U.S. women spent longer working, caring for their families and doing jobs around the house in 2018 than in previous years.

The pay-off? Their social lives, leisure time and even their sleep.

That's the conclusion of the annual American Time Use Survey, released Wednesday by the Labor Department.

Employed women worked approximately 7 hours and 20 minutes during the typical work day last year — the most time since the survey began in 2003.

Men, meanwhile, worked around 7 hours 54 minutes on the average work day, down from eight-and-a-half hours in 2017 and the lowest level since the Great Recession.

The research, which is based on ongoing interview surveys by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, points to a narrowing of the gap between the time spent on the job by working men and women.

That could be seen as a win for women's increased workplace participation. However, women's increased work hours were met by ongoing household obligations, which continue to disproportionately outweigh those of their male counterparts.