Germany’s political and economic debate over part-time work has reached a new intensity following a controversial proposal by the CDU's Economic Wing MIT (Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion). The initiative to tighten the country’s legal right to work part-time has transformed a longstanding conversation into a national dispute touching on gender roles, childcare shortages, labour structures and Germany’s broader economic trajectory. The proposal gained even more visibility amid parallel discussions about working hours, work culture and Germany’s economic competitiveness.
The MIT triggered the current debate by proposing a legal reform that would significantly restrict the right to part-time work. The motion, initially titled “Kein Rechtsanspruch auf Lifestyle-Teilzeit” (“No Legal Right to Lifestyle Part-Time”), argues that workers should retain a statutory entitlement to reduce their working hours only when specific, socially recognised reasons apply. These include raising children, caring for dependent relatives or pursuing further training or education alongside employment.
Under the proposal, all other forms of part-time work would still be possible, but only through agreement with employers and without any guaranteed right to return to full-time employment. The motion goes further by suggesting that some social benefits, such as basic security, housing allowances and child supplements, should no longer be granted if a worker reduces their hours without one of the officially recognised justifications.
MIT chair Gitta Connemann apologised for the use of the term “lifestyle,” acknowledging its polarising effect, but firmly defended the substantive intent of the reform. In response to internal criticism, the CDU formed a working group that included Nina Warken, Karin Prien, and Günter Krings, tasked with revising the proposal. Although the group was instructed to refine its language and expand its considerations, the core intention of narrowing access to part-time rights remains unchanged.
According to the Statistisches Bundesamt, 30.6% of all workers in Germany were part-time in 2024, the highest figure ever recorded. Among women, nearly half (49.5%) work part-time, compared with 13.9% of men. The MIT argues that this widespread reduction in working hours leaves the economy with fewer full-time workers at a time of increasing labour demand.
The MIT explicitly links its proposal to the nationwide shortage of skilled workers, stating that the labour market cannot afford high rates of reduced working hours. The message is that the part-time trend is undermining the available workforce.
The phrase “Lifestyle-Teilzeit” reflects the perception that many people choose part-time without structural necessity. The MIT argues Germany should distinguish between justified and unjustified reductions in hours and limit legal protection accordingly.
Together, these reasons form the political case for the reform: to increase the number of full-time workers and protect social systems by tightening access to part-time and marginal employment.
While the political rationale focuses on economic risks, the data on why people work part-time offers a more nuanced perspective. Among the 13.1 million part-time employees recorded in 2024, the largest group, 27.9 percent, said they reduced their hours simply because they preferred to work part-time. Personal choice is therefore the most common driver of reduced working hours.
A further 23.5 percent of part-time workers reported that they cut their hours to care for children, elderly relatives or people with disabilities. The gender disparity in care-related part-time work is wide: 28.8 percent of women cited caregiving responsibilities as their main reason for working part-time, compared with just 6.8 percent of men. Among those who reduced their hours for caregiving, 65.3 percent said that they preferred to take on these responsibilities themselves rather than rely on external services.
Other important factors include education and training, which accounted for 11.6 percent of part-time decisions, and personal health conditions, cited by 4.9 percent of workers. Another 27.4 percent named a range of other family or personal circumstances, and only 4.8 percent said they wanted a full-time job but could not find a suitable one.
The debate surrounding part-time work intersects with a broader national conversation about work culture. Long before the MIT proposal emerged, Friedrich Merz had commented critically on Germany’s relationship to working hours. He stated that “with a four-day week and an exaggerated work-life balance, prosperity cannot be maintained,” a remark that drew widespread attention and controversy. Merz also claimed that Germans work fewer hours annually than their Swiss counterparts.
However, when set against actual part-time rates, the comparison evolves into a more complex picture. Switzerland records a part-time share of 39.5 percent, which is higher than Germany’s present rate. The Netherlands, with 42.7 percent, and Austria, at 30.5 percent, also exceed Germany’s share. Rather than supporting the notion that Germany is an outlier in adopting reduced working hours, these figures position Germany squarely within a European pattern in which part-time work plays a major role in labour markets.
