*Bremen, July 31, 2025 *– Part-time work is no longer a niche in Germany but a defining feature of the labor market. According to the Federal Statistical Office, nearly every second woman now works part-time – and the trend is rising. For many, this means reduced financial independence, limited career opportunities, and an increased risk of being stuck in a "part-time trap." At the same time, the job market is desperate for more working hours – especially from women, who still shoulder a large share of unpaid care work. How can this gap be closed? With new flexibility that eases the burden on families, strengthens businesses, and modernizes the labor market sustainably. Timespin, an innovative solution for time tracking and workforce management, provides a key building block.
Why So Many Women Work Part-Time
"It’s a societal problem: Women often want to work more but can’t"
says Michaela Hermann from the Bertelsmann Foundation. A lack of childcare places, unequal distribution of care work, and a tax system that disadvantages secondary earners are just a few reasons. Calls to expand childcare capacity are frequent – and rightly so, as calculations from the ifo Institute show a shortage of over 300,000 daycare places for children under three alone. But even if childcare infrastructure improves, that alone won’t break the part-time trap.
"Many women remain part-time even after their children are in kindergarten because family routines are already established"
emphasizes Katharina Wrohlich, a gender economist at DIW. Furthermore, flexible working models that allow for temporary increases or reductions in hours – without switching jobs entirely – are often missing.
Alternative Working Models as a Key to Equality
This is where alternative working time models come into play – allowing both women and men to adjust their working hours to their life stage. Flexible schedules, variable weekly hours, part-time with flextime options, or job sharing are already theoretically available but often fail due to complicated processes.
"Especially in small businesses or medium-sized companies, the digital infrastructure to support such models is often missing,"
notes Oliver Otto, spokesperson at Timespin.
"In many cases, they still rely on Excel sheets or verbal agreements – which are neither transparent nor efficient."
Timespin changes that. Its tactile time-tracking cube and digital platform allow alternative working time models to be integrated easily and seamlessly into everyday work. Whether weekly working hours, daily quotas, or project-based time blocks – Timespin enables both employers and employees to manage, adjust, and transparently track working time models.
"This is a real game-changer for anyone who wants flexible working time models to exist not just on paper but in practice,"
says Otto.
Easy Implementation with Timespin
With Timespin, employees can start, pause, or stop their working time with a simple twist of the cube. No complex menus, no searching for the right task – just one turn, and time starts running. This simplicity also makes flexible time models easier to manage: employers can automatically maintain working time accounts, define individual part-time models, and always keep an overview. For employees, that means no paperwork, no misunderstandings, and maximum transparency.
"Whether someone works 20, 30, or 40 hours temporarily – Timespin makes it all possible in one solution, without new contracts or workflows each time,"
says Otto. That’s especially critical for small and medium-sized businesses that lack large HR departments.
"This way, flexible working time models become a real tool against labor shortages – instead of a bureaucratic nightmare."
Digitalization as a Way Out of the Part-Time Trap
For Federal Minister of Labor Bärbel Bas (SPD), one thing is clear:
"We need to bring more women into the workforce."
But that requires more than childcare alone. A societal challenge meets a digital one: flexible working models must be simple for both employers and employees to use. With Timespin, working time models can be flexibly defined, individually adjusted, and, above all, transparently managed – an important step toward a modern working world that combines family-friendliness and productivity.
Investing in such digital solutions also pays off financially: according to a Roland Berger study, the returns on family-friendly investments can be up to 40 percent. Absenteeism decreases, turnover is reduced, and skilled workers remain loyal for the long term. For companies, that means lower costs, higher motivation, and a decisive advantage in the talent market.
Conclusion
The part-time trap is not a law of nature but a matter of creating the right conditions. Expanding childcare is an important step. Even more critical, however, is the creation of flexible working time models that adapt to family needs – without complicated processes or rigid structures. With Timespin, this transformation becomes reality. The solution brings flexibility, transparency, and efficiency into everyday work – becoming a powerful lever to free both women and men from the part-time trap.