The Australia Institute (TAI), an independent public policy think tank, has published a report entitled Walking the tightrope which considers the question: Have Australians achieved work/life balance? TAI’s research reveals the answer to this question is a definitive ‘no’. Australian employees work approximately 58.8 million hours of unpaid overtime per year, equating to almost $110 billion dollars donated to employers. The report considers that if unpaid overtime hours were paid and reallocated to unemployed Australians, the country’s unemployment rate could be zero.
Work/life balance has been on TAI’s agenda for some time. In 2009, TAI launched National Go Home on Time Day in an effort to start a national conversation about the importance of work/life balance for individuals’ physical and mental health; relationships and communities.
