The sick leave costs of reconciling work and parental care among middle-aged - the role of job characteristics and eldercare policy

The project "The sick leave costs of reconciling work and parental care among middle-aged - the role of job characteristics and eldercare policy" highlights possible health consequences and sickness absence of combining employment with parenting. The scenario for almost every country in Europe is that population ageing will shrink the working-age population relative to the number of pensioners, and the need for both formal and informal eldercare will increase in the future. Previous research has largely focused on psychological factors or reduced work activity among families who provide care for needy parents; few have studied health related absence behavior. The project also nuances the theoretical understanding and use of the "double burden hypothesis" in sickness absence research. The project contributes to the theoretical discussion of the "double burden hypothesis" by including other forms of care burdens than caring for their own (small) children. Two of the articles from the project studies gender differences in informal parental care and health related outcomes (Herlofson, K. and Ugreninov, E (2014); Ugreninov, E (2013)). The results indicate that men and women who provide parental care have different patterns when it comes to employment and the domestic division of labour. Female informal caregivers work less than women without parental care responsibilities. Male caregivers are mostly full-time employed; on the other hand, those giving care contribute less in domestic work compared to men without these care responsibilities. Moreover, it also appears that men and women who provide parental care have different patterns regarding health related absenteeism and self-reported poor health. Male caregivers are not more absent from work due to own health than men without care responsibilities, but they are more likely to report poor health. Another pattern is found among women, female caregivers are more absent due to own health than non-caregivers, but there are no differences regarding self-reported poor health. Whether working conditions and high employment can affect health-related absence is unclear (Hamre, K and Ugreninov, E. (2015). Analysis on Norwegian data gives no indication that caregivers working shifts, or in physically demanding jobs, or with poor flexibility have higher sickness absence than caregivers without these job characteristics. On the other hand, the combination of care responsibilities and high work load is correlated with high sickness absence. Female caregivers who work more than 30 hours a week are more absent due to own health than those without these care obligations. The results also point to the fact that a high burden, in terms of combining high employment and care responsibilities for parents, is correlated with longer absence spell. Comparing different care responsibilities, female parental caregivers with small children in the household has no higher risk of having at least on long-term sickness absence spell, however, if they have at least one long-term sickness absence spell, they are more likely to have longer absence spells than mothers without parental care responsibilities. However, the analysis do not handle selection into parenting and poor health. The international contribution to the project is to study informal parenting, employment and health-related absences for all countries included in SHARE (16 European countries). Preliminary analyzes for Europe indicates that informal caregivers with poor flexibility or physical demanding jobs have more health-related absence than informal caregivers with better working conditions. Although these results cannot be directly compared with the findings from Norway, it may still indicate that parts of Europe are facing other challenges related to working and informal care for the elderly. The results from the project have highlighted a theme that has scarcely been studied and is thus an important contribution to the field. Although combining employment and informal parental care may not explain the gender differences in sickness absenteeism in Norway, the findings indicate that a high burden, combining full-time employment and informal parental care, correlates with health related absenteeism. Perhaps the most important contribution on informal care and sickness absenteeism is that an exclusive focus on mothers? caring for own (small) children is too narrow, and that informal parental care should be included in the discussion about care burdens and sickness absence.

Trends in population ageing and a high absentee rate, in particular among women, represent fundamental challenges for the needs of workers in the foreseeable future. Women are seen as a potential source, both to increase the labour force participation an d to decrease the sick leave absence. This comes along with the fact that population aging is likely to increase the domestic pressures for middle-aged employees in form of care-needing parents. There are no social programs in Norway targeted particularly at workers with care-needing parents. Employees in Norway are mainly entitled to unpaid leave to take care of parents. This is rather a costly option for offspring who might favour sick leave absence to avoid economic pitfall of parental care. This motiv ates an interest in exploring the interaction between family obligations, work-related factors and long-term care policy with special focus on the gendered effect of parental care on sick leave absence in middle-aged. The project is organised along three main issues: (i) the gendered effects of informal eldercare on sickness absence, the role of municipalities' eldercare policy, (ii) if job characteristics or occupation can serve as a buffer on caretakers' sick leave absence, (iii) the gendered health eff ects of reconciling work and parental care, a comparison between Netherlands and Norway. A main asset of this proposal is the use of three rich datasets; (1) NorLAG/LOGG surveys supplied with contextual data on municipalities (KOSTRA), (2) administrative register data, and (3) the international dataset SHARE. The project provide rich data with information on sick leave spells from 1993-2010, indicators and measurements on care exchanges, labour force participation and work-related factors. An additional a mbition of the project is to inform policies that will support equal access to, fair consequences of, and a fair distribution of public benefit in this area.