The Part-Time Trap 2026: Where School Ends Earliest, the Most Women Work, but the Fewest Full-Time
Clino has set the care gap of the ten largest school cities against the part-time share of the women living there. Winterthur, Bern and St. Gallen have the highest part-time shares, and all three are among the six cities with the longest afternoons without school. The relationship is there, but it is moderate, and it tells a different story than expected. School hours do not keep women from working. They keep them from working full-time.
Executive Summary
In June, Clino calculated how many hours a week a third-grader in the ten largest school cities is left without school and without supervised care when both parents work full-time: between 21.5 hours in Lugano and 27.8 hours in Biel/Bienne. This study asks the follow-up question: Does this gap show up in mothers’ pensums? To answer it, we set each city’s gap against the share of employed women living there who work less than 90 % (BFS City Statistics, Structural Survey 2021), and against their employment rate.
The answer is a yes with two footnotes. Winterthur (25.9 h gap) has the highest part-time share at 53.9 %, Bern (26.2 h) follows with 52.9 %, St. Gallen (26.7 h) with 52.7 %. Geneva (22.5 h) comes last with 41.4 %, preceded by Lausanne with 43.2 % and Zurich with 44.8 %. The correlation across the ten cities is r = +0.49, +0.60 with the mean of the years 2018 to 2021, +0.58 across the seven German-speaking cities alone. That is a relationship, not proof: with ten points, the timetable cannot be separated from the language region.
The first footnote: The gap does not depress the employment rate. The highest employment rates belong to three German-speaking cities with long gaps (Lucerne 81.1 %, Zurich 80.2 %, Bern 79.8 %); the correlation between gap and employment is even positive, at r = +0.57. Where school ends earlier, more women work, but more of them part-time. The second footnote: The Röstigraben does not run between part-time and full-time, but at the small pensums. The share of women working less than 90 % is almost the same in German-speaking Switzerland (53.5 % cantonal mean) and in Latin Switzerland (52.3 %). The share below 50 % is not: 19.4 % against 13.4 %, with Appenzell Inner Rhodes (26.7 %) and Geneva (10.2 %) at the two ends.
The ranking: Winterthur 53.9 %, Geneva 41.4 %
Share of employed women resident in the city who work less than 90 %. The Structural Survey is a sample; the confidence intervals range from ±1.7 percentage points in Zurich to ±5.3 in Biel/Bienne. Differences of two or three points between neighbours are therefore noise; the distance of 12.5 points between Winterthur and Geneva is not.
| # | Part-time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Winterthurcare gap h/week: 25.9 h · employment rate: 75.2 % | 53.9 % |
| 2 | Berncare gap h/week: 26.2 h · employment rate: 79.8 % | 52.9 % |
| 3 | St. Gallencare gap h/week: 26.7 h · employment rate: 76.6 % | 52.7 % |
| 4 | Biel/Biennecare gap h/week: 27.8 h · employment rate: 71.7 % | 49.9 % |
| 5 | Lucernecare gap h/week: 26.2 h · employment rate: 81.1 % | 47.7 % |
| 6 | Luganocare gap h/week: 21.5 h · employment rate: 65.8 % | 47.3 % |
| 7 | Baselcare gap h/week: 23.5 h · employment rate: 72.7 % | 46.9 % |
| 8 | Zurichcare gap h/week: 24.4 h · employment rate: 80.2 % | 44.8 % |
| 9 | Lausannecare gap h/week: 26.7 h · employment rate: 72.4 % | 43.2 % |
| 10 | Genevacare gap h/week: 22.5 h · employment rate: 67.0 % | 41.4 % |
Share of employed women (15+, resident in the city) working less than 90 %. Structural Survey 2021, latest published year; 95 % confidence interval ±1.7 (Zurich) to ±5.3 percentage points (Biel). Under each city: weekly care gap and employment rate of women aged 20 to 64. Source: BFS City Statistics (px-x-2105000000_501), Clino.
Hypothesis 1: the longer the gap, the more part-time. Confirmed, with a caveat.
The care gap differs between the ten cities by 6.3 hours a week, the part-time share by 12.5 percentage points. Plotting one against the other, the cloud of points runs up and to the right: the three cities with the highest part-time shares (Winterthur, Bern, St. Gallen) all belong to the six with the longest gaps. r = +0.49 across the ten cities, +0.60 with the more stable four-year mean.
Each dot is a city. x: weekly gap between a 50-hour need window and the supervised school presence of a third-grader (Clino study “School Ends Before Work Does”, 2025/26). y: share of employed women (15+, resident in the city) working less than 90 %, Structural Survey 2021. r = +0.49 (2021), +0.60 with the 2018–2021 mean, +0.58 across the 7 German-speaking cities. The gap correlates just as much with the employment rate (+0.57): where school ends earlier, more women work, but more often part-time. Source: BFS City Statistics, Clino.
The caveat lies in the outliers. Lausanne has the second-longest gap at 26.7 hours and the second-lowest part-time share at 43.2 %. Lugano has the shortest gap and sits mid-table at 47.3 %. Geneva and Lugano have the two shortest gaps, Geneva and Lausanne the two lowest part-time shares; with ten observations, no statistic can tell whether it is the timetable or the language region. Across the seven German-speaking cities alone the relationship holds (r = +0.58); that is the most honest measure, with the caveat n = 7.
Lausanne also shows what makes a long gap harmless: daycare places. The City Statistics count 712 daycare children per 1,000 preschool children there, 236 in Winterthur (2022). Those who have had their care logistics in place since the child’s first year do not give it up when school starts.
Hypothesis 2: the longer the gap, the fewer women work. Refuted.
The intuitive reading, that early school closing times push mothers out of the labour market, does not stand up to the figures. The employment rate of women aged 20 to 64 is highest in Lucerne (81.1 %), Zurich (80.2 %) and Bern (79.8 %), lowest in Lugano (65.8 %) and Geneva (67.0 %). The correlation between gap and employment is r = +0.57: positive, not negative. In German-speaking Switzerland alone it disappears (−0.09), while the part-time relationship remains.
Right dot: employment rate of women aged 20 to 64 (2021). Left dot: Clino approximation of the share working full-time (90 to 100 %), computed as employment rate times the full-time share of employed women 15+; the two age bands differ, so the value is an order of magnitude. The span between them is the women working part-time. Bern, Lucerne and St. Gallen have the longest gaps and the highest employment rates, but hardly more full-time work than Geneva. Source: BFS City Statistics 2021, Clino.
In Bern, 79.8 % of women are employed, in Geneva 67.0 %. Around 38 out of 100 women in Bern work full-time, 39 in Geneva. The gap does not cost the job, it costs the pensum.
Combining the employment rate with the full-time share (an approximation that mixes two age bands), around 38 out of 100 women in Bern work full-time, 39 in Geneva, 44 in Zurich, 35 in Winterthur. The German-speaking cities achieve their high employment rate through part-time work; French-speaking Switzerland has fewer employed women, but almost as many full-time jobs.
The cantons: the Röstigraben lies at pensums below 50 %
At cantonal level, the Structural Survey 2024 provides the split by employment level for all 26 cantons. For the share below 90 %, Jura leads with 60.7 %, followed by Obwalden (60.5 %) and Appenzell Inner Rhodes (58.2 %); Geneva (44.4 %), Basel-City (45.8 %) and Glarus bring up the rear. German-speaking and Latin Switzerland are almost level on average (53.5 % against 52.3 %).
The divide opens one level down, at pensums below 50 %: Appenzell Inner Rhodes 26.7 %, Uri 25.7 %, Obwalden 25.5 % against Geneva 10.2 %, Vaud 12.0 %, Neuchâtel 12.1 %. French-speaking Switzerland works part-time, but at 60 or 80 %; rural German-speaking Switzerland at 30 or 40 %. And Appenzell Inner Rhodes at the same time has the highest net labour force participation rate of women in the country (81.7 %): almost all of them work, many of them little.
Dark = high share. The language divide does not run between part-time and full-time but at small pensums: Appenzell Inner Rhodes, Uri and Obwalden above 25 %, Geneva, Vaud and Neuchâtel around 10 to 12 %. Employed women 15+, Structural Survey 2024. Source: BFS T 40.02.03.02.01, Clino calculation.
| # | below 90 % | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jurabelow 50 %: 15.3 % · net participation rate: 73.0 % | 60.7 % |
| 2 | Obwaldenbelow 50 %: 25.5 % · net participation rate: 77.0 % | 60.5 % |
| 3 | Appenzell Inner Rhodesbelow 50 %: 26.7 % · net participation rate: 81.7 % | 58.2 % |
| 4 | Appenzell Outer Rhodesbelow 50 %: 24.0 % · net participation rate: 77.5 % | 58.0 % |
| 5 | Bernbelow 50 %: 18.8 % · net participation rate: 80.3 % | 57.4 % |
| 6 | Uribelow 50 %: 25.7 % · net participation rate: 76.7 % | 56.3 % |
| 7 | Basel-Countrybelow 50 %: 17.3 % · net participation rate: 74.9 % | 56.3 % |
| 8 | Fribourgbelow 50 %: 14.3 % · net participation rate: 76.0 % | 55.9 % |
| 9 | Solothurnbelow 50 %: 18.2 % · net participation rate: 76.8 % | 55.3 % |
| 10 | Thurgaubelow 50 %: 18.4 % · net participation rate: 77.7 % | 55.1 % |
| 11 | Schaffhausenbelow 50 %: 20.2 % · net participation rate: 74.0 % | 54.9 % |
| 12 | Valaisbelow 50 %: 14.3 % · net participation rate: 75.6 % | 54.5 % |
| 13 | Lucernebelow 50 %: 19.6 % · net participation rate: 79.8 % | 54.1 % |
| 14 | Aargaubelow 50 %: 18.1 % · net participation rate: 77.6 % | 54.0 % |
| 15 | St. Gallenbelow 50 %: 20.1 % · net participation rate: 76.5 % | 53.4 % |
| 16 | Neuchâtelbelow 50 %: 12.1 % · net participation rate: 75.0 % | 52.2 % |
| 17 | Nidwaldenbelow 50 %: 17.4 % · net participation rate: 77.8 % | 52.0 % |
| 18 | Grisonsbelow 50 %: 18.8 % · net participation rate: 80.4 % | 51.4 % |
| 19 | Schwyzbelow 50 %: 21.7 % · net participation rate: 78.8 % | 50.3 % |
| 20 | Ticinobelow 50 %: 15.7 % · net participation rate: 66.4 % | 49.9 % |
| 21 | Zurichbelow 50 %: 14.4 % · net participation rate: 79.3 % | 49.8 % |
| 22 | Vaudbelow 50 %: 12.0 % · net participation rate: 72.7 % | 48.5 % |
| 23 | Zugbelow 50 %: 16.6 % · net participation rate: 76.4 % | 47.6 % |
| 24 | Glarusbelow 50 %: 14.9 % · net participation rate: 78.9 % | 45.9 % |
| 25 | Basel-Citybelow 50 %: 12.9 % · net participation rate: 75.4 % | 45.8 % |
| 26 | Genevabelow 50 %: 10.2 % · net participation rate: 69.3 % | 44.4 % |
Share of employed women (15+) working less than 90 %, computed from the person counts of the Structural Survey 2024 (full-time 90 to 100 %, part-time I 70 to 89 %, II 50 to 69 %, III below 50 %). Under each canton: share below 50 % and net labour-force participation rate of women 15 to 64. Across the 10 school cities the care gap correlates with the cantonal part-time share at r = +0.69. Source: BFS T 40.02.03.02.01 and T 40.02.03.02.03, Clino calculation.
German-speaking Switzerland, 17 cantons
- •Part-time below 90 %: 53.5 % on average
- •Pensum below 50 %: 19.4 % on average
- •Top: Appenzell Inner Rhodes 26.7 %, Uri 25.7 %, Obwalden 25.5 % below 50 %
Latin Switzerland, 9 cantons
- •Part-time below 90 %: 52.3 % on average
- •Pensum below 50 %: 13.4 % on average
- •Bottom: Geneva 10.2 %, Vaud 12.0 %, Neuchâtel 12.1 % below 50 %
Zurich, the only city with a time series: small pensums are growing
Only the City of Zurich publishes every year how its employed women are distributed across employment levels. The share below 50 % rose from 10.9 % (2023) to 14.8 % (2025), the full-time share fell from 51.9 % to 46.1 %. The sample is small and the years fluctuate; the direction over three years is nonetheless remarkable in a city that guarantees care places.
| Year | below 50 % | 50 to 89 % | 90 to 100 % | Part-time total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 10.9 % | 37.3 % | 51.9 % | 48.2 % |
| 2024 | 12.8 % | 42.3 % | 44.9 % | 55.1 % |
| 2025 | 14.8 % | 38.8 % | 46.1 % | 53.6 % |
The only city with an annual split by employment level (City of Zurich Open Data, SAKE, women 15+ resident in the city). Small sample, year-to-year swings are noise; the share below 50 % rises over three years from 10.9 to 14.8 %. Source: Stadt Zürich, bfs_wir_sake_beschgrad_erwtge_geschl_od5041.
Surprising Findings
Winterthur, not Zurich, is the part-time capital
Twenty minutes on the S-Bahn separate 53.9 % from 44.8 %: in Winterthur, nine percentage points more women work part-time than in Zurich, with a gap that is only 1.5 hours longer. The timetable explains part of it, the housing market and the industry structure the rest: those who move to Winterthur often move for the family.
The mothers’ figure exists only nationally
No city and no canton publishes the part-time share of mothers. Nationally it stands at 79.6 % for mothers whose youngest child is 4 to 12 years old (SAKE 2025), against 57.4 % for all women aged 25 to 54. Only around 23 % of employed mothers with children under 15 work full-time. The city figures in this study include all women aged 15 and over; the effect of the timetable on mothers is therefore more likely under- than overestimated.
The canton explains the city better than the city explains itself
The care gap of the ten cities correlates more strongly with the part-time share of their canton (2024, r = +0.69) than with that of the city itself (2021, r = +0.49), and with the cantonal labour force participation rate more strongly still (+0.75). School hours are a cantonal pattern, and so is women’s pensum. Both follow the same culture, and one is not simply the cause of the other.
Basel: short gap, low part-time, low employment rate
After Geneva and Lugano, Basel has the third-shortest gap (23.5 h) and, at 46.9 %, one of the lowest part-time shares in German-speaking Switzerland, but also an employment rate of only 72.7 %. The canton of Basel-City has the lowest small-pensum share in German-speaking Switzerland, at 12.9 %. The city canton behaves like a city in French-speaking Switzerland: fewer women in employment, but at a higher pensum.
What this means for households
The figures say that the care gap does not decide whether a mother works, but how much. Anyone who wants to keep their pensum despite the gap has three routes in most cities: after-school care and lunch modules, as far as the city offers them, a nanny or childminder in their own household, or the grandparents. The second route is an employment relationship with AHV, accident insurance and a payslip, from the first franc and from the first afternoon. Clino guides you through registration and payroll; the household itself sets the hours, the wage and the contract.
All ten cities in detail
| City | Gap h/wk | Part-time 2021 | ± CI | Mean 2018–21 | Employed 20–64 | Canton < 90 % | Canton < 50 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biel/Bienne (BE) | 27.8 | 49.9 % | 5.3 | 50.3 % | 71.7 % | 57.4 % | 18.8 % |
| St. Gallen (SG) | 26.7 | 52.7 % | 4.1 | 50.7 % | 76.6 % | 53.4 % | 20.1 % |
| Lausanne (VD) | 26.7 | 43.2 % | 2.2 | 44.0 % | 72.4 % | 48.5 % | 12.0 % |
| Bern (BE) | 26.2 | 52.9 % | 3.0 | 52.6 % | 79.8 % | 57.4 % | 18.8 % |
| Lucerne (LU) | 26.2 | 47.7 % | 2.8 | 48.3 % | 81.1 % | 54.1 % | 19.6 % |
| Winterthur (ZH) | 25.9 | 53.9 % | 3.4 | 54.8 % | 75.2 % | 49.8 % | 14.4 % |
| Zurich (ZH) | 24.4 | 44.8 % | 1.7 | 45.4 % | 80.2 % | 49.8 % | 14.4 % |
| Basel (BS) | 23.5 | 46.9 % | 2.9 | 47.5 % | 72.7 % | 45.8 % | 12.9 % |
| Geneva (GE) | 22.5 | 41.4 % | 2.0 | 40.6 % | 67.0 % | 44.4 % | 10.2 % |
| Lugano (TI) | 21.5 | 47.3 % | 3.6 | 45.0 % | 65.8 % | 49.9 % | 15.7 % |
Gap: hours per week between a 50-hour need window and supervised school presence (Clino, 2025/26). Part-time: employed women 15+ working less than 90 %, Structural Survey 2021, ±95 % confidence interval and 2018–2021 mean. Employment rate: women 20 to 64, 2021. Canton: part-time below 90 % and below 50 %, Structural Survey 2024. Source: BFS City Statistics, BFS T 40.02.03.02.01, Clino.
Sources
- Clino: School Ends Before Work Does, the care gap in 10 school cities (2026), Gap in hours per week, school year 2025/26
- BFS City Statistics (Urban Audit), core cities, STAT-TAB px-x-2105000000_501 (2024), EC1004I part-time share of women, EC1179I employment rate of women aged 20 to 64, TE1001I daycare children; Structural Survey 2018 to 2021
- BFS: Definitions of the City Statistics variables (do-b-21.05.02) (2024), Employment level below 90 % = part-time
- BFS Structural Survey 2024: Labour market status by socio-demographic characteristics and canton (T 40.02.03.02.01) (2025), Person counts, women 15+ by employment level, 26 cantons
- BFS Structural Survey 2024: Labour force participation and unemployment rate by canton (T 40.02.03.02.03) (2025), Net labour force participation rate of women aged 15 to 64
- BFS SAKE: Part-time employed persons by sex, age and family situation (su-d-01.07.05.04) (2025), Women aged 25 to 54, mothers by age of youngest child
- BFS SAKE: Employment level of employed persons by sex, 1991 to 2025 (cc-d-20.04.02.04.01) (2025), Women 15+: 41.4 / 36.3 / 22.2 %
- BFS SAKE: Employment level by family type (T 03.02.01.15) (2023), Women aged 15 to 64 with children under 15, in thousands
- City of Zurich Open Data: SAKE, employment level of employed persons by sex (od5041) (2025), Women 15+, 2016 to 2025
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