Overview
- Official EU-SILC first results for 2025 show 9.9% of heterosexual couple households have a female main earner, 55.8% a male main earner, and 34.3% roughly equal incomes.
- In households with children, women are main earners in 7.7% of cases versus 64.6% for men, while among childless couples the shares are 11.4% and 50.1%.
- Compared with 2021, the share of female main earners edged down from 10.5% to 9.9% and male main earners from 58.8% to 55.8%, lifting equal-income couples from 30.7% to 34.3%.
- Destatis points to employment patterns, noting mothers work part-time far more often and fathers do so even less frequently than other men.
- The figures are preliminary EU-SILC 2025 results using the 2022 census microcensus frame, and experts cite a 16% overall gender pay gap (about 6% adjusted) as a contributing factor.