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What will it take for Europeans to work more? That’s the problem facing some of the continent’s richer countries, which are facing worker shortages despite record employment.
Governments and businesses in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria are currently debating how to make extra working hours more attractive to workers, from expanding childcare to tax incentives and more flexible work schedules.
They compete with employees’ desire for more free time. Average working hours continue to decline as part-time employment expands and unions seek to reduce full-time hours.
“There’s a saying: ‘Work to live, don’t live to work,'” said Martin Stolze, 47, a part-time high school teacher in southwestern Germany. “I think that’s the motto of our time. You can work as much as you need to and focus on what’s really important to you. That wasn’t the case in the past.”
Record employment across the EU
In a sense, the job itself has rarely been so popular and accessible in Europe. Overall employment rates across the EU remain close to 75%, with Germany, Austria and the Netherlands all at or near record employment levels. Women’s participation in the workforce has increased significantly.
Economists say the main factor is the rise in part-time work.
Today, more than three out of ten employees in Germany, Austria and Switzerland work part-time. In the Netherlands, around half of the workforce works less than 35 hours a week. In the United States, by comparison, less than one out of every five workers works part-time, meaning less than 35 hours a day.
In Europe, women in particular have been driving the growth of part-time work. They are still much more likely than men to balance work with childcare and family care.
However, this trend also means that working hours have not increased significantly as workforce size has increased. In Germany, between 2005 and 2022 he saw only a small increase in total working hours, even though nearly 7 million new workers joined the workforce. Meanwhile, the average employee in Germany worked less than 1,350 hours a year in 2022, the lowest of any Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member country.
“Society is doing pretty well,” Clemens Fuerst, head of Germany’s Ifo Institute for Economic Research, said in a presentation last year. “Less people have to work and they can enjoy their free time more.”
But Fuerst also warned of the downside: a worsening labor shortage in the coming years. “A major contraction is yet to arrive,” he said.
Part-time job problem
Part-time work is already a problem in fields with shortages such as nursing and education, and vacancies are increasing. With more employees working less than full time, managers say they are struggling to find enough time to provide care.
Maartje Luck-Korsten, principal of Amsterdam’s De Kleine Nikolas primary school, said many applicants wanted to work four days a week.
“I always strike up a conversation (with them),” she said. “Why do you want to work four days? What does it take to work full time? I tell them the benefits. It’s for them. Partly for the paycheck, but also in the long run… (So) they are also aware of the choices they make and their consequences. ”
Experts say talent shortages are likely to become more common in the coming years as baby boomers retire.
The challenge for employers and policy makers is that many workers in wealthy European countries can afford to work less than full time.
According to Bastian Starlink, an economist at Tilburg University, in the Netherlands it is common for adults to work 1.5 times their salary, in which one adult works full-time and the other part-time.
“Maybe in the Netherlands, not having to work full time is a luxury you can afford,” Starlink said.
Not just at home. Thajs Zucchetti, an Amsterdam-based architect, worked 28 hours a week for the past year while completing her master’s degree, she said. She plans to immediately return to her maximum 32-hour shift at the request of her employer. But she said she doesn’t need it financially.
“Right now I feel like I’m making enough money to live on 28 hours a day,” Zucchetti said. “The idea is that if I work 28 hours a day, I can turn my hobby as an illustrator into a side job.”
Exploring more time
Employers and governments are currently looking for ways to increase the number of hours worked by the workers they have.
The German state of Baden-Württemberg has begun requiring all educators who wish to work less than 75% part-time to provide a reason, including those already working reduced hours.
The state Department of Education said the move is part of a larger response, affecting 4,000 of the state’s 115,000 teachers.
One of them is Ms. Stolze, a high school English teacher who is working 50% of her time. Part-time, he said, allowed him to be closer to his elderly parents and made the school week more bearable.
“We recognize that there is a lot of potential to squeeze out more time,” he said. “But I frankly believe that my colleagues have very good reasons for not fitting into this framework.”
Other governments have taken a friendlier approach, but it has proven difficult.
The Netherlands agreed to expand childcare subsidies from 2025, but the government later pushed back that date to 2027 due to budget cuts.
Meanwhile, Austria’s Conservative-Green Party coalition withdrew a proposal to cut employer taxes on labor income after the opposition raised concerns over the funding of social welfare funds.
Germany is also delaying reform of the so-called marital split tax rules, which give preferential treatment to households with a salary of 1.5. The country is reportedly considering requiring companies to allow people to work from home.
Find new working environment possibilities
Dutch organizations are taking a different approach. The idea is to help employers increase the working hours of existing staff.
The nonprofit organization Het Potentiel Pakken, which roughly translates to “seize the potential,” works with clients on how best to approach employees and structure work plans among team members.
With major funding from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Het Potentieel Pakken primarily works with home care agencies and school districts. Founder Wieteke Graben says employees, most of whom are women, are typically already willing to work more. Often the question is simply not asked.
“The reality is that you literally meet people who are 50 years old now and ask them, ‘Why do you work 18 hours a week?’ And they say, ‘Well, 20 years ago I worked 18 hours a week. I started working 18-hour days and couldn’t change it at all,” Graven said.
For Graven, it’s a sign of how ingrained part-time work has become. And there’s even more reason for a broader discussion on this issue.
“I think there’s always a tension between individual choice and societal needs,” she says. “And I think that’s a very fundamental discussion that should be had.”
Editor: Rob Mudge
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