Crises as drivers of change in couples' paid work arrangements in Europe

This chapter investigates how couples’ paid work arrangements have evolved amid recurring socio-economic crises over the past two decades, including the 2008 recession, the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Using repeated cross-sectional data from European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) (2005–2022) for 23 countries, the chapter shows the consolidation of a long-term trend towards the rise of dual full-time earning across Europe, albeit with significant heterogeneity in starting points and paths of change across social groups and countries. While the 2008 financial recession had negative impacts on the dual full-time employed model, the Covid-induced crisis was associated with a slight increase in male full-time only employed arrangements. Nonetheless, these successive periods of crises can be seen as temporary setbacks that have not fundamentally reversed this underlying, longer-term trend. The chapter not only shows some convergence in the trend towards increased dual full-time earning across countries but also how this arrangement has gradually become a more financially sustainable arrangement compared to one-and-a-half or single earner models over these periods of crises and recovery. Against this evidence, the results point to a consolidation of the rise in dual full-time earning in a context of persisting turbulence.