The temporal dimension of parental employment: Fixed-term contracts, non-standard work schedules and children’s education in Germany
Abstract
The increasing prevalence of non-standard employment and its adverse consequences are well documented. However, we still know little about how prevalent non-standard employment is amongst parents, and whether its negative consequences are further transmitted to their children. Using data from the German Microcensus, we provide a detailed account of the prevalence of fixed-term employment and non-standard work schedules in households with children in Germany. Second, we examine the extent to which variation in this temporal dimension of parents’ employment is associated with their children’s educational attainment. We find that in about half of all German households with children in lower secondary education, at least one parent has a short fixed-term contract or regularly works on evenings or Saturdays. Depending on the concentration of parental non-standard employment in the household, children of parents with fixed-term contracts or non-standard work schedules have a 5 to 16 percent lower probability of being in the academic educational track than children with parents in standard employment, net of parents’ social class, income and education. Based on these results, we argue that the temporal dimension of parental employment is key to understanding how changing labor markets reshape the opportunity structure for children from disadvantaged parental backgrounds and the intergenerational transmission of inequality.
