The bar chart shows the distribution of Australian male and female workers by weekly workload. Overall, although men and women have equal participation rates in the most extreme over-80-hours bracket, men are generally more likely to clock more than 30 hours weekly. It is also clear that the 30-50-hour range contains the highest proportions of both genders.
In the shortest work weeks, 0-10 and 10-20 hours, women lead by a considerable margin. Around 15% of women fall into the former bracket, while the latter accounts for another 22%. The corresponding figures for men are about 10 percentage points lower, at roughly 5% and 12%, respectively.
Gender differences reverse in mid-range working hours. The 30-50-hour category includes the largest proportion of the country’s labor market, at a striking 43% for men and 35% for women. An additional 30% of men work even longer hours, at 60-80 hours, though the figure for women is significantly lower, at around 18%.
A sizeable share of both men and women work more than 80 hours every week, with identical figures of 10%.