Health as a Resource

Health is a mechanism that has received little attention to date in explaining gender-specific income differences. A German-Australian study by Jianghong Li, Lyndall Strazdin and colleagues shows that women are at risk of developing physical or mental health issues even with significantly lower weekly working hours. The reason for this is the greater burden women bear due to unpaid domestic work. This is a disadvantage, as well-paid jobs typically involve longer working hours. 

Well-defined nine-to-five jobs do not make you rich. High salaries usually require long working hours. This is one reason why the income gap between men and women persists so stubbornly: only those who do not also have extensive household and family responsibilities can work long hours. As long as a large portion of so-called care work falls on women, they have less capacity to earn high salaries. This link between working hours and income is well documented in research. Lyndall Strazdins, Jianghong Li, and their teams are now adding a new dimension to inequality research: Based on data from Germany and Australia, they demonstrate the central importance of health. 

The researchers describe the phenomenon of a “health ceiling”—that is, a threshold beyond which the amount of working hours becomes harmful to health. For men, this threshold is 45 to 46 hours per week. For women, the threshold is about 10 hours lower, and the strain on physical and mental health increases rapidly the further working hours exceed this threshold. “In summary, it can be said that men have one full working day more per week available for paid work,” says WZB researcher and co-author Jianghong Li. A key explanation for this difference is the unequal distribution of unpaid work. The authors add: “And it’s not just about the amount of hours spent working, but the capacity to control time that matters.” 

The calculations used data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for Germany and the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) from 2002 to 2022, focusing on individuals aged 25 to 64. There are no significant differences between Germany and Australia. The study demonstrates how closely inequality in the domestic sphere is linked to inequality in the workplace. The authors therefore argue that the issue of working hours should also become a subject of political debate. 

04.05.26, GaK