Why traffic lights lag behind the goal of equality

The federal government wants to achieve equality between men and women by 2030. But it falls short of its own goals, particularly when it comes to economic issues.

Women are still significantly more likely to work part-time, take on a large part of the care work and still earn an average of 18 percent less per hour. The federal government has set itself noble goals in the coalition agreement to change that.

On the occasion of Equal Pay Day, Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus said she wanted to advance economic equality. “Women rightly have employment and career aspirations and must be able to fulfill them and stand on their own two feet,” said the Green politician.

Few concrete laws

The traffic light coalition also has ideas on how this can be achieved. In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed: Wages for women and men should become more transparent through legal reform. Families should be given incentives to share care work more evenly.

Women’s associations praise many of the goals stated in the 2021 coalition agreement as progressive. However, the President of the German Women’s Council, Beate Miquel, points out: Since then, few of the equality policy projects have been translated into concrete laws.

An example of this is the so-called “family start time”. Family Minister Paus has already drawn up a draft law for this. The plan stipulates that the second parent can stay at home for up to ten days after the birth of a child. This means you can take more care of your child right from the start and relieve the mother during the postpartum period.

Gender researcher: Incentive systems are needed

However, the law is stuck in coordination with the other departments. The Greens and the FDP will not agree on how the special leave should be financed. The employers’ association BDA also warns that such special leave could become an additional burden for companies.

In the eyes of gender researcher Beate von Miquel, such incentive systems are needed that are explicitly aimed at men. She is urging the federal government to introduce such a regulation quickly.

Individual employers are already getting ahead of politics. The DAX company “Henkel” announced in January that it would independently introduce eight weeks of paid parental leave.

Unequal distribution of care work

The status quo has been statistically surveyed in detail in recent years. A current study by the Federal Statistical Office shows that women still take on significantly more care work. For example, they take more care of the children, cleaning, cooking or washing.

On average, women do one hour and 17 minutes more unpaid work per day. The gender difference becomes particularly clear when a couple has children. While more than half of fathers’ work consists of paid work, more than two thirds of mothers’ work is unpaid work.

In view of the shortage of skilled workers, many employers are also calling for women to be more closely integrated into the labor market. At the end of last year, the President of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Peter Adrian, appealed to the federal government to do more to make family and work more compatible.

Women particularly benefit from the minimum wage

At least one legal project that improves the economic situation of women has already been implemented: the higher minimum wage. In 2022, the traffic light coalition increased this to 12 euros per hour. Women particularly benefit from this. Because they make up significantly more than half of the minimum wage earners. This is also evident from figures from the Federal Statistical Office.

The higher minimum wage is a first step. Actual equality by 2030 seems to be an unrealistic goal. If the federal government just wants to get closer to this, it has to take many more steps.