Women lose out on £126 billion per year due to unpaid work like childcare, study finds

Campaigners say the disparity between gender pay gaps is even greater when extra labour is taken into account, writes Maya Oppenheim

Researchers state women carry out a far higher proportion of unpaid tasks within households which include looking after children, unpaid care work for elderly or sick relatives, cooking and cleaning (PA)

Women lose out on £126bn a year due to doing unpaid labour such as childcare and household chores, according to a study.

The report, published by charity Pro Bono Economics, argues that women carry out a far higher proportion of unpaid tasks within households such as looking after children, care work for elderly or sick relatives, cooking and cleaning – meaning that the official gender pay gap substantially underestimates the scale of the problem.

The unpaid work undertaken by women aged 16-65 was estimated to be worth £4,840 more per year than the unpaid work done by men of the same age bracket.

The UK’s working-age women are losing out on £126bn each year in total – almost half of the £267bn paid to female employees last year.

Researchers argue the coronavirus crisis could revolutionise people’s attitudes to paid forms of work carried out in the public sphere versus unpaid work done in the home.

Matt Whittaker, chief executive of Pro Bono Economics who is one of the report’s authors, said: “The transformative effects of the crisis should not be underestimated. Millions of people now find themselves reliant on the state for their income, and there is a new respect for men and women working in lower-paying roles – from nurses to supermarket cashiers to refuse collectors. Family dynamics are also shifting as parents juggle the demands of home-working and childcare, and there is an upsurge in volunteering as people support efforts to tackle the crisis at both a national and a neighbourhood level.

“There is, then, a real possibility that the UK will ultimately emerge from today’s turmoil a more united country. We are likely to achieve a greater understanding of the economic pressures arising from entirely unexpected changes in circumstances, and consequently a greater understanding of each other.

“The lockdown might also lead to a change in attitudes to the balance between paid work and home life, and between the demands of economic ‘activity’ and the need for a focus on wider wellbeing. Ultimately, we have the chance not simply to return to normal, but to return to something better.”

Only 9 per cent of those polled for the research said they wanted to keep the present unequal balance of unpaid labour across men and women.

Researchers noted women made up 47 per cent of all those in paid employment and 50 per cent of all employees before the coronavirus outbreak. But they are also substantially more likely to be in precarious, insecure low-paid forms of work – comprising 74 per cent of people working part-time, 54 per cent of people on a temporary contract, 56 per cent of people on a zero-hours contract, and 61 per cent of low-paid employees.

Author and campaigner Caroline Criado Perez said: “Women’s unpaid work has, historically, been invisible. Excluded from official GDP figures, it has been taken for granted by successive governments, and seen as a costless resource to exploit.

“An accurate measure of the economy is crucial to drawing up effective economic policy; by depending on a GDP figure that is compromised by a gender data gap, successive governments have allocated resources inefficiently. This has compounded women’s over-representation in low-paid, part-time and insecure work, and had a knock-on negative effect on tax revenue. It has also made women more exposed to the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, which has magnified already existing social inequalities.

“But there is room for hope. Covid-19 has forced the UK to reckon with the huge amount of unpaid and low-paid work this country relies on, and which is predominantly done by women. Meanwhile, the new data presented in this report shows that a majority of us are open to recognising the true value of ‘women’s work’. By making this work more visible than ever, this pandemic brings with it the hope that we can return to something better than normal. All we need is the data – and the political will to act on it.”

Last month, a report by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) found women work an average of two months for free each year due to the UK’s gender pay gap, which is 17.3 per cent.

A recent study by Fawcett Society, a leading women’s rights charity, found men dominate every sector of public life and equality for women remains “generations away” because progress on gender equality is “dismally slow”.

The report warned the under-representation of women in politics, the law, trade unions, the civil service, charities, professional institutions, and sports bodies is “consistent and persistent” and gender equality is “alarmingly” worse for women of colour who are totally absent from senior positions in many sectors.