New study reveals The hidden danger of Swiss poverty
People who get divorced in Switzerland separate heart and household and often also the joint bank account. On average, mothers with underage children lose almost 40 percent of their income after the separation, whereas fathers only lose around 3 percent.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- In Switzerland today, around 40 percent of all marriages end in divorce.
- According to a study by the Bern University of Applied Sciences, the income of mothers with underage children falls by an average of 38% in the two years following the separation, compared to just 3% for fathers.
- The main drivers are traditional role sharing, expensive childcare and a maintenance system that only works if the ex-partner earns enough.
- Experts are calling for more daycare centers, equal maternity and paternity leave, supplementary benefits for families and financial planning during marriage.
Many Swiss households follow a traditional family model: the man works 100 or 90 percent, the woman reduces to 40 or 50 percent after the birth and takes on the children, household and care work. As long as they live together, the income is usually sufficient. But at the end of the month, there is not much left on the side.
At the moment of divorce, which according to the Federal Statistical Office affects 40 percent of all marriages, you need around 2,000 francs extra, says Sabrina Burgat, lawyer and professor of family law at the University of Neuchâtel, in a report by SRF.
"Many costs that were shared beforehand are incurred twice afterwards," adds advisor Karl Flubacher from the Vermögenszentrum (VZ) to blue News. "You need a second home, new furniture, additional subscriptions, childcare. All of this immediately puts pressure on the budget."
A study by Bern University of Applied Sciences shows what happens when this cushion is missing: "The economic consequences of divorce hit women, especially mothers, particularly hard," write researchers Robert Fluder and Dorian Kessler in their analysis.
Traditional model leads to social welfare for mothers
For mothers with underage children, the needs-weighted household income drops by an average of 38 percent in the year of separation and the year after. Women without children still lose around 28 percent. Men with children lose 3 percent, men without children 5 percent.
At the same time, the risk of poverty is increasing rapidly for many women. The proportion of single-parent households that are dependent on social welfare increases significantly during the divorce process. For women with children, over 8% receive social welfare in the year of divorce. For men, the increase remains significantly lower.
Couples with low incomes and a very unequal division of roles are particularly at risk. If the partner earns more than two thirds of the household income during the marriage, the risk of slipping into social welfare increases after the separation, especially for the woman.
The bill for care work comes after the separation
The core of the problem: the "maternity penalty". Studies from Zurich and Bern show that women's earned income plummets by around 70 percent after the birth of their first child, as many mothers reduce their workload considerably or quit altogether. Fathers continue to work as before.
Switzerland is one of the countries with a particularly pronounced wage penalty for mothers, as Fluder and Kessler write. Once you've left the workforce or have worked part-time for decades, you rarely simply return to a well-paid 80% or 100% job after divorce, especially if you still have daycare bills to pay.
In Switzerland, a daycare place costs an average of 110 to 130 francs per day. For a family, this can mean a monthly burden of over 2,500 francs. This makes Switzerland one of the top countries in Europe. In an international comparison, the public sector covers a relatively small proportion of childcare costs, around 40% on average.
Other OECD countries finance 65 to 98 percent. "Switzerland is a developing country when it comes to funding childcare," criticized GLP National Councillor Kathrin Bertschy in an interview with elleXX.
Maintenance helps - but only if there is enough
Formally, maintenance law is intended to compensate for the disadvantages of the person who has done more housework and care work during the marriage. However, since the revision of divorce law in 2000 and the most recent federal court rulings, case law expects divorced couples to become economically independent as quickly as possible. In practice, this mainly affects women.
Evaluations by the Bern University of Applied Sciences show that only around 30 percent of women receive post-marital maintenance. Child alimony is more important. Two thirds of women with children receive maintenance payments, on average just under 1900 francs per month. This is often not enough to cover rent, health insurance, childcare and everyday costs if the woman's own earned income is low.
At the same time, men with low or unstable incomes are often unable to pay the calculated maintenance amounts in full. The specialist literature speaks of "one-sided deficit sharing": the hole in the budget remains with the economically weaker person. Usually the mother.
Where the ex-partner earns more than CHF 130,000 a year, the study shows that the risk of social assistance for the economically weaker party drops to practically zero. In the case of medium and low incomes, the gap is borne by the general public via social assistance and supplementary benefits.
Divorce as an old-age trap
The study also shows that the consequences of divorce continue into retirement. The rate of supplementary benefits for divorced people is almost five times higher than for married people, and the pensions of divorced people aged 70-74 are significantly lower than those of the rest of the population.
Those who have worked part-time for years, paid little into the pension fund and have hardly been able to build up any reserves after the separation quickly end up below the subsistence level in old age. This doesn't just apply to women. Men with long periods of illness, lower incomes or high alimony payments also find themselves in a precarious situation. They fall into debt, work longer and postpone retirement.
As the Bern researchers put it: divorce in Switzerland is a "social risk", not just a private matter between two people.
Framework conditions for egalitarian models
Studies show that high childcare costs are a key driver of family poverty and make gainful employment for second earners - mostly mothers - unattractive. The framework conditions for egalitarian models during the relationship would therefore be affordable daycare centers that are available nationwide.
Family law expert Sabrina Burgat emphasizes in the SRF report that parental leave of equal length would also be crucial: They would make it easier to start splitting care work 50/50 and thus also strengthen the financial independence of both parents.
From an economic point of view, the most important factor is employment. Those who cut back sharply or drop out completely after giving birth pay the price later on with lower wages, less pension provision and fewer opportunities to make up the shortfall after a divorce. Many parents underestimate precisely these long-term consequences.
"The immediate additional expenses when the mother goes to work are incurred immediately - especially for childcare," says Karl Flubacher from VZ. "The impact of a loss of earnings on the pension in 20 years' time is often forgotten, as retirement is still a long way off. This is precisely why they are often underestimated."
