The uncertainty about when daycare will finally reopen, financial worries, working late nights from home, acting as teachers and caregivers for their children, and on top of that, household chores—all of this is wearing many parents down. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are pushing mothers and fathers to their breaking point—and often beyond.
While the widespread closures of daycare centers and schools are now being gradually eased, many working parents will have to continue improvising in the coming weeks. The planned economic reopening—which has already begun in some areas—is expected to further exacerbate work-life balance issues.
Extended Wage Replacement Benefits
Further assistance for families—and single parents in particular—is therefore welcome: The Federal Cabinet has decided to extend the government’s wage replacement payments for parents who cannot go to work due to limited school or daycare operations. The compensation for lost earnings per parent is to be extended to up to ten weeks, and for single parents, to up to 20 weeks.
“IG Metall has been strongly advocating for a solution in recent weeks,” emphasizes Second Chair Christiane Benner. Until now, wage replacement benefits were limited to a maximum of six weeks per parent, and as a result, many of these benefits were set to expire in the near future.
Daily Use
According to the cabinet decision, parents do not have to take the maximum period of ten or twenty weeks all at once, but can spread it out over several months. In the future, it will be possible to claim the wage replacement benefit on a daily basis—a provision IG Metall had strongly pushed for. “Nevertheless, the Cabinet’s decision falls short of our expectations. It provides no relief for employees working from home,” says IG Metall Vice Chair Christiane Benner.
Parents who must care for children under the age of twelve at home during the COVID-19 pandemic due to closed daycare centers and schools are entitled, under Section 56(1a) of the Infection Protection Act, to compensation for lost earnings amounting to 67 percent of their net pay—up to a maximum of 2,016 euros. However, to protect families from financial hardship, this entitlement must be increased to 80 percent of net pay, and the cap must be removed. What’s needed now are also unbureaucratic solutions to ensure that the money reaches families and single parents quickly.
Massive Loss of Work
The central goal remains to enable as many people as possible to return to work. However, the federal and state governments must carefully balance the protection of children’s well-being, the interests of working parents, and infection control measures. Where it makes sense and occupational safety and health regulations permit, schools and daycare centers should reopen to the greatest extent possible so that mothers and fathers can resume their regular work.
A calculation by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) illustrates the magnitude of the problem for society as a whole caused by weeks of school and daycare closures. “The total loss of work due to daycare and school closures for these parents amounts to an estimated 55.8 million workdays by the end of April,” the authors write. The effect is so significant that it is equivalent to every working person in Germany having worked 1.2 days less.
