Press Release 19/06/2020
Almost 30% of people in work in the Basque Country had great difficulty combining work with looking after children and dependents in 2019
Compared to 2010 the difference in time spent looking after children by men and women has reduced by half an hour
27.4% of employed people resident in the Basque Country expressed having great difficulty balancing work with looking after minor children, and 33% with looking after their dependents, according to Eustat data. This high degree of difficulty is also perceived by 23.9% of working people when it involves balancing work with personal activities. From the point of view of gender, it is worth mentioning that the difficulty in combining work with other aspects of life is similar for employed men and women.
However, with regards to the amount of time dedicated per day to looking after children and dependent persons, there continued to be differences between men and women. Women who work outside the home and have children under the age of 15 dedicated on average 1.4 hours more per day to their care than working men (4.7 and 3.3 hours, respectively). Furthermore, while just over half of women (50.6%) dedicated 5 hours or more per day to looking after their children, in the case of men this percentage stood at 24.6%, with the majority (42%) dedicating 2 hours or less to the care of their children.
Furthermore, regarding the time dedicated by people in work to looking after dependent persons, women spent, on average, one hour more per day on this activity than men (2.3 and 1.5 hours, respectively).
The distribution of domestic tasks amongst working men and working women in the Basque Country was also imbalanced: nine out of ten men, 89%, dedicate 2 hours or less to those tasks, whilst almost three out of ten women, 27.5%, dedicate 3 hours or more.
In comparison with data from 2010, it is apparent that that the difference in time dedicated to looking after minor children under the age of 15 by working men and women has decreased over the years. In 2010 women dedicated almost two hours more (1.9) than men to looking after children, whereas in 2019 this difference had reduced by half an hour.
This uneven distribution of functions means that 18.1% of working women were very unsatisfied with the collaboration offered by their spouse or partner in carrying out domestic tasks. In contrast, a high number of working men were very satisfied with the participation of their partner (74.8%). Despite this, or precisely because of it, the percentage of men declaring themselves to be very satisfied with the time they spend on household tasks (47.8%) is similar to that for women (45.7%).
It is worth mentioning that working women expressed a greater satisfaction from looking after their children; 63.2% indicated a high satisfaction; and their dependents; 53.4%; for working men, these percentages dropped to 54.2% and 44.3%, respectively.
20% of working people habitually prolonged their working day
20.5% of the working population had to habitually dedicate more hours to their job than those established or foreseen, and another 19.2% did so sometimes.
This prolongation in the working day affected men more than women, as while 19.2% of men and a similar percentage of women (19.1%) sometimes extended their working day, a greater percentage of men almost always prolonged their working day, 21.9% compared to 19% of women.
An increased was observed, in respect of 2010, in the percentage of workers who had to prolong their working day. When the prolongation was habitual the increase was 1.7 points, whereas when it was more sporadic the increase dropped to 0.8 percentage points.
On the other hand, 12.9% of working men believed that requesting paternity leave would be highly detrimental to them. Notwithstanding, just 8.4% of men believed that paternity could affect them slightly compared to 21.4% of working women, who believed that maternity could create promotion inequalities. The fear that requesting leave or reduced hours for family reasons would affect career options was slightly greater amongst women than amongst men (32.8% and 30.3%, respectively).
From 2010 to 2019 there was hardly any change in the percentages of workers with flexible hours and those who work from home
Amongst the various methods that might facilitate the reconciliation of work, family and personal life, short-term leave is within reach of the majority of the working population, followed by the possibility of requesting leave in the form of unpaid days off. Furthermore, almost half the working population stated that they experienced little difficulty in obtaining extended leaves of absence or a reduction in working hours.
A flexible timetable for finishing work, another solution for improving reconciliation, was enjoyed by three out of seven workers (42.7%). As regards working from home, 10% of working people worked sporadically from home and 5.5% at least half of the time.
As regards flexible hours, there was hardly any change from 2010 to date, the percentage of people with flexible hours increasing by six tenths. Neither was there any major change to the percentage of people who work from home in comparison with 2010, whereas the percentage of those who work from home occasionally or at least half of the time increased by 1 percentage point.
On only 1.9% of occasions was it the father who sporadically took care of young children during the working day
In households where both partners worked, looking after children during the working hours of the parents corresponded to schools in 90.5% of cases, on 4.5% of occasions to both working parents and in 3.7% of cases to unpaid family members.
In these same households, the sporadic care of children when, during working hours, they have to be taken to the doctor, are ill or do not have school, corresponded to both parents on 67.1% of occasions, on 17.5% to unpaid family members and on 12.2% to the mother; the father took responsibility for their care on only 1.9% of occasions.
Finally, in relation to work preferences, the working population opted for the condition of salaried worker (84.7%) against that of self-employed worker (15.3%) and for working in the public sector (62.4%) as opposed to the private sector (37.6%), while this preference is more balanced between large companies (55.5%) and small companies (44.5%)
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62