COVID hasn’t changed the way we use our time, but one group of women put a high price on theirs

The early evidence shows our time use, on average, has not changed much because of the pandemic.

A major new survey by the National Australia Bank compares household time use in December 2020 to June 2018.

A typical week day in late 2020 was not very different to pre-COVID overall, although we are sleeping a little less and spending more time on household chores and family duties. The average daily stint of paid work was very similar to 2018, although it’s likely those hours are now less structured for many employees because of the flexibility made possible by remote work. Time spent on leisure, both within and away from home, varied little between the two surveys which both included a representative sample of 2000 Australians.

“Some thought the disruptions to our daily lives caused by the pandemic would cause people to step back, to reassess, and maybe allocate their time a bit differently,” says Dean Pearson, an NAB economist who conducted the study. “But that just hasn’t happened – the latest results are remarkably close to what people said they did in a day in 2018.”

COVID-19 threw a spotlight on gender relations after lockdowns and school closures meant families had to manage additional household tasks including home-based learning.

But traditional patterns of housework appear to have survived the crisis. Women in all age groups are still spending much more time on “household chores and family duties” than men. The gender gap was largest among those aged 50-64 (8 hours a week) and smallest among those aged 18-29 (2.6 hours a week).

Research by Professor Lyn Craig, an expert in household time use at Melbourne University, shows unpaid work by men and women did shift during the hard lockdowns in Australia last May. But it did not herald a revolution in the way household tasks were distributed. While men spent more time on domestic and family duties, especially childcare, women shouldered most of the extra unpaid workload.

“The pandemic hasn’t engendered a great reconfiguration of the gender division of labour so far,” says Professor Craig.

Many families struggled to juggle the more onerous unpaid workload with their regular paid work during the pandemic lockdowns. But Craig’s research shows people felt less harried during that period.

For women, 58 per cent said they were “rushed or pressed for time” often or always before COVID-19 but that fell to 34 per cent during the lockdown. The share of men often or always feeling rushed or pressed for time fell from 42 per cent before the lockdowns to 37 per cent.

“Unpaid work went up a lot but it didn’t result in more time pressure,” says Craig.

She attributes the lower share of people feeling time-related stress to the lack of commuting, school drop-offs and other regular activities during the lockdown period.

But the NAB survey, which was conducted after the lockdowns, shows feelings of time-related pressure and stress have returned to pre-COVID levels.

Women felt under more time pressure than men across all ages. Women also rated their time stress higher than men. The group feeling the most time pressure and time-related stress was women aged 18-29 (men aged over 65 reported the lowest time pressure and stress).

Those with an annual income over $100,000 felt much more time stress than those earning between $35,000 and $50,000. Full-time students also reported feeling a very high level of time pressure compared with other groups although it was lower than in 2018. Time pressure was also much more apparent among those with children.

Loading

Separate research has found a “lack of time” and other time-related stresses are a major drag on overall personal wellbeing.

The NAB survey also asked how much people would pay to get one extra hour to themselves in a day. The average answer was $98, or about five times the minimum hourly wage.

When the same question was asked three years ago the average was 44 per cent lower at $68. The sharp increase is a sign we’re becoming more “time sensitive” says NAB’s Dean Pearson.

Women aged between 30 and 49 would pay the most, valuing the extra hour $207. That group also reported a much higher level of time stress than average. Women aged over 65 would pay the smallest amount for that extra hour – only $14.

The pandemic might not have changed the way we use our time but we do seem to be putting a higher value on it.