Is this economically viable?

The figures from the Chamber of Commerce show that more and more women are becoming self-employed. The proportion of women starting up businesses in Austria is now around 50 percent, and women make up 47 percent of the total number of entrepreneurs. The figures also show, as Sabine Jungwirth from the Green Economy says, that female founders are becoming younger and younger.

The logical consequence of this is that the issue of parenthood is becoming more important for the self-employed, while for female entrepreneurs it is primarily the issue of maternity allowance and so-called business assistance, explains Jungwirth, explaining why her group is increasingly focusing on the issue. While maternity allowance is being received, i.e. for 16 weeks, the business must be put on hold, and the second option of using subsidized business assistance as replacement worker often fails in practice due to the fact that a graphic designer, masseuse or business consultant is in fact their own company and cannot be replaced in the short term – on top of this there is a shortage of skilled workers in many areas.

Katy Bayer is a freelance graphic designer in Vorarlberg © Broell.cc

Sophie Meierhofer, 35, from Carinthia, is an example of why it is not easy to keep your own shop running in the weeks before and after the birth of a child with the help of business support. About two years ago, she started her own business in Klagenfurt. “Little Freedom” founded a platform for sustainability, which includes a packaging-free store. The law graduate, who previously worked in the legal profession for five years and is now 24 weeks pregnant, thought that she could read guidelines and laws quite well when she found out about the possibilities of taking advantage of business support.

None of the information material she got hold of on the subject stated that only “external” people can be registered as business assistants, she says. “My part-time employee would be happy to top up her hours for this time – it’s only a mere three months – but she’s not allowed to work as a business assistant because she’s already employed by me,” says Meierhofer, explaining how her plan to combine childbirth and entrepreneurship has evaporated into thin air. Hiring a person she doesn’t know, who would first have to be trained in the case of her special store concept (which would require a part-time position), full-time for three months “so that I can fire her afterwards” is not an option for her.

Exception as a solution

A solution The solution to the problem could of course be an exemption, as is possible through the business assistance associations of the respective regional chambers of commerce. Roswitha Zisser from the “Operational Assistance Carinthia” says: “We always try to find a solution, we just have to give the social insurance for the self-employed sufficient reasons why an exception is necessary.” The background: In principle, it is not in the spirit of the matter to fire employees who have been with the company for many years and then hire them as business assistants. “After all, this is associated with some disadvantages in terms of employment law,” says Zisser, referring to notice periods that change with a new registration. In fact, last year in Carinthia there was only one case of maternity protection for female entrepreneurs and so far this year only one – both in the catering industry. According to Zisser, female entrepreneurs almost exclusively choose to receive maternity allowance in the event of pregnancy and temporarily suspend their business – “because that is the more attractive option for them.”

2012 similar experiences

Katy Bayer, who had just started her business, had no other option than to put her business on hold during her pregnancy. Graphic design office “Green Checkered” in Vorarlberg when she found out in 2012 that she was pregnant with her daughter. Meierhofer’s report reminds her of her own situation at the time: “The maternity allowance was still relatively new and I thought quite naively, as I know today, that it would all work out somehow – only to then have the same experience as Sophie today: There was no sufficient information.”

What do Sophie Meierhofer and Katy Bayer say to those who argue that the situation of self-employed people is completely different and that everyone is responsible for themselves? “It cannot be the case that women entrepreneurs cannot afford children. There should be no either/or here.” The statistics, however, show a different picture, as Jungwirth says: “The birth rate among employed women is two and a half times higher than among self-employed women.”