Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – According to a study, women earn significantly less money than their male colleagues over the course of their working life because of the care of children. As a result of parental leave, women lose around 40 percent of their lifetime income compared to male colleagues – including compared to fathers, as the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BWIHK) announced on Tuesday in Stuttgart.
Vice-President Marjoke Breuning said that the study is scientifically working on what one felt already knew: that parental leave has a very negative impact on working life, especially for women. You have to do everything to change that.
For the study by the Tübingen Institute for Applied Science (IAW) on behalf of the BWIHK, the actual lifetime income of more than 12,000 women and men was evaluated and compared – the cumulative income from activities subject to social security contributions. Educational history was also taken into account. First, “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” reported about it.
The survey also shows that the more qualified a woman is, the greater the income gap compared to equally well-educated men. According to the study, highly qualified men earn an average of 700,000 euros more than men with medium qualifications. For women, the value is only 300,000 euros. Another result of the study is that children tend to be associated with advantages for men – in relation to their earned income. For women, on the other hand, they are generally associated with a lower lifetime income.
