Trends in population ageing constitute a potentially important policy dilemma with respect to the organization of elderly care. On the one hand, the probable rise in care requirements, in combination with the challenges related to the fiscal sustainability of the welfare state, suggest that we need to mobilize family resources in order to provide long-term care for older people. On the other hand, the mobilization of family resources may make it difficult for caregivers to participate fully in the labour market, and this may again undermine the fiscal sustainability.
The primary objective of the project is to generate new knowledge on how employees' care obligations for their older parents affect their labour market participation, and to disseminate this knowledge to informed policymaking promoting extended and full-time working lives for employees.
The project is organized into 5 work packages:
By analysing register data, work package 1 will identify and quantify the effects of having a care-needing parent on the supply of labour and the demand for social insurance benefits, and examine how effects are mediated by (combinations of) individual characteristics, enterprises characteristics in different sectors and industries, and family situation.
Work package 2 investigates senior employees' experiences of combining work and care for old parents, and whether the experiences vary with individual characteristics, workplaces in different industries in which the informants work and the parents’ need for help (health status, whether they live alone, live outside institutions). In the spring of 2022, we conducted a survey among 6049 informants in the age group 35-67 years, who had one or both parents alive. We would like to highlight some first main findings. The survey indicates that children’s care giving role towards old parents has changed in the digital society. Help with using new digital technology (managing smartphones, online banking, collecting digital information and having digital contact with the public etc), has become the most common type of help daughters and sons provide to old parents. Sons and daughters still provide various types of practical assistance, but very few provide personal care to their old parents. Almost none of those not participating in the labour market, or those who were working part-time, reported that this was due to their care obligations for older parents. However, a majority of those who were both employed and provided care reported difficulties in combining work and caring for their parents.
In work package 3, we conduct case studies at workplaces in different industries in the labour market, examining potential conflicts of interest between employees and employers. By interviewing employees, labour union representatives, and employers, we explore what it actually means to take care of your own parents when you work and how this is handled at the workplace. In work package 4, similar case studies are carried out at workplaces in Sweden and Denmark.
Based on the findings, the research group will discuss policy with stakeholders, representing the largest Labour union organisation, The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises, the capital (Oslo) and The Centre for Senior policy, in work package 5.
Web: https://uni.oslomet.no/coworkcare/
The primary objective of the project is to generate new knowledge on how senior employees' care obligations for their older parents affect their labour market participation, and to disseminate this knowledge to informed policymaking
promoting extended and full-time working lives for employees who give care to older parents.
Trends in population ageing constitute a potentially important policy dilemma with respect to the organization of elderly care. On the one hand, the probable rise in care requirements, in combination with the challenges related to the fiscal sustainability of the welfare state, suggest that we need to mobilize family resources in order to provide long-term care for older people. On the other hand, the mobilization of family resources may make it difficult for caregivers to participate fully in the labour market, and this may again undermine the fiscal sustainability. This project will identify which employees with parents in need of care are at risk of exiting the labour market, increasing their use of part- time work, and using insurance benefits. The project will examine the significance of individual characteristics, enterprises characteristics in different sectors and industries, and family context.
The theoretical framework is the conflict of interests between increasing needs for care and a relatively lack of people participating in the labour marked. This conflict of interest will be investigated at micro-level (between care giving employees and employers) and at macro level (between the welfare state and the labour marked).
The study will adopt a mixed-method approach and apply both quantitative and qualitative methods. We will combine analyses of uniquely rich administrative population registers, qualitative data and survey data methods within a multidisciplinary research framework. Researchers from the fields of economy, political science and sociology will collaborate in the project.
