Mothers in couple households work 17.9 hours per week
Published: Saturday, Mar 2nd 2024, 07:50
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Breadwinning work versus childcare: men continue to do most of the paid work in couple households with children. These are the findings of a new study conducted by the BSS consultancy on behalf of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).
Specifically, women in couple households with children in Switzerland work an average of 17.9 hours per week, compared to 39.8 hours for men. This means that fathers work more than twice as much as mothers when it comes to paid work.
Compared to previous decades, however, women's workloads have increased: in 2004 they worked only 13.5 hours per week and in 1997 only 8.6 hours. The proportion of hours worked by men was still over 40 hours per week in each of these years and therefore decreased slightly.
Overall, however, couples with children are spending more and more time at work - in 2004, they worked a total of 3 hours less.
On behalf of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the study examined, among other things, working hours in couple households between 1997 and 2020. The results were published in February 2024.
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