Woman cleaning, against the light

In Italy women spend an average of 5 hours 5 minutes a day on unpaid domestic and care work, against 1 hour 48 minutes for men: the widest gap in the European Union.

In 2024 Italy had around 833,000 officially registered domestic workers (cleaners, carers, child-minders), of whom 85% women and 70% foreign-born; informal-work estimates put the real total above 1.8 million.

What they call love we call unpaid work.