Study: Housework in Germany is predominantly illegal work

Study: Housework in Germany is predominantly illegal work

Cleaning, cutting hedges, washing – those who do housework for a fee in Germany often do so as undeclared work. In other countries, legal housework plays a bigger role.

Housework is often illegal work in Germany. Cleaning, washing clothes or gardening is done much more frequently in this country for money but without registering in the household than in other European countries.

This is shown by figures from a new OECD survey that is available to the German Press Agency in Berlin. The OECD plans to present and discuss trends in household employment this Wednesday.

According to this, it is estimated that around 75 percent of the work in this area is not registered in Germany. The EU average is only 57 percent. In some countries, such as Belgium or France, the proportions are significantly lower. Informal work does not involve any tax deductions, according to the OECD. But the employees are also not protected against illness, unemployment and old age.

Overall, housework, even if it has nothing to do with care, also takes up a relevant part of officially paid employment. The employees here make up 1.3 percent of the workforce in the OECD countries. The range extends from 2.5 percent in Spain, Portugal and France to just 0.1 percent in Poland and the Czech Republic. In Germany, around 0.3 percent is in the lower range.

The OECD is concerned with which regulations can lead to a formalization and better social security of employment in the household. The organization considers the availability of household services to be important for increasing the participation of women in the labor force. However, the workers in this sector are often poorly protected socially. The majority of the often unsecured employees are women.

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