[NYPost] The coronavirus crisis is likely to widen the gender pay gap in Germany as more women are cutting their hours to look after children due to the closure of schools and nurseries, a survey showed on Thursday.
In households with at least one child under the age of 14, 27 percent of women have cut their hours to look after them, while 16 percent of men have done so, according to the survey of almost 7,700 employees by research body Hans Boeckler Foundation.
Schools and nurseries closed in Germany on March 17 to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. They have been gradually reopening but are not expected to get back to normal until after the summer holidays.
Women earn about 21 percent less than men in Germany on average, one of the biggest gaps in the European Union, in part because so many women work part-time.
| Germany is not designed for a two-career household with nobody available during the day to take care of the grocery shopping and meeting the plumber. |
The tendency for women to cut their hours more than men has been more pronounced in households with low to medium incomes than those with higher incomes, the survey showed.
| Higher income households have au pair girls, foreign nursery maids who get pocket money and German classes in exchange for babysitting. |
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