The Real Cost of Women’s Unpaid Labour on Small Businesses at Christmas
- hello1287789
- Nov 26, 2025
- 4 min read
There’s something that happens every year around mid-November.
Business owners start to get that look.
You know the one.
Somewhere between frazzled, hopeful, slightly exhausted, and wildly determined to “finish the year strong”… while simultaneously Googling “best gifts for teachers” at midnight and realising they still haven’t booked the ham.
And if you’re a woman in business, you know the truth: December is not a wind-down. December is a second shift.
Because while the world talks about “taking a break”, your load quietly doubles.
And this year, the numbers finally back that up.
The number: $427 billion
Women’s unpaid labour is worth $427 billion.
Let’s sit with that for a moment.
According to Deloitte Access Economics, in partnership with the Minderoo Foundation, women’s unpaid care and domestic labour contributes a staggering $427 billion to the Australian economy every single year.
That’s more than mining. More than manufacturing. More than agriculture.
And December? It’s like the grand final of unpaid labour.
The emotional load goes up. The household labour goes up. The social labour goes up. The logistics load goes up. The responsibility for everyone’s enjoyment goes WAY up.
It’s no wonder so many women hit the end of the year feeling depleted.
It’s not because they’re disorganised. It’s not because they “need better systems”. It’s not because they “should try batching”.
It’s because they’re running two full economies at once.
The one they get paid for. And the one they don’t.
The invisible intensification of December
Here’s what the reports don’t quite say, but we all know:
Women carry the emotional temperature of the family.
Women keep the peace, manage the dynamics, remember who likes what.
Women become the resident event planner, procurement manager, head chef, gift buyer, child entertainer, cleaner, stylist, travel agent…
Meanwhile, businesses still need attention, clients still need support, revenue still needs to be protected.
Unless you’ve outsourced the entire festive season (and the mental load associated with it), you're stepping into December already carrying a bigger backpack than most.
And that has a very real impact on your business.
Clarity is almost impossible when you’re exhausted.
Financial clarity, strategic clarity, emotional clarity… they all require one thing:
Bandwidth.
And bandwidth is exactly what disappears for women in December.
Here’s what I see all the time:
Women aren’t charging properly because they’re too tired to revisit their pricing.
They avoid looking at their numbers because they already feel mentally overheated.
They push their own strategic priorities into “next year” because today’s load feels too heavy.
Their decision-making muscles are completely fried.
They tell themselves they’ll “look at the business in January”, but January arrives with a backlog.
So yes — if you’re feeling behind, overwhelmed, underpaid, or stuck…
It’s not a personal flaw.
It’s the system you’re navigating.
And it shows up in your business more sharply at the end of the year than any other time.
Your business doesn’t need to add to your load.
Something quietly heartbreaking I see often is this:
Women end up with a business that feels like a third child. Something to care for. Something to soothe. Something that needs constant attention.
But a business is meant to support you — not bury you.
It’s meant to:
pay you properly
respect your boundaries
give you breathing space
reward your expertise
create options for your life
honour your effort
Not drain you further.
And if your business isn’t doing those things yet? You’re not doing anything wrong.
You probably just haven’t been given the clarity or the tools to make it work for you.
Because clarity isn’t something most women “find” in December.
It’s something that has to be carved out.
This is why a strategic reset is so powerful at this time of year.
When I step into a business for a Reset, I’m not just looking at the money.
I’m looking at the capacity.
The load.
The emotional landscape.
The decision fatigue.
The hidden drains on energy.
The pricing that doesn’t respect your expertise.
The systems that are costing you hours.
The admin that is costing you weekends.
The workflow that could be automated.
The tasks that should belong to someone else entirely.
The money leaks you can’t see when you're overwhelmed.
The goals you abandoned because you didn’t have the bandwidth.
This is the transformation:
From tired → clear From overwhelmed → organised From underpaid → confident From behind → in control
And yes — this clarity can happen quickly, not because the work is light, but because the insight is deep.
Women don’t need more motivation. They need a plan.
I say this with deep love:
You don’t need another pep talk. You don’t need to “manifest” consistency. You don’t need more productivity hacks. You don’t need to “discipline” your way out of exhaustion.
You need clarity. You need a roadmap that respects your reality. You need financial insight you can trust. You need a plan that reduces the load — not adds to it.
And there’s something incredible that happens when you make decisions from a place of calm, not chaos:
Your whole year shifts.
And that’s exactly why the Business Reset Intensive is so popular right now.
Because women don’t just want clarity — they want relief.
They want to walk into Christmas lighter.
They want to enjoy the break without the nagging business mental load. They want to return in January with a plan already in place. They want to feel confident, in control, and properly paid.
So if you’re craving a clean slate before 2026… that’s exactly what the Business Reset Intensive gives you.
It’s why so many women choose to do this work now, and it’s why I’ve opened a little extra capacity in the lead-up to Christmas and early January.
If you want your business to feel easier — and you want 2026 to start with clarity rather than chaos — I’d love to support you.
You don’t need to carry the mental load of your business into Christmas.
Business Reset Intensive
A fast, personalised CFO-level diagnostic for women running small service-based businesses who are capable, ambitious, and completely over feeling confused, overwhelmed or underpaid.
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