Mrs Durrer, what do we need to reconcile family and career?
Ms Durrer, according to a survey conducted as part of a master's thesis, neither lower childcare costs nor tax benefits could persuade well-qualified mothers to increase their part-time workload or return to work earlier. Do you think this result is representative?
The survey is interesting, but not representative. The majority of the almost 500 families surveyed are high-earning and highly qualified couples who already have high workloads.
I personally know of cases in which well-qualified mothers forgo an additional working day because the extra work would hardly pay off. Precisely because of the high daycare costs. They say: I'd rather spend my time with the children...
... absolutely understandable. However, the study also shows that as many as 30 per cent of the well-qualified parents surveyed would be prepared to increase their workload in return for lower daycare costs. The situation is different for women who earn less: They often have no choice but to stay at home with their children, as they can no longer afford additional childcare to supplement their family by the time they have their second child. This is why there is a clear need for sufficient high-quality and affordable childcare facilities for pre-school children throughout Switzerland. But this is only one of several measures to increase the number of working mothers.
What else is needed?
A change in corporate culture is needed. Flexible working time models, working from home, job sharing and reasonable part-time workloads at all levels of the organisation and in all professions should become a matter of course.
And managers need to understand when their employees say goodbye at 5 p.m. at the latest to pick up the children from the crèche...
... and allow their male employees to do the same. Managers should also campaign for equal financial treatment for men and women: Only those who receive equal pay for work of equal value have genuine freedom of choice. If this is not the case, it is mostly mothers who stay at home or work lower hours, as they are still paid less in many areas. The EBG offers companies free self-test tools to check their pay practices quickly and easily.
But it is also not easy for a woman to have her children looked after by someone else as long as the prevailing opinion in our society is that the mother is the most important carer in the first years of a child's life and cannot be replaced by anything or anyone...
...but studies show that fathers also do very good and important childcare and relationship work - and children can even benefit from daycare centres if they are good facilities.
In Zurich, voters decided against the «Affordable childcare for all» initiative on 25 September. The aim was to expand childcare provision, improve its quality and make it affordable for parents. To this end, companies were to pay 0.2 to 0.5 per cent of the AHV-liable payroll into a childcare fund.
A similar solution was adopted a few years ago in the cantons of Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Vaud. The majority of experiences have been positive. Companies also benefit from this, especially medium-sized and smaller companies that are unable to set up their own crèches can offer their employees childcare facilities in this way.
However, some mothers still want to spend the first few years exclusively with their children or not work more than 40 per cent.
This option is also part of genuine freedom of choice. However, I would like to point out that our Swiss pension system is not forgiving. Everything that happens during working life is reflected in it. Longer phases of part-time work can have a drastic impact on the level of AHV and second pillar retirement benefits. Anyone who works less than 50 per cent for a longer period of time risks having to live on the minimum subsistence level of CHF 3,100 per month after retirement or being heavily financially dependent on their partner. Divorce increases this risk even further. Being employed means minimising your own risk.
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