Women have led the increase in working hours in Germany since reunification
Weekly working hours in Germany have increased since reunification, with women playing the largest role in this rise. While the average working hours for men are nearly the same as they were three decades ago, women are spending much longer at work compared to the early nineties.
According to the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), weekly working hours for individuals aged 20 to 64 increased by 2.6 hours between 1991 and 2022. This calculation includes all individuals, regardless of their current employment status. The largest change was for women, as their average working hours rose from about 19 hours per week in 1991 to over 24 hours in 2022. Researcher Harun Solak attributes this to the significant increase in women's participation in the labor market, which outweighed the impact of the growth in part-time work.
The percentage of working women has increased by about a third over the past thirty years. However, the director of the institute, Katarina Spies, points out that many women, especially mothers, wish to work more hours than they currently do. She believes that expanding childcare services and improving family policies are essential for enabling women and men to better balance work and family.
However, men's working hours have followed a different trajectory. After reunification, economic difficulties and the closure of many factories, especially in East Germany, led to a decline in the average weekly hours, which reached its lowest level in the mid-2000s. Since then, hours have gradually started to recover, with only a temporary decline during the Corona pandemic. Sebastian Klossner, the research director at the institute, explains that the number of working men, especially older ones, has become larger than it was in 1991, but the average weekly working hours for working men have decreased by 2.6 hours, resulting in a balance of factors and keeping the average working hours for men nearly stable compared to what it was 30 years ago.
The gap between genders in working hours has significantly decreased. In 1991, women worked about 14 hours less than men per week, but today this gap has reduced to just over nine hours. Klossner emphasizes that this change reflects not only the dynamics of the labor market but also a broader social transformation in Germany.