Unpaid Work : The Hidden Backbone of Society and Why It Matters

Unpaid work, cooking, cleaning, caring, volunteering, emotional labour, is the unacknowledged foundation of daily life. It sustains families, communities, and economies, yet remains invisible in national statistics, undervalued by policymakers, and disproportionately borne by women. See the data here!

In the UK, it is time to recognise that this hidden infrastructure is essential, and its effects on people’s health, finances and lives are profound.

The Scale of the Work: How Much, and Who Does It?

Official time-use data shows that UK women perform 60 percent more unpaid work than men. Women do around 26 hours a week, compared to 16 hours for men, across cooking, childcare, laundry, caring and other responsibilities Office for National Statistics. Another source finds that on a typical day, women do 1 hour 50 minutes more unpaid work than men, part of a wider imbalance in paid and unpaid responsibilities Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Nearly half of working-age women provide an average of 45 hours of unpaid care per week, compared to 17 hours for men, a study estimates is equivalent to £382 billion worth of childcare in economic value The Guardian. Carers UK estimates some 10.6 million unpaid carers in the UK, saving the economy tens of billions annually.

These numbers reflect more than just a disparity in hours, they expose a gendered discrepancy in what counts as “work”, who is expected to do it, and who benefits.

Physical and Mental Toll: The Human Cost of Unpaid Work

Unpaid work isn’t just time off the clock, it carries real, often damaging consequences.

Nearly half of unpaid carers report adverse health effects: 32.6 percent feel tired, 30.1 percent experience stress, and 23.8 percent suffer from disturbed sleep (Office for National Statistics).

Sandwich carers, those juggling children and ageing relatives, experience lasting mental and physical health declines, especially when caring more than 20 hours a week; these effects can last up to eight years (Financial Times).

Mental health effects of unpaid labour are significantly skewed by gender: women who spend long hours on housework or childcare report higher psychological distress levels, an association seen particularly in mothers and lone mothers (PMCBritish Psychological SocietyScienceDirect).

Beyond health, the pressure of caregiving leads many to sacrifice their own medical appointments: in one survey, 40 percent of current carers delayed or missed treatment, and 58 percent say caring responsibilities harmed their health options; women report this at 64 percent, compared to 52 percent of men (Carers Week).

Economic Impact: How Unpaid Work Undermines Financial Security

Because unpaid work is invisible, women carrying this load lose out financially. For instance, carers receive a mean private pension of £6,750, just 49 percent of the UK average of £8,500 MoneyWeek. Many carers rely almost entirely on the state pension and face lower employment and earnings due to care commitments.

Women’s unpaid work also shows up in energy poverty: older women living alone, often burdened by unpaid domestic responsibilities, face higher energy costs and winter mortality rates.

Moreover, unpaid domestic work contributes to the gender pay gap, effectively making women work unpaid weeks each year compared to men, especially younger, part-time, or low-paid women ActionAid UKTUC.

Social Patterns and Structural Roots: Why It Falls Unequally

Unpaid work remains gendered due to longstanding norms and systemic factors:

• Invisible and undervalued labour: Unpaid work is often seen as a woman’s domain—“invisible labour” that is essential but overlooked

• Gendered expectations: Social norms still expect women to care, even when working full time or studying

• Policy gaps: The UK’s care system and labour regulations treat unpaid care as secondary. Carer support is limited, benefits are inadequate, and rights like carer’s leave are unpaid

  
  

Invisible Burden: Unpaid Work and Gender Inequality

Unpaid work amplifies inequality across multiple domains:

• Career and earnings: Time spent on unpaid work reduces the ability to work full time, advance in careers, or invest for the future.

• Wellbeing: Social isolation, mental and physical health decline, and exhaustion disproportionately affect unpaid workers, especially women.

• Aging and care: In later life, the unpaid work carried by women does not translate into pension credits or financial security, leaving many elderly women in poverty MoneyWeek.

• Opportunity costs: Girls and young women often leave school or skip opportunities to focus on caring, perpetuating the cycle of economic disadvantage ActionAid UK.

Recognition, Support and Redistribution

Addressing the unpaid work crisis in the UK requires a multi-pronged approach:

Recognise unpaid work as work. Policies must value domestic and care labour, not treat it as invisible or secondary.

Reduce the burden through infrastructure: invest in affordable and accessible childcare, eldercare and time-saving public services.

Redistribute care more equitably within households, communities and the state. This includes promoting shared caregiving responsibilities and restructuring benefits to support carers.

Enable representation: carers—especially marginalised ones—must influence the policies that affect them, through consultative processes and rights-based frameworks.

Some policies are emerging: the UK’s new right to carer’s leave is a step forward, though unpaid leave risks excluding lower-income workers and reinforcing gender bias The Guardian. Employers are starting to offer paid carer’s leave and flexible working, recognising the value of retaining carer employees.

Policy proposals like a family carer’s pension top-up, and removing enrollment thresholds for carers, could bolster carers’ future financial security. Calls for respite care and flexible work policies aim to ease mental health burdens for sandwich carers.

The Feminist Imperative: Why Unpaid Work Matters

Unpaid work is not fringe, it is foundational. Yet it remains one of the clearest manifestations of gender inequality and structural oversight.

Feminist principles demand that unpaid work be recognised and redistributed. Economic justice cannot be served unless we account for the unseen labour that underpins households and economies. Honouring care means reshaping policy, culture, and workplaces to value all work, seen and unseen.

The unpaid work crisis is not inevitable, it is the product of choices. The UK can choose recognition, reduction, redistribution and representation over neglect. That would be a landmark step toward equality, care and human dignity.

August 2025