Ms Margaret Cox:

I might just come in, specifically, on the qualitative data we have seen. It is true that the lives of the women in my organisation are better than they were before we brought in a four-day week. They have more time to spend with family and they get stuff done on their day off. This is the case for men too but it is particularly true for women. With all due respect to everybody here, it is an accepted fact that women do a greater share of the general household caring work, in general, than their husbands, partners or whoever they are. It makes a difference to their lives but they are still getting 100% of their pay.

Mr. O'Connor made a very valid point. We have all seen that when we come back from maternity leave, we want to take more time off to be with family. Can we afford to go down to 80% of our wages? Some people can and some people cannot. We should balance that opportunity, especially for women, but also for fathers and other family members. It does not necessarily have to be about children; it could be that a person is looking after parents or somebody with a disability. It would be foolish to underestimate that. There is opportunity in the concept of us all caring for our families and our community. That is something that can be exploited in a very positive way as we go forward.