Further information on unpaid care experimental estimates, sex and age estimates in the Labour Account, outcomes of the Consultation Hub process, and details on further plans and future directions can be found in Measuring unpaid care and modelling sex and age in the Labour Account.
1. The ABS was funded in 2024 to expand the Labour Account to provide estimates of the total hours spent on unpaid care and their monetary value.
These measures will improve the visibility of the contribution of unpaid care to society and the economy.
2. The ABS was also funded to model sex and age components to existing Labour Account data on paid work.
Sex and age estimates for existing Labour Account data provide a meaningful point of comparison with estimates of unpaid care.
3. Internationally, there isn’t a single definition of unpaid care.
There is a growing awareness of the need to produce unpaid care data and recognise the contribution of this work to the broader economy and society, alongside the extensive information on paid work.
4. The ABS has defined care work in Australia as activities and responsibilities involved in meeting the physical, psychological and emotional needs of care-dependent people.
Care-dependent people are those who require care to live independently due to functional limitations. These limitations may be due to age, such as young children or the elderly, or they may be due to a long-term health condition or disability.
5. All care activities are classed as either direct or indirect care.
Direct care involves hands on or face-to-face tasks, such as feeding or bathing. Indirect care provides the pre-conditions required for direct care, such as preparing food or transportation. Indirect care also includes some household-based tasks which form part of caring holistically for an individual, such as shopping and cleaning.
6. An important concept to valuing unpaid care is whether the caring activity could have been replaced by a third party paid service.
This ‘third-party criterion’ is used to determine whether an action is contributing to production within the economy.
7. The estimates of unpaid care presented include passive or secondary care hours.
Childcare in particular is often performed in conjunction with other activities, such as domestic or household-based tasks.
8. Estimates of hours spent on unpaid care activities are multiplied by an equivalent market replacement wage rate, to provide measures of the labour contribution of unpaid care.
Time series measures of three key replacement cost methods are presented for comparison.
9. The value of unpaid care using the individual function method was approximately $308.4 billion in September quarter 2024.
This compared with a minimum wage rate method value of $233.5 billion in September quarter 2024.
10. 9.7 billion hours were spent on unpaid care activities in September quarter 2024.
Total hours spent on unpaid care activities increased steadily over time, to stand at around 9.7 billion hours in September quarter 2024.
11. Females undertook more unpaid care than males.
The value of unpaid care undertaken by males was generally around half of that undertaken by females across the time series. Unpaid care provided by females was valued at $202.9 billion in September quarter 2024, while for males this was estimated at $105.5 billion.
12. Unpaid childcare was valued higher than unpaid adult care.
All childcare activities were valued at $171.7 billion in September quarter 2024. In contrast, adult care activities were valued at $136.7 billion in September quarter 2024.
13. The ABS will continue to review and refine its estimates of unpaid care, with a view to maturing our approach to measuring unpaid care in labour statistics over time.
Media notes
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