Overview

• Unpaid care work in Germany is valued at €1.2 trillion yearly, roughly one-quarter of GDP, yet remains outside formal compensation
• Mothers spend an average of 30 hours per week on unpaid care tasks, constraining their ability to engage in full-time employment
• The 'Mütterkrankentage' proposal would allow mothers to take sick days for caregiving duties without childcare cutoff times
• Experts advocate for part-time models with full wage compensation and legally secured time budgets to rebalance paid work and care responsibilities
• Campaigners urge fathers to use parental leave and shift to part-time work to help close the 44.3% gender care gap