Secondary job holding in Germany

Since 2003, the number and ratio of multiple jobholders has more than doubled, although the German labour market has been experiencing a strong and sustained upswing. This study analyses multiple jobholding from a time series as well as a cross section perspective. We use rich register data and mult...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied economics 2020-06, Vol.52 (30), p.3238-3256
Main Authors: Klinger, Sabine, Weber, Enzo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Earnings
Economic analysis
Economic theory
Exemption
Incentives
Labor market
low pay segment
macroeconomic development
Migrants
multinomial logit model
Secondary job holding
Social security
Taxation
Time series
Workers
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Summary:Since 2003, the number and ratio of multiple jobholders has more than doubled, although the German labour market has been experiencing a strong and sustained upswing. This study analyses multiple jobholding from a time series as well as a cross section perspective. We use rich register data and multinomial logit estimations. The microeconometric findings are linked to macroeconomic trends. Workers hold multiple jobs primarily because of earnings´ or hours´ constraints in the main job. Towards the upper end of the earnings distribution, the probability to have another job does not rise again. Thus, we do not find evidence that another job shall enrich the job portfolio as such. Moreover, female workers, migrants, workers in West Germany as well as in service sectors have a higher than average probability of multiple jobholding. However, the individual factors explain the rise of multiple jobholding over time to a very small extent. Hence, we argue that the far-reaching exemption of second marginal jobs from social security contributions and taxes sets wrong incentives.
ISSN:0003-6846
1466-4283
DOI:10.1080/00036846.2019.1707767