The Association between Family Care and Paid Work among Women in Germany: Does the Household Economic Context Matter?

Abstract

Owing to the rapid ageing of societies, studying the labour market consequences of caring for ill, disabled or frail old-age partners, parents and/or other family members (hereafter: ‘family care’) is of urgent concern. Previous research has mainly concentrated on examining the impact of differing family care situations on women’s employment. Building on household decision-making approaches, this study focuses on the moderating role of the household economic situation in the family care–employment relationship among women. Cox shared frailty regression analyses of German Socio-Economic Panel data (SOEP, 2004–2017) indicate that the family care–employment relationship depends not simply on time committed to care but is also stratified by household economic situations: full-time employed, low-intensity caregivers down-scale to part-time hours only in more affluent households; full-time to non-employment transitions are more likely for married, high-intensity caregivers; part-time to non-employment transitions are more likely for high-intensity caregivers contributing marginally to the household income.