Insights from Indeed indicate that employers themselves are fueling the rise in part-time positions. According to the platform’s latest analysis, 26.8 percent of all job postings in Germany now advertise part-time roles, representing a 68.7 percent rise since 2020. Jobseeker interest, however, has remained stable for years, with only 3.3 percent of search queries filtering specifically for part-time opportunities.
Indeed’s labour-market expert Virginia Sondergeld explains that part-time roles are frequently used strategically, especially in shortage-prone sectors such as care, social work and education. These industries, dominated by women who often shoulder the majority of family care responsibilities, rely on part-time contracts to attract workers who cannot commit to full-time schedules. Sondergeld warns that restricting access to part-time work could decrease Germany’s overall labour supply, as many workers unable to take full-time roles may withdraw from the labour market entirely.
Critics of the MIT proposal have focused particularly on what it fails to address: the structural barriers that make full-time work impossible or impractical for many people, especially mothers. The connection between part-time work and inadequate support infrastructure becomes starkly clear in comparative European data.
Among women with children in Germany, 66 percent work part-time. This figure stands in dramatic contrast to just 28 percent in France and 23 percent in Sweden. The difference cannot be explained by cultural factors alone. Germany is estimated to lack more than 380,000 daycare places, with shortages particularly acute in western Germany. Eastern Germany has largely preserved the childcare infrastructure established during the socialist era, resulting in lower part-time rates among mothers in those regions.
France and Sweden have well-established, comprehensive childcare systems that enable parents to work full-time if they choose. The absence of comparable infrastructure in much of Germany effectively forces many parents, predominantly mothers, into part-time arrangements regardless of their career ambitions or financial needs.
The gap between women with and without children in Germany reveals the impact of inadequate childcare support. Women with children have a part-time rate 35 percentage points higher than childless women. Across the European Union overall, this gap is only 13 percentage points, suggesting that structural factors rather than personal preferences drive much of German women's part-time employment.
This infrastructure challenge will become even more pressing as Germany attempts to implement a nationwide legal entitlement to all-day care in primary schools starting in autumn 2026. According to a survey by the Education and Training Association, only 67 percent of primary school principals believe their schools will be able to offer such care for all first-graders in the 2026-2027 school year. This means roughly one-third of schools will fail to meet the legal requirement.
Labour market expert Peter Haan from the German Institute for Economic Research offered a fundamentally different perspective on how to increase working hours in Germany. Rather than restricting part-time rights, Haan proposed addressing the structural barriers that prevent people from working full-time even when they might prefer to do so.
Haan emphasized that the current system contains numerous obstacles that discourage full-time work. Expanding childcare infrastructure represents one essential element, but school-age children also need afternoon supervision that is currently lacking. When both parents attempt to work full-time, managing these responsibilities becomes extremely difficult or impossible without adequate infrastructure.
Beyond childcare, Haan identified the tax system as a major barrier. The current combination of Minijob incentives and spousal income splitting creates powerful financial encouragement for couples to have one partner work full-time while the other either does not work or works part-time or in a Minijob. Structural tax reform would not necessarily require raising overall tax levels, Haan emphasized, but rather restructuring how taxes are applied to remove these perverse incentives.
Regarding the CDU economic wing's proposal to restrict part-time rights directly, Haan expressed significant skepticism. He noted that more workers actually entered the labour market after the right to part-time work was introduced in 2001. The availability of part-time options enabled people who could not manage full-time schedules to participate in paid employment rather than remaining outside the workforce entirely.
Eliminating or restricting this right could therefore prove counterproductive. Many people might stop working entirely because they would be unable to manage their daily responsibilities otherwise, Haan warned. Rather than converting part-time workers to full-time employees, restrictions might simply push people out of employment altogether, actually reducing total working hours in the economy.
Germany’s part-time debate reveals profound structural tensions that extend far beyond the political argument over labour supply. Policy proposals aimed at increasing full-time employment intersect with personal preferences for flexibility, deeply rooted caregiving responsibilities, limited childcare options and employer strategies shaped by acute labour shortages.
The nationwide discussion underscores the complexity of regulating working hours in a society where economic needs, social expectations and demographic realities collide. The future of part-time work in Germany will depend not only on political decisions but also on the country’s ability to strengthen care systems, address gender disparities and support the diverse circumstances shaping how people choose to work.
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