In Germany, there is a debate surrounding the issue of women working part-time and the potential for them to have more hours. The Labor Minister, Bärbel Bas (SPD), has argued for this, but the spokesperson for the Greens in charge of work and social issues, Lisa Paus, believes that the coalition agreement does not align with the Minister’s goals. Paus stated, “The Minister’s goal is correct: If women could be as actively employed as they want to be, it would equate to 840,000 additional full-time jobs.”
However, Paus added, “Unlike what Mr. Merz claims, lack of willingness to work is not the issue – women, especially, want to work more. What they need are reliable and good childcare and employers who take this into account when considering work conditions.”
Paus criticized the coalition agreement, saying, “The planned tax exemption for overtime contradicts the Minister’s goal completely. It sets the wrong incentives, cementing the traditional division of labor – men work full-time, women keep the household running – instead of overcoming it. This is neither up-to-date nor economically sensible.”
The DGB (German Trade Union Confederation) president, Yasmin Fahimi, also called for a better distribution of unpaid care work between partners. Fahimi stated, “The Minister’s proposal goes in the right direction.” However, she added that the debate should not give the impression that women need to be motivated to work. “After all, they already contribute a much higher proportion of unpaid care work. Ultimately, the arrangement of working hours is a highly individual decision and there is a need for more incentives for a better division between genders.”
Fahimi called for concrete incentives to better distribute unpaid care work between genders, such as more father’s leave and ten days of paid leave after the birth of a child. She also called for better childcare and elderly care to allow more women to work and to tackle the skills shortage.