I will no longer be able to afford my job from 2021 because I have children. What sounds like a bad joke is unfortunately true. The childcare fees for three children would simply exceed my net salary for 20 hours of work. Should I still go to work if that is good for me? Is my problem if I have so many children? Why don't I go back to work 40 hours after a year? All phrases that I've heard in my circle of friends …
Why the pay gap is only part of the problem
Our third child will be born in June. The two big boys already go to school and until 3 p.m. a day care center. Incidentally, this is a stroke of luck, because there is no legal right to after-school care. Just one point among many that lifts family politics in this country to the highest level of ridicule. Yes, some ideas were good. But unfortunately, only very few were thought through to the end. There are so many things that, to put it mildly, do not exactly support women in getting ahead in their careers and thus also have a decent salary.
1. Spouse splitting
Great thing. NOT. Because if parents decide to work part-time, the actual tax advantage exacerbates the problem of the pay gap. If I earn less as a woman, I pay more taxes. So who goes part-time? Certainly not the man who firstly earns more and secondly also has the tax advantages. Small example: Due to the spouse splitting and the pay gap, we would lose almost 1000 euros per month if we both worked 30 hours each, instead of driving the classic full-time / part-time model. Spouse splitting: Unfortunately, thinking of families who would like to take care of their jobs and children on an equal footing … A good alternative? The increase in child allowances.
2. The right to daycare places
It sounds so nice … but unfortunately the reality intervenes here too. Because not a few parents are offered a place somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Legislators can reasonably be expected to travel 30 minutes by public transport. It doesn't matter whether the journey is in the opposite direction to the workplace, how often these public transport vehicles travel, and whether the opening times of the daycare center are even halfway to your own working hours. So a nice thought, in some regions unfortunately not more than that. And even if the law would give us a great place, there are:
3. No right to after-school care
Congratulations to everyone whose children go to all-day schools, who have grandma and grandpa living nearby, or who work from home. Unfortunately, it's just not the rule. Especially in the country there is often no afternoon care or too few and overpriced hoarding places. It's a shame for all mothers who go to work a little longer than 12 noon. Then it stops when the child turns 6.
4. No reliable costs for daycare and co
Speaking of the nursery … A place in this should cost 180 euros per child per month. Plus then about 650 euros nativity fee and we are ZACK with an amount that only makes your ears shine. Why didn't I think about it before? I have! But only after the pregnancy test were the crèche fees in our community increased by 54% (yes, that's allowed!) And the plan to install an all-day school from 2021 was postponed again by two to three years.
5. Parental allowance plus
Yes, of course we also looked at the model and had to laugh out loud. What we imagined: Mom and Dad go to work alternately, the other one takes care of the baby for as long. According to the Elterngeld-Plus brochure, this is the idea that should be supported. Then the conditions: Parental allowance plus are entitled to all parents who work BOTH MINIMUM 25 hours a week … Mh. How the hell is that supposed to work when you get to work ??? Even without a journey, the model does one thing above all: that I can no longer see my children's father. That at some point we both burned out completely. That I can't breastfeed. And that we work on Saturdays and Sundays. Alternately. Great measure, dear Ministry!
Honestly: I could make this list absurdly long, but it doesn't work … Fact: From 2021, my childcare fees will exceed my net salary. Travel expenses to the workplace are not even included. When I reported this to my husband in tears, he replied to me: "Darling, we can do it. We can somehow afford to go to work! You love your job!" And actually this sentence says pretty much everything. Because I am an educated woman. A damn good worker. Declaring my job an expensive hobby lacks any dignity. I didn't deserve that, nobody really deserved it. The pay gap we're talking about today is just the tip of the iceberg. This hides a colossus of bad political decisions that women and especially mothers take away their professional dignity and completely demoralize them. Declaring children private luxury does not do justice to the fact that we urgently need them to fund pensions. Luckily mine doesn't get that high. The pension fund is lucky. After all, I can no longer afford my job …