Unpaid hours, unseen value: how gender inequity still distorts today’s labour markets
Gender inequity analysis
The recent Air Canada strike offers a striking example of how female-dominated work remains undervalued. Even in an era of advancing gender equity, a stubborn truth persists: women worldwide continue to perform far more unpaid hours than men, reinforcing enduring economic disparities.
This invisible burden, the time spent on domestic care, emotional labor, and household responsibilities, doesn’t just shape households; it reshapes the labor market itself.
The Hidden Divide: Unpaid Labor and Its Toll
Women bear more than three-quarters of unpaid care work globally, devoting on average 3.2 times more hours than men to tasks that go uncompensated and unrecognized. When women juggle paid employment with unpaid responsibilities, the dual demands strain time, well-being, and career momentum, especially during key life stages like parenthood.
Studies show unpaid labor has tangible consequences on mental health and quality of life, especially for women. Moreover, the so-called motherhood penalty (the reduction in earnings, promotions, and employability faced by mothers) is well documented. Each child may bring up to a 5% hit to a mother’s wages; hiring biases and reduced evaluation follow suit.
The notion of “invisible labor” underscores how daily emotional and logistical management, often performed by women, remains undervalued, silently driving households and workplaces alike.
Impacts on the Labor Market
Wage and Opportunity Gaps
Though women have made strides in education and employment, they generally still earn about 20% less per hour than men in countries like the U.S. When women enter previously male-dominated fields, average pay often drops, an insidious pattern of occupational devaluation.“Greedy Work” Culture
Certain high-value sectors reward overwork, long hours, constant availability. Few women (or especially mothers) engage in these roles, making flexibility not just a convenience but a gender-equity imperative. Demands for predictability and shared workloads could help close the wage divide.Broader Inequities Across Systems
Women’s unpaid load means less time for promotion, upskilling, or networking, all vital for career progression. The result: systemic disparities that persist even when surface indicators like education appear balanced.
The Path Forward: Policy and Structural Fixes
1. Enact Pay Transparency Laws
Places like the UK with mandatory gender-equality reporting have seen pay gaps shrink by ~18%, driven largely by firms lowering men’s wages to achieve parity and increased wage posting in job ads.
2. Embrace Family-Friendly Work Reforms
Flexible hours, job-sharing, part-time options, robust parental leave, and on-site childcare can redistribute unpaid labor. These policies help families while fostering gender equity in careers.
3. Tackle Gender Roles and Care Norms at Scale
Public education campaigns and social policies can shift views on caregiving, promoting shared responsibility at home and valuing care as economic work.
4. Normalize “Earner–Carer” Models
Encourage both parents to balance earning and caregiving, shifting the narrative away from the outdated “primary caregiver/secondary earner” model. This approach maximizes equity and supports women’s labor-market engagement.
What Staffing Firms Can Do to Close the Gap
Staffing agencies hold a unique position; as intermediaries between employers and workers, they can reshape norms and influence practices:
Mandate pay-range transparency in job postings they handle.
Promote flexible-placement options, including part-time, remote, or split-shift roles.
Prioritize unbiased evaluation, removing indicators tied to gaps in employment (e.g., for mothers) and instead emphasizing skills and results.
Offer resources for career returners, such as training, re-onboarding, and mentorship for women returning from caregiving breaks.
Support employer education on the motherhood penalty and unconscious bias, helping client firms understand and correct skewed hiring and promotion patterns.
The Bottom Line
The struggle over unpaid work isn’t just a personal dilemma; it’s a structural challenge, deeply embedded in our economic systems. Women’s disproportionate unpaid burdens package themselves into wage disparities, lost opportunities, and stagnating careers.
But change is possible. By pushing for transparency, flexibility, and cultural reform, and by empowering staffing firms as agents of equity, we can begin to redress the unpaid inequities that ripple through our labor market.
It’s not about leveling the playing field; it’s about remaking the rules entirely.
Write to: Minh Dang mdang@staffingjournal.ca