Beyond Wages
The Value of Care as an ‘Invisible’ Contribution… Unsplash
Women currently spend approximately 9 more hours weekly than men in unpaid care work,[1] with a third of the gender pay gap attributed to the time spent providing care.[2] Only 14 % of employer-funded care leave is taken by male counterparts,[3] leaving the informal and paid care workforces as strongly gendered, with insecure, low, or non-paid provisions of care. These disparities not only contribute to gender inequality, but more specifically foster an under-participation in full-time employment which can reduce GDP output calculations, perpetuating the gender pay gap and limit women’s lifetime earnings, including superannuation. Combined with the cost of childcare, financial disincentives, and systematic tax settings, a necessary contribution in supporting the functioning of society is more widely needed.
Current Redressing Polices
The current “Working for Women” strategy has established a culmination of legal reforms to work in tandem with each other,[4] centralised in aims and future directions of equality. Paid parental leave (‘PPL’) reforms have expanded government PPL from 20 weeks to 26 weeks per family by 2026 and altered the scheme so that PPL remains gender-neutral,[5] parents able to claim through the scheme to encourage greater uptake by male family members. Further, a major contributor to financial outcome differentiation remains the inability for women to earn superannuation while caring for young children,[6] but as of this financial year superannuation must be paid on government PPL, which aims to reduce the pension and retirement income gaps when time out of paid words perpetuates this inequality.
Recent reforms have strengthened rights to unpaid parental leave, or flexible working arrangements in changes to the Fair Work Act 2009,[7] more specifically that “breastfeeding” is now protected under the legislation. Cheaper childcare reforms in the ‘Early Years Strategy 2024-34’ is prioritising the wellbeing and development of children considering working parents,[8] with a view of universal access.
Future Direction of Unpaid Care
At the current rate of policy implementation and legal reform, it will take 123 years for equality to be obtained.[9] While the recent reforms as outlined above remain promising, challenges in implementation and weaknesses in the legal system. The laws enabling flexible work, better PPL entitlements and protections like breastfeeding only remain effective when they are enforced and taken up by employees. Informal workplace resistance persists, and fears of reputational or negative interpretation by colleagues and superiors often results in women choosing to abstain from accessing entitlements they have an innate right to.
Further, current tax system structures create ‘effective marginal tax rates’ for secondary earners (often women)[10] who are returning to work or increasing hours. While positive, reform is likely needed to adjust the threshold and mitigate the negative implications of childcare subsidies, tax, and other benefits so that the benefits of returning to work or caring schemes are not reduced by benefits of other schemes.
Legal policy also often assumes that a certain structure of community, childcare, and workplaces with flexible work are the norm, while not fully considering that carers in remote or rural areas, or with cultural or community restraints, may not have access to such infrastructure. In this regard, accessibility and entitlement need to be addressed together. Further, unpaid carers often have limited recognition in legal systems, given the informality of the nature of work. In this way, systematic protections are not afforded to these non-legally recognised carers, who may not have pension or superannuation protections. While superannuation while on parental leave remains a positive step, unpaid carers still face low financial resilience, and potential reforms could include recognition schemes that provide pension or carer’s allowances.
In a non-legal method of redressing the key labour issue, a shift in organisational structure and gender serotypes in workplace norms to remove the stigmatism surrounding flexible work, and that parental leave for both men and women is not professionally penalised, will allow for non-linear career paths to be more widely recognised.
Conclusion
Symbolic reform will not close Australia’s gendered care gap; reform that values care and removes economic penalties embedded in financial structures that disproportionality fall on women is required. The reforms under the “Working for Women – Priority Area 2” remain significant in leading this change, but without robust implementation and attention to secondary impacts such as tax, welfare, cultural barriers, and social norms will the burden be lifted.
[1] Australian Government, ‘Priority Area 2: Unpaid and Paid Care’ (Web Page, Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality, 2024) < https://genderequality.gov.au/working-for-women/priority-area-2-unpaid-and-paid-care>.
[2] Workplace Gender Equality Agency, ‘Fourth Edition of the She’s Price(d)less Report Released’ (Web Page, 13 July 2022) < https://www.wgea.gov.au/publications/fourth-edition-of-the-shes-pricedless-report-released>.
[3] Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Status of Families, June 2023 (Web Page, 24 October 2023) < https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-status-families/jun-2023#cite-window1>.
[4] Australian Government, Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality (Report, 2024).
[5] Australian Government, ‘Priority Area 2: Unpaid and Paid Care’ (Web Page, Working for Women: A Strategy for Gender Equality, 2024) < https://genderequality.gov.au/working-for-women/priority-area-2-unpaid-and-paid-care>.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
[8] Australian Government, Early Years Strategy 2024–34 (Report, 2024).
[9] World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2025 (Report, 11 June 2025).
[10] Productivity Commission, A Path to Universal Early Childhood Education and Care (Inquiry Report, 2024).