Households are prime locations of risk pooling and redistribution. Household constellations in terms of the number of earners and their occupations define households’ capacity to cushion crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic or rising inflation. The occupational structure and the socio-demographic composition of households continue to vary widely between the former East and West German regions. Against the background of rising levels of in-work poverty in recent years, we extend the prevalence and penalties framework in poverty research to two occupational risks that gained significance in post-Covid-19 labor markets. Our study addresses two questions: 1) How prevalent were household constellations where the only earner or both earners worked in a non-teleworkable and non-essential occupation in East and West Germany in 2019? 2) Did the poverty penalty associated with the only or both earners working in a non-teleworkable and non-essential occupation differ in East and West Germany in 2019? The most recent available data from the German Microcensus (2019, N=179,755 households) is linked to an original data collection on the teleworkability of occupations and the classification of occupations as essential in German federal state decrees in the spring of 2020. Descriptive statistics and regression models show that the prevalence of household constellations where the only earner or both earners worked in a non-teleworkable and non-essential occupation was relatively similar across East and West Germany. In contrast to overall similar prevalences, in East Germany the poverty penalty associated with the only or both earners working in a non-teleworkable and non-essential occupation was substantially elevated. Controlling for known occupational disadvantages, including low education, fixed-term contracts, shift work and the lack of leadership responsibilities narrowed but did not eliminate the sizeable gap in poverty penalties associated with non-teleworkable and non-essential occupations between East and West Germany.