Earning and working unequally: Partnered parents in paid work

This chapter focuses on gender inequality in paid work. The chapter looks first at the working weeks of men and women of different ages across the OECD. It then focuses on German parents to find that German women are more likely to work part-time and shorter part-time hours than in OECD countries. And when they do work full-time, their hours – and those of their male partners – are quite long. As a rule, though, German mothers in employment work short part-time hours, while fathers work long full-time hours. On average German mothers and fathers do not share paid work equally. As a result, mothers contribute less than fathers to household income. Accordingly, the wide gaps in earnings and working hours are the main subject of the next section. The last section analyses why some mothers work part-time and some full-time. It factors into its analysis mothers’ levels of educational attainment, the number of children they have, how old they are, and the earnings and working hours of their partners. The chapter calls for policies that support the work-life balance and sustain birth rates, female employment, and more equally shared paid work.