According to govolunteer.com.au, each year, over 6 million Australians volunteer. People volunteer for many reasons. Some want to learn new skills or gain experience for their résumés. Others want to make friends, try something new, or help their community. Volunteers are very important in our society. They help non-proýt groups like the Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service, Meals on Wheels and community support groups. These volunteers don’t get paid, but they give their time to help others. Reasons why people do this type of unpaid work include: • to gain experience in a job or industry • to acquire training, skills and/or work experience as part of formal programs to assist people to obtain work • to test their job skills • to contribute time and effort to a not-for-proýt organisation.
FIGURE5 Caring for a family member with a disability is a common type of unpaid work.
A lot of unpaid work happens at home, like cooking, cleaning, washing and caring for others. Experts say if this work was paid, it would be worth over $605 billion! A 2021 report showed that women do most of the unpaid work, like household chores and caring for people. Women do 76 per cent of childcare, 67 per cent of cleaning, 69 per cent of caring for adults and 57 per cent of volunteering. In wealthier areas, some couples hire help for these jobs. Still, if a household has 20 hours of unpaid work each week, a woman usually does about 15 hours, while a man does about 5 hours.
TOPIC17 Working for a living 597
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