Work-life interaction in the twenty-first century Australian workforce: Five years of the Australian Work and Life Index

Australia is known colloquially as the ‘lucky country’, a place that values equality, a ‘fair go’ and the good life. But to what extent does this historical identity reflect the realities of modern day Australian life? This article draws on nationally representative data from five waves of the Australian Work and Life Index to examine contemporary working life for employed Australians. We find that a strong gender divide remains with regard to work–life pressures and demands. When working comparative hours, women consistently report higher work–life conflict in general, time pressure in particular, than men. This gender difference is strongest for working parents. Even with their substantially shorter hours, working mothers report equivalent work–life conflict to working fathers. With regard to employment factors, long hours (45+) were clearly not preferred for the majority of workers and were consistently associated with worse work–life conflict. Occupations where long hours are typical, such as managers and professionals, also report the highest work–life conflict. The worst outcomes for the entire sample are observed for mothers working long full-time (45+) hours. Self-employment was not associated with better work–life outcomes. Indeed, self-employed fathers had the worst outcomes with regard to length of working hours, poorest fit of hours to preference and high work–life conflict. In contrast, casual employees’ underemployment (preferring more hours) was a universal issue, especially for men.