IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17850.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Balancing Work and Care: How Workplace Factors Can Mitigate the Gendered Impacts of Caregiving

Author

Listed:
  • Firouzi Naeim, Peyman

    (University of Technology, Sydney)

  • Johnston, David W.

    (Monash University)

  • Naghsh Nejad, Maryam

    (University of Technology, Sydney)

Abstract

Parental caregiving responsibilities can disrupt paid work, contributing to persistent gender inequalities in employment and earnings. Using Australian employer-employee linked data and a dynamic difference-in-differences approach, this study examines how workplace environments shape the impacts of caregiving shocks, focusing on working parents of children diagnosed with cancer. Mothers experience large and persistent earnings losses, while fathers’ outcomes remain stable. Supportive firms and occupations, defined by high female representation in senior roles and lower work hour intensity, significantly reduce mothers’ earnings penalties. These findings highlight the important role of workplace conditions in reducing gendered economic costs of caregiving.

Suggested Citation

  • Firouzi Naeim, Peyman & Johnston, David W. & Naghsh Nejad, Maryam, 2025. "Balancing Work and Care: How Workplace Factors Can Mitigate the Gendered Impacts of Caregiving," IZA Discussion Papers 17850, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17850
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17850.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wen, Jiayi & Huang, Haili, 2024. "Parental health penalty on adult children’s employment: Gender differences and long-term consequences," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    2. Itzik Fadlon & Torben Heien Nielsen, 2019. "Family Health Behaviors," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(9), pages 3162-3191, September.
    3. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2013. "Female Labor Supply: Why Is the United States Falling Behind?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 251-256, May.
    4. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2019. "Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 181-209, October.
    5. Courtney Coile & Maya Rossin-Slater & Amanda Su, 2022. "The Impact of Paid Family Leave on Families with Health Shocks," NBER Working Papers 30739, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Anand, Priyanka & Dague, Laura & Wagner, Kathryn L., 2022. "The role of paid family leave in labor supply responses to a spouse's disability or health shock," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "A Most Egalitarian Profession: Pharmacy and the Evolution of a Family-Friendly Occupation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(3), pages 705-746.
    8. Carlos Dobkin & Amy Finkelstein & Raymond Kluender & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2018. "The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 308-352, February.
    9. Petter Lundