Strategies of informal caregivers to adapt paid work

Abstract

Informal caregiving, meaning taking health-related care of an older and/or disabled person in the personal network, often has consequences for paid work. Classically, scholars focus on two strategies of informal caregivers to adapt employment: stopping to work and reducing working hours. Two other plausible, but neglected, strategies may similarly have career consequences, namely changing jobs and becoming self-employed. First, we empirically assess whether experiencing a work-care conflict is a condition for choosing a work adaption strategy. Second, we theoretically and empirically take a life course (age at start of caregiving episode) and gender perspective on strategies to adapt paid work. We use detailed retrospective data on informal caregiving in the Netherlands (N = 3,673 caregiving episodes of 2,112 caregivers). Applying multilevel logistic regression analysis, we find that caregivers who felt that they had difficulties combining work and care, were more likely to choose any strategy. Especially caregivers who started to provide care at a young age (24 years or younger) were likely to reduce working hours or change jobs. When starting care in the early family formation stage (25–34 years), women were more likely to reduce working hours, whereas men were more likely to stop working in early middle age (45–54 years).