Work: High part -time rate in Germany – debate about working hours

In hardly any other country of the EU, as many employees work part -time as in Germany. In 2024, 29 percent of the workers between the ages of 15 and 64 were part -time in Germany. This emerges from data from the European labor survey, which the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden published. The part -time quota was only higher in the Netherlands (43 percent) and Austria (31 percent).

For comparison: only 18 percent of the workers worked part-time across the EU. Women in Germany were more than four times as often part -time (48 percent) as men, of whom it was 12 percent. The gender difference is lower at the EU level.

Call after a long working time, less part -time

In view of the economic crisis in Germany, the calls become louder after longer working hours and less part -time. This is the only way to secure prosperity in Germany, arguments for business associations and managers.

The Federal Government wants to introduce a weekly instead of a daily maximum working time-which unions rejected as the end of the eight-hour day. A current survey among employees in Germany in turn shows reservations against a softening of the daily maximum working hours.

Working hours in Germany only just below EU cut

The view that the Germans work relatively little cannot be read from the official data. The weekly working time of full-time employees in Germany is only just below the EU average (40.3 hours) at 40.2 hours. In the past ten years, working hours in Germany and the EU has decreased slightly.

In Germany, the higher part-time employment in the EU comparison is also accompanied by higher employment. According to this, 77 percent of the 15- to 64-year-old population in this country were employed in this country-a record that was well above the EU employee quota of 71 percent. In women, the employment rate was even 8 percentage points above the EU average at 74 percent.

Weekly working time debate

“In Germany, the employment rate is particularly high in women-a pleasing development,” said Yvonne Lott, work-time expert at the economic and social science institute of the union-related Hans Böckler Foundation. “The federal government can build on it by further strengthening the compatibility of work and family, for example through clever working time models that promote predictable and moderate daily working hours.”

The plans to abolish the daily maximum working hours went in the wrong direction. “Very long daily working hours made people with a worry to be more difficult to work.”

Majority rejects unlimited daily working hours

A current survey by the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research by the Federal Employment Agency (IAB) confirms these reservations. According to this, 73 percent of employees in Germany are against unlimited daily working hours. However, 34 percent of those surveyed would be willing to work more than ten hours a day on individual days.

45 percent of full -time employees also stated that they would be more willing to work more overtime than before if they received a tax -free surcharge. While around 60 percent in the youngest group up to 30 years are willing to expand their overtime as a result of a tax -favored surcharge, the group of people over 60 years is 37 percent.

Potential for part -time employees

If there is a prospect of a premium, around 33 percent of part -time employees could imagine increasing their number of hours permanently – an average of six hours a week. If 48 percent of the under-30-year-olds state that they are (rather) willing to extend their hours of hours permanently, it is only 24 percent for part-time employees over 60 years.