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Factsheet:
Balancing paid work and family responsibilities
Balancing paid work commitments and family responsibilities remains a major challenge for many Australians.
Women continue to carry the majority of unpaid work in Australia. Creating workplaces that support women and men to balance paid work and caring responsibilities is crucial to achieving gender equality. Flexible work and family friendly practices are also important to assist business in attracting and retaining quality staff.
Commissioner Broderick will continue to challenge the way Australians think about work and family balance by promoting the value of family-friendly work practices. The Commissioner will lead and contribute to achieving a national scheme of paid leave for parents in Australia. She will work with key stakeholders and advocate to government and other policy makers on the need for a world class scheme of paid maternity leave, supporting parent leave and paid parental leave.
Statistics
- Australia remains one of only two OECD countries without a legislated paid maternity leave scheme.
- Only one third of employed mothers access paid maternity leave, while the rest miss out - most of whom are on low incomes. 1
- Use of paid paternity or parental leave by male partners is even lower at 25 per cent. 2
- Over one in three men currently work 45 hours or more per week.3
Quotes from Listening Tour participants
- “All the women I know who have young children are exhausted most of the time. Feminism wasn’t about producing overworked women who are expected to bear children and to work as many hours as they can fit in so the family can survive.”
Entry on Listening Tour Website
- “You get criticised for putting [children] in child care and going back to work, but then you get sh... on by the government if you want to stay at home and be with them.”
Women’s Focus Group
- “The fact that we don’t have paid maternity leave is a disgrace. When my second child was born, my husband wasn’t working, so I had to go back to work after a caesarean after two days. I had no choice.”
Perth community consultation participant
- “Long hours are addictive. Working 60 hours a week becomes normal. In June we have a big spike of work, around 80 to 90 hours a week, but in August we tell people to go back to normal hours … Absenteeism in July, August and September is huge because everyone is sick.”
Men’s Focus Group
[1] Australian Bureau of Statistics Pregnancy and Work Transitions Australia Cat No 4913.0 Nov 2005. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Pregnancy and Work Transitions survey data, which is collected from birth mothers aged 15 years and over with at least one child less than two years of age living with them at the time of interview.
[2] Marian Baird, Gillian Whitehouse, Chris Diamond and Amanda Hosking, 'The Parental Leave in Australia Survey: November 2006 Report' (University of Queensland, 2006)
[3]Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Labour Market Statistics, Australia Cat No 6105.0 October 2007
