Women in Germany earn less than men but do more housework: studies

Women are earning less than men in Germany while a large part of the housework and childcare remained women's responsibility, according to two studies by German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) published on Wednesday.

"The pay gap is particularly high in professions where long working hours have a high priority and where hourly pay rises disproportionately with the number of hours worked," DIW gender economist Aline Zucco commented.

Professions with a predominance of women, such as nursing or social jobs, showed a relatively small gender pay gap at lower than 5 percent, according to the DIW study.

The largest pay gap at around 35 percent was found in occupations in which the proportion of women and men is balanced, for example in advertising, marketing or insurance, the study showed. Across all jobs, Germany has one of the largest gender pay gaps in Europe of 21 percent.

In order to reduce the gender pay gap, Zucco suggested to abandon the idea that "only those who work much and for a long time do a good job." According to Zucco, that would require a "major rethink".

The second DIW study published Wednesday is devoted to the so-called gender care gap, which is defined as the difference in time that men and women spend on housework and childcare.

According to the study, women in Germany spend significantly more time on housework and childcare than their male partners and are more likely to take on social work that is "frequent and inflexible", such as the daily preparation of meals.

Men's participation in household work and childcare "remains comparatively low", the study showed. Even on a working day, women spend around two hours on housework activities such as cooking, cleaning and laundering whereas men only spend 52 minutes.

The study pointed out that the frequent claim that men do less housework because of their higher labor force participation was falsified by current women's employment rates that have been rising steadily for years.

According to the latest figures by the Federal Statistical Office, Germany has the third highest female employment rate in the European Union. In 2017, 72 percent of women aged between 25 and 54 worked in Germany.