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Caregiving, Work, and Wages

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM (PST)

Parc 55, Mission 1
Hosted By: Labor and Employment Relations Association
  • Chair: Teresa Ghilarducci, The New School

Capital and the Direct Care Sector

Jessica Forden
,
The New School
Anastasia Wilson
,
Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Abstract

Growing demand for home and community-based long-term services and supports has attracted private sector investments to the direct care sector. Limited literature suggests increased concentration and private equity are key trends to consider. This paper adds to the nascent literature by providing a mapping of the current landscape of the direct care services industry, with a focus on understanding the recompositioning of the sector amongst private sector players and current trends in private equity leveraged buyouts, mergers, and acquisitions. Through examination of trade publications, private financial markets data, and individual interviews, we consider the impact of these industry shifts on the flow of public funds to direct care workers and on the impacts to working conditions, worker power, and the labor process.

The Caregiving Penalty: Caring for Sick Parents and the Gender Pay Gap

Emilia Brito
,
University of California-Los Angeles

Abstract

The aging of the population is increasing the demand for adult caregiving. In most of the world, care for the elderly and sick is provided almost exclusively by families and, within families, by women. This paper studies the impact of adult caregiving on gender inequality in the labor market. Using administrative data from Chile, we leverage variation in a parental health shock the first cancer hospitalization of a parent to examine who bears the burden of adult caregiving. After a parental health shock, daughters but not sons experience a reduction in employment and earnings. A parental health shock creates a caregiving penalty the effect of the shock on daughters relative to sons of 11% on earnings, increasing the overall gender pay gap by 9%. These penalties affect women even if they earn more than their partners or brothers, suggesting that gender norms influence the distribution of adult caregiving. Additionally, penalties are concentrated among women who are mothers, suggesting a correlation across the life cycle between care given to children and then to aging parents.

Impacts of Sandwich Caregiving on Labor Market Outcomes

Jessica Forden
,
The New School
Aida Farmand
,
University of California-Berkeley
Siavash Radpour
,
Stockton University

Abstract

This study delves into the dynamics of caregiving and its impact on labor market outcomes, with a focus on the often-overlooked segment of sandwich caregivers defined as individuals engaged in both childcare and adult care. Utilizing data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) spanning the years 2012 to 2022, our findings reveal significant trends: women of all ages are more likely than men to be sandwich caregivers, individuals with higher educational attainment tend to assume sandwich caregiving roles later in life, and black workers are more inclined to provide sandwich care at an earlier age. Moreover, Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) is employed to estimate unbiased treatment effects while propensity score matching is used to model interactions between sandwich caregiving gender and race. Results indicate that sandwich caregivers are 5.7 percent less likely to participate in the labor force and, for those employed, work 5 hours less per week compared to non-caregiving workers, with more pronounced effects on female and nonwhite workers. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the impacts of sandwich caregiving responsibilities on extensive and intensive margins, highlighting the need for policies that address the unique challenges faced by sandwich caregivers, particularly among women and nonwhite workers.

Care Work as a Driver of Inequality and Policies to Reverse the Devaluation of Care

Kate Bahn
,
Institute for Women's Policy Research
Lauren Fung
,
The Urban Institute

Abstract

The paid care sector is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. workforce and has grown significantly in recent decades. Much of this sector faces a well-established caring pay penalty, which contributes to overall trends of job polarization across the labor market. This paper examines the current shape of the care sector following the height of the COVID pandemic, including identifying current job characteristics and care worker characteristics, and it estimates how growth in a sector that is structurally undervalued impacts broader trends of inequality across the labor market by gender, race, ethnicity, and location. To understand how to improve these conditions, this paper establishes that caring labor should be central to U.S. industrial policy and identifies policies and practices that can be taken by various stakeholders to simultaneously improve job quality, improve care provision, and foster a resilient economy. Finally, we conduct a simulation to estimate the impact on wage inequality if care work were supported through public policy and fairly paid for its value to society and human well-being.

Discussant(s)
Martin Garcia Vazquez
,
Washington University in Saint Louis
Lenore Palladino
,
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
JEL Classifications
  • J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs