Although more children go to childcare today than a few years ago, it is often still difficult to combine family and career. The reason for this is the opening hours of the facilities. Many are not open at least 9.5 hours a day or 47 weeks a year.
Criteria for the compatibility indicator for family and work (VIF) are an offer from Monday to Friday, opening hours of at least 45 hours per week and a minimum of 9.5 hours on four days and an offer in 47 weeks (full-time employment and This takes into account with five weeks annual holiday, note.). Although more children have been attending childcare such as crèches and kindergartens in recent years, the share has fallen slightly. There was a decrease from 64 percent (2020) to 59.8 percent (2021) for children between zero and two years old. It should be noted that in 2021 just under every fourth child (29.1 percent) in this age group went to a nursery or toddler group at all.
Long opening hours in Vienna, short ones in Upper Austria
Among the three to five year olds (care level: 93.8 percent), the share fell from 51.8 to 49.3 percent. The minus was especially large in Lower Austria. In a comparison of the federal states, children in Vienna in particular are in childcare that can be combined with a full-time job. Three to five year olds follow at a distance in Burgenland. At the other end of the scale are Upper Austria and, for three to five year olds, Lower Austria (see graph). In other words: in Upper Austria, the fewest children are in care that is compatible with a full-time job.
These figures say nothing about whether the need is not there, or whether it is there, but the facilities suffer from staff shortages and other missing resources. For example, representatives of the Association of Municipalities spoke of “insoluble bottlenecks” that assume that there is demand in individual municipalities. The social partners and the Federation of Industrialists (IV) see it differently. In a press conference on Tuesday, they again called for a legal right to childcare from one year and uniform quality criteria.
SPÖ wants free care all day long
The SPÖ goes even further, demanding a legal right to free, all-day childcare. 100,000 places should be created in the coming years, said women’s president Eva-Maria Holzleitner in a broadcast. Many parties agree that an extension, uniform criteria and a legal right could counteract the shortage of skilled workers and reduce the part-time rate for women. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen pointed out that there is still too little investment in primary education in Austria. Those responsible at the federal, state and local level must finally create the necessary conditions.
“The head of state spoke clear words – and I also see this as a mandate for the federal government to finally invest more in children’s education. The ‘kindergarten billion’ repeatedly put forward by ministers is a pure sham. In fact, it is a sham. “Budget increase of 57.5 million euros per year. That is of course far too little for a long-awaited training offensive and a construction program,” said the chairman of the youth association Christian Meidlinger in a broadcast.
By 2026/27, the government and the federal states want to increase the so-called VIF-compliant places, which are also compatible with parents’ full-time employment, by six percentage points.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
