Across wealthy economies, second jobs are now a routine source of income as housing costs outpace wages. Remote work makes them easier to combine with a main job, while financial insecurity increasingly shapes decisions about starting a family.
For a growing number of workers, one income is no longer enough to keep pace with the cost of ordinary life. Photo: fotografixx/Getty Images
|
At 9 a.m., an office worker joins a Zoom call with one boss. At 11 a.m., the same worker answers questions from a second boss on another conference call. After closing time, a mechanic leaves the workshop and drives directly to a private customer, extending the working day into the evening. For a growing number of households, keeping the family budget in balance means fitting one paid obligation around the next.
One in 10 workers in the Netherlands and Denmark now holds more than one job. Across wealthy economies, millions of people arrange their working lives around more than one source of income.
The startup-era term side hustle gives the arrangement an entrepreneurial sheen. Labor statisticians call it multiple jobholding, a category covering anyone who adds another paid role to a main job. In the United States, 5.4% of workers held multiple jobs in 2025. Australia reached 6.5% in March 2026 after remaining close to record levels since 2022.
Eurostat’s survey puts Germany at 5.1% in 2025. The IAB calculation uses a broader employee-based measure and records 4.68 million secondary jobholders, equivalent to 11.1% of employees. Different coverage explains the gap, while working patterns further shape national rates. The figures encompass second jobs taken for professional variety as well as financial need, sometimes both at once when rewarding work also makes a rent increase manageable.
Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey
When One Salary Stopped Being a Family Wage
For a broad section of postwar Western society, a steady full-time job could support a modest home and children. Housing consumed a smaller share of earnings, and rising real wages made the family wage economically viable. Women’s growing participation in paid work increased economic independence and made two-income households increasingly common. Over time, housing markets and household expectations adjusted to the earnings of both adults.
In the United States, the share of married couples with children who had two incomes rose from one quarter in 1960 to almost six in 10 by 2011. The OECD now observes that families increasingly need two adults in paid work to sustain their income. A household budget built around continuous employment by both adults becomes vulnerable during parental leave or after a job loss.
Across the OECD, housing’s share of middle-income budgets rose from one quarter to almost one third between 1995 and 2015, as house prices grew one and a half times faster than median income. Higher housing costs raise the income required before a couple can consider a larger home or a period of parental leave. In a family already dependent on two earners, a side hustle can become a third income stream, bridging the gap between full-time wages and the cost of ordinary life.
The first Covid lockdowns accelerated multiple jobholding. For office workers, remote work removed the need for a second commute and made paid assignments easier to fit around a main position. Digital platforms widened access to short contracts that could be completed from home.
Public discussion focused on overemployment, the practice of quietly holding two remote full-time positions. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 417,000 people with two full-time jobs in 2025, a broader category that does not reveal whether the jobs were remote or whether the employers knew about each other. Just over five million people combined a full-time main job with part-time work, by far the more common form of multiple employment.
The consequences extend to family formation because parenthood requires financial security and control over time. In a 2026 UNFPA survey of more than 108,000 internet-connected young adults across 73 countries and territories, 88% regarded financial security as important to feeling ready for a child. OECD research also associates higher housing costs and unemployment with lower fertility.
Extra work can bring the required income within reach, but every additional hour reduces the time available for care and recovery. Policies aimed at reversing falling birth rates have to reckon with that calculation, because most of family life takes place in the hours left after paid work.
Placeholder For Topreaded Placeholder For Topreaded
Placeholder
Placeholder
Placeholder For Topreaded Placeholder For Topreaded
Placeholder
Placeholder
Placeholder For Topreaded Placeholder For Topreaded
Placeholder
Placeholder
Placeholder For Topreaded Placeholder For Topreaded
Placeholder
Placeholder
Placeholder For Topreaded Placeholder For Topreaded
Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt
Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt
Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt Here is placeholder for Article excerpt
Welcome to the comments section of the Štandard daily. Please take note of our guidelines, comments are moderated by us. You can contact the moderators at [email protected].
Participate in the discussion
Comments are available to subscribers only. If you'd like to join the discussion, choose a subscription starting at €6.72 per month.
All comments 0
Register
Comments are available to registered users only. If you'd like to join the discussion, register here.
