policy tensions
2.33
The committee acknowledges that efforts to increase women's labour force participation have led to some significant improvements. These include PPL schemes and other recent reforms, steps to enforce the right to request flexible work arrangements and childcare support. The committee also recognises that many employers have policies and practices in place to support employees with caring responsibilities.
2.34
However, evidence to the committee highlighted the way in which several policies and standards act as a disincentive to workforce participation, alongside other obstacles and challenges. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) argued that that policies and strategies in place that seek to support employees with caring responsibilities have 'not yet translated into improved outcomes for women in the workplace or a more equal division of work and care between women and men'. Childcare is a primary example, with a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey finding that of the 1.8 million people who wanted to work, over 160 000 of them identified caring for children or others as the primary barrier to working. Of these respondents, 70 per cent were women.
2.35
Ms Shelby Schofield from the Office for Women highlighted the consequences for women:
Unaffordable and inaccessible care options are a significant barrier to women entering and increasing their employment. Australia's care workforce is female dominated and low paid relative to other industries. This partly reflects the undervaluation of women's care by employers and institutions. Australia's undervaluation of women's work has masked the costs of care, distorted expectations around appropriate funding for essential care and early childhood education services and hindered our ability to plan for and meet Australia's care workforce needs.
2.36
Evidence to the committee emphasised the importance of reducing current disincentives to increasing women's workforce participation—with particular focus on amendments to personal tax, family benefits and childcare support systems. These disincentives, some of which result from a piecemeal approach to care or are unintended consequences of the interaction between tax settings and the provision of benefits and services, are explored in greater detail in the chapters that follow.
2.37
The Work + Family Policy Roundtable (Roundtable) argued that the systemic problems with the undervaluation of feminised sectors and wage discrimination across all sectors of the labour market highlight 'that our industrial relations systems do not deliver adequate outcomes for women and need to be reformed’. The concern remains that the continued dependence on unpaid care work to compensate for inadequate or expensive public services will widen the gender gap further.
2.38
One of the key themes in evidence to the committee throughout the inquiry was the need to move away from a piecemeal approach to the complexities of work and care in favour of a holistic, whole-of-government approach which takes into consideration the experience of working carers, those they care for and employers. As Dr Yvette Maker argued, rather than take a holistic approach to care that encompasses all relevant stakeholders and activities, policy in Australia has tended to favour one activity (informal care or paid care) or constituency (carer or person receiving care) over the other. She argued that consequently, individuals' access to resources and choices about how they live their lives are constrained.
2.39
Many structural inequalities have been inadvertently reinforced in policy and workplace practices. The committee notes in this regard that until recently with the passage of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act in December 2022, the only two National Employment Standards (NES) not enforceable under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Fair Work Act) were the right to request flexible working arrangements and to request unpaid parental leave. Recommendation 3 of the committee's Interim Report sought to amend the Fair Work Act accordingly and some steps forward have ensued. However, the recommendation to introduce a positive duty on employers to reasonably accommodate flexible working arrangements has not been acted upon. This report revisits and restates this recommendation.
2.40
The committee recognises the diverse impacts that work and care policies have on different demographic and population groups including migrant workers and those on temporary visas, older workers, sole parent workers, workers with disabilities, younger workers and First Nations workers. This report considers the specific experiences, challenges and needs of a number of these groups and sectors.
Increased workforce participation and the gender pay gap
2.41
Evidence before the committee revealed that as women's labour participation rate continues to rise, women are also working longer hours in paid employment while continuing to fulfil unpaid caring responsibilities.
2.42
The NES in Australia prescribes a 38-hour week. However, fewer workers in Australia are now working hours at the full-time standard, with more working either substantially shorter or substantially longer than the standard 38-hour week. In fact, 40 per cent of employed Australians (or two out of five) routinely work more than 38 hours a week. On average, workers in Australia are putting in 6.1 hours of unpaid overtime every week. At the same time, the majority of those working more than 38 hours are men, with one in ten employed men working more than 50 hours a week.
2.43
Long working hours have negative consequences for a worker's health, safety, and work-life balance. Gender equality is also regressed, as expectations that people work longer cannot be met by those with caring obligations, most commonly women. The expectation of longer working hours places women at a significant disadvantage in terms of earnings and promotion and can contribute to occupational segregation as working carers avoid long-hour occupations. This especially affects women's and carers' share of leadership, managerial and more senior jobs, with long term impacts on the gendered culture of such critical occupations.
2.44
There is a direct correlation between long working hours and high-paying jobs. The committee was informed that workers routinely working significantly more hours than the national standard are generally in senior, well-paid, high‑end and high-status jobs. It should be noted, in this regard, that men over the age of 55 are twice as likely as women to be in management in Australia while 'higher-paid management opportunities are almost exclusively reserved for full-time workers'.
2.45
The ramifications for women of these conditions were explained by Professor Lyndall Strazdins:
The problem is that most particularly senior, well-paid, high-end, high‑status jobs routinely work well beyond that [38 hours] in a working week. Then what you have is what is called a gender polarised labour market, where you have men working in long-hour jobs and women working in short-hour jobs. The long-hour jobs receive the rewards and high earnings. That's incentivised. The short-hour jobs receive poorer pay and conditions.
2.46
Research undertaken in Australia by Professor Strazdins and others, and internationally by academics including Liana Christin Landivar, demonstrate that work hours are not only correlated with income but are also linked to benefits offered in the workplace as well as opportunities for advancement and promotion, while also affecting the power to bargain for flexibility.
2.47
Landivar's research revealed that countries with shorter maximum weekly work hours have less work-hour inequality between spouses 'as each additional allowable overtime hour over the standard working week increased the work‑hour gap between couples by 20 minutes'. Her research demonstrates that inequality in work hours and gender inequality in labour supply are associated with country-level work-hour regulations. Countries that have not put enforceable measures in place to limit work-hour differences, through either regulation or incentive mechanisms to avoid extremely short or long hours, have greater inequality in employment hours.
2.48
Professor Strazdins explained that this gender gap in work hours has widened in Australia as women's labour force participation has grown:
In July 2010, on average, full-time Australian men worked 41.0 weekly hours compared with 35.8 hours for full-time women – a difference of about 4.1 hours more. This calculates out to 16.4 additional hours per month, or 180.4 hours per year, assuming 1 month leave. It represents a major, gendered, labour market advantage. This gender gap in working time has widened over the past decades, even as women's labour force participation has risen. Thirty years ago in Australia, full-time men worked an average of just 1.4 hours more than full-time women.
2.49
Within this context, evidence suggests that there is a tendency amongst men to use flexible working arrangements for 'performance enhancing purposes' by increasing their work intensity and working hours for reward (including income and promotion), but this can increase the prospect of work-family conflict. Social and cultural gender norms dictate that women, in direct contrast, are expected to increase their responsibility within the family when working flexibly, which can also potentially increase the scope for work-family conflict, but without any financial or other reward.
2.50
Professor Strazdins has analysed employment and women's healthy work hours thresholds (i.e. the hours of paid work and unpaid care worked before negative health impacts arise). Her analysis shows that when women work the same long hours as men and their unpaid care work is accounted for, their healthy work-hour threshold is considerably lower than men doing the same, and they end up compromising their own health trying to 'juggle' everything. According to her research, men's lower unpaid work gives them an invisible health advantage every week: with men able 'to work 13 hours more than an average woman before they compromise their mental health'.
2.51
As a long-hour job is impossible to combine with unpaid care, women are faced with the option of either cutting back on care to work long hours, or cutting back on work to fulfil care responsibilities. As there are only 24 hours in the day, women are forced into a difficult choice.
2.52
Professor Strazdins informed the committee that the incentivisation of long hours in the workforce has therefore created a system that immediately disadvantages women for these reasons, effectively creating a two-tier labour market. This has significant implications for working women—especially when considering that women are overrepresented in part-time work in Australia.
2.53
At the same time, Australians are increasingly working to, or returning to the workforce at, an older age. In April 2021, approximately 619 000 older Australians (aged 65 years and over) were employed in the labour force, of which 39 per cent were women. Over the last 20 years, the workforce participation rate of older Australians has more than doubled (from 6.1 per cent in 2001 to 15 per cent in 2021). This is amongst the most significant changes in labour participation patterns in recent years, especially amongst older women.
2.54
Previously, women who engaged in unpaid labour absorbed much of the responsibility for the provision of care, to the detriment of their own career aspirations. However, the growth of women's participation in the formal labour market coupled with the longer hours they are working, raises questions about the future of care in Australia and the future of women's health and wellbeing.
2.55
The future of care in Australia comes into greater focus when considering the number of people requiring informal care is set to grow by 23 per cent, from 1.25 million in 2020 to 1.54 million in 2030. How our society addresses the issue of care, now and into the future, has significant implications for the achievement of gender equality, with a significant risk that women will be confined to the double and disproportionate burden of work and care.
2.56
At the same time, however, the provision of support for female workers to manage their care responsibilities to participate in paid employment will not address the prevailing structural inequalities. Professor Marian Baird AO noted in this regard that the assumption that women will continue to provide unpaid care suits the current policy settings. She argued, however, that while it assumes that women will provide the care, 'it doesn't provide the policy framework in which that care can be provided'.
A way forward
2.57
A key theme of this inquiry, as reflected in the evidence to the committee, is negotiating the tension between efforts and policies to support the unpaid care work undertaken primarily by women and their equal participation in the paid workforce—without a substantial increase in working hours and a risk to health.
2.58
In considering these challenges, the committee acknowledges evidence which called for a comprehensive, whole-of-government policy approach which incorporates the experiences, views, and aspirations of working carers themselves. To this end, the committee emphasises the importance of recognising and addressing the differential impacts on women through different stages of their lives as well as First Nation people, migrants and refugees, disabled persons, those living in rural and remote communities and others in the community with divergent experiences.
2.59
The Roundtable argued that institutional support is required to 'allow women to fully engage in or access the paid employment they would like and that can provide them with economic security'. Many submitters argued for the need to rethink the sustainability of our current care infrastructure, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic which increased gender inequality and further hindered women's labour force participation. The point was made that our policy and regulatory settings are not fit for purpose given the gender composition of our labour market and the economic challenges we now face. It imposes costs on both men and women across their lives, and it has significant impacts upon our economy through its impacts upon labour supply and health budgets.
2.60
The reality is that in Australia today, women have increased their labour force participation rate more than men have increased unpaid care contributions. Estimates suggest, however, that if the gap between women's and men's labour participation rate were halved, households would be better off by an estimated $140 billion over 20 years.
2.61
The following chapters consider a range of mechanisms, reforms, programs and changes to provide greater opportunities for workers on various incomes with caring obligations. The committee considers these matters from the different perspectives of working carers at different stages of their lives, noting the important differences in the experience of different cohorts of society.