In Germany, a comparatively large number of people work part-time. Mostly they are women. The economy lacks their knowledge and skills – often in particularly painful places. The absence of women cannot always be explained logically.
The retirement of the baby boomers is looming bleakly on the horizon, the shortage of skilled workers is already impacting everyone who wants to build a house, go out to eat or get a new hairstyle. Many people there demand that more work needs to be done in Germany. But where will the work come from? The three standard answers: later retirement, immigration or more full-time.
The fact is: In Germany, a comparatively large number of people work part-time; well above the average in the EU or the OECD. The part-time rate has increased slightly in recent years. Last year, almost a third of employees in Germany worked less than the weekly hours intended for full-time employees in their company. Depending on the case, this could be 35 hours or just 15 – the statistics make no difference here.
What makes the difference when it comes to the topic is obvious. Half of all employed women work part-time, a good eighth of men. If a child is involved, the contrast becomes even more acute: two thirds of all mothers work part-time – and not even a tenth of fathers.
Part-time: Men train, women change diapers
There are many different reasons why people don’t work full time, but family is a big one. The fact that those affected would not be able to find full-time work hardly matters. What keeps most people working part-time, regardless of gender: The desire to work part-time – many simply don’t want to switch to full-time work. This reason dominates predominantly in the 45 to 64 year old age group – in addition to physical limitations.
Younger people mainly mention training and further education as well as children when asked what prevents them from working full-time. The two points are clearly divided according to gender: While men often say that educational measures bind them, women point to the care and support of children or relatives.
This division has a long-lasting effect: women in Germany work part-time more often than men until they reach retirement age. Katharina Spieß refers to this in an interview with ntv.de – the director of the Federal Institute for Population Research says: “Once women have been part-time, they often stay there – even if the children no longer need to be looked after.” Finances are to blame as well as the images in people’s minds.
Because of the higher part-time quota, there is significantly more labor to be mobilized among women than among men. This in turn also has an impact on the activation potential that is available to various sectors: While the low part-time quota in male-dominated craft professions hardly promises any personnel reserves, many people in female-dominated professions work part-time – there could be labor resources to be exploited here.
“Usually it’s the woman”
Care offerings are central to this. The calculation is incredibly simple, says Katharina Spieß: “If the child is not looked after, it is often difficult for both parents to work full-time.” As a rule, it is the woman who works part-time.
Germany itself is an impressive, unique example of the connection between childcare and women’s working hours. The division of Germany created an open-air laboratory, a society that is doubly rooted in terms of care: on the one hand, the legacy of the GDR, prescribed full employment, children in day care early, mothers and fathers at work. On the other hand, the legacy of the old Federal Republic, the bourgeois ideal of the male main breadwinner, the children at home with the wife, who in turn is at the stove.
The daycare map still shows where the border once ran. If you look at the full-day care rate for children under 3, the contrast is clearest: in the eastern German districts, on average, almost half of all children are cared for in institutions for more than seven hours a day. In western German districts, this only applies to one in eight children. On average, a good three-quarters of 3- to 5-year-olds in the East are in full-day care, and in the West just under 40 percent.
What’s exciting here is that the East-West differences only appear when you look at the figures for all-day care. Most children are in kindergarten, after-school care or daycare, regardless of whether they are East or West; the crucial question is: for how long? The simple answer: in the East all day, in the West only until lunch. This is exactly what allows women in the East to do more wage work.
Since reunification, working women in the East have always been clearly ahead in terms of average weekly working hours. Over the last twenty years, on average, East German women spent more than four and a half hours a week at work longer than West German women. For men the difference is less than twenty minutes.
Of course, women’s employment does not only depend on the care available. Another crucial factor: finances. Salary differences and tax advantages keep many women out of the labor market part-time or completely. Elena Herold researches tax and financial policy at the Munich Ifo Institute: “Man often has a higher income,” says Herold, “families don’t want to do without that.” It is logical that the woman takes care of the household and children. In addition: “If you forego the woman’s income, there are additional tax advantages,” says Herold in an interview with ntv.de.
Germany rewards families with the classic main earner model with a comparatively moderate tax rate. The Organization of Industrialized Countries OECD has been criticizing spouse splitting for years: it hardly offers any incentives for second earners to work more. She also takes the mini-job model, says Katharina Spieß.
“Part-time and leadership are often mutually exclusive”
Herold refers to a study by some colleagues at the Ifo Institute who worked out what would happen if Germany abolished spousal splitting and mini-jobs: the researchers expect more than a hundred thousand new workers on the market. The majority of them are women.
The tax incentives and the inadequate care provision not only prevent part-time workers from participating more actively in the labor market. They slow down women’s careers: “Part-time work and leadership are often mutually exclusive,” says family researcher Spieß. It doesn’t have to be that way at all. For Spieß it is a question of attitude: German society, for example, first has to get used to the idea of shared leadership positions – this affects companies as well as their staff.
However, Spieß is confident that the shortage of skilled workers will continue to drive the issue forward in the future: “For those who want to have managers, such models will be more attractive.” Herold refers to Nobel Prize winner Claudia Goldin and adds: The necessary cultural change also means that overtime and constant availability are no longer decisive for promotions. “Because this disadvantages people who have children or are less flexible,” explains the researcher.
“Best possible opportunities” for “best possible workers”
According to Herold, the culture question can be asked even more broadly. US studies, for example, have shown that traditional role models have a major influence on the extent to which mothers reduce their working hours: parents should spend time with their children and raise them. The mother is responsible for the children. The man should earn more.
The effect of these standards sometimes even runs contrary to financial calculations. Herold says that in her research she also observes families in which women are the main earners: “It makes little economic sense for women to reduce working hours.” And yet – “we still see that it is mostly women who take care of the children”.