The end of the golden age: on growing challenges for male workers and their partners to secure a family income.

The article examines how the shift from the traditional male breadwinner model (TMBM) to the adult worker model (AWM) has affected the ability of male Western German service and production workers and their partners to secure sufficient labour earnings to support a family. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1985–2013), the study finds that since the late 1990s, especially following German reunification and major labour market and social policy reforms (Hartz reforms), working-class couples increasingly struggle to achieve a family income above the poverty line, largely due to low wages and low work intensity. The research highlights that adverse employment characteristics have accumulated among these workers and their partners, with service workers more affected than production workers, and that partners’ labour market participation and education have become increasingly important yet insufficient to offset these challenges. The findings suggest a devaluation of the working class’s economic position and raise concerns about growing structural dependency on the welfare state under the AWM framework.