Household income
Women are rarely the main earner in partnerships
In relationships, men often contribute a larger part to the household budget. One reason: women work part -time more often. Hardly anything has changed in the distribution of income for years.
For couples in Germany, men are still mostly the main earners. Last year, the woman only earned more in every tenth couple household (10.3 percent) than her marriage or life partner, as the Federal Statistical Office announced.
In more than half (56.6 percent) of relationships, the man achieved the highest income in the household. One reason for the imbalance: women work part -time more often than men. In one third (33.1 percent) of the couples, both partners had a similarly high income.
As the main income person, the Wiesbaden statisticians include the person whose proportion of personal net income in the total income of the couple is 60 percent or more.
Income distribution has hardly changed for years
A little less pronounced, but still very clear, is the difference in couples without children. There, women in 11.8 percent of households are those with the higher income. Men are in 51.1 percent of cases.
Overall, according to the Federal Office’s figures, the distribution of household income has hardly changed in recent years: the proportion of women as the main earner has been at a similar level since 2021 (10.5 percent). The proportion of main male earners was slightly back in the same period, which was still 58.8 percent in 2021.
Communication Statistical Federal Office
dpa
Source: Stern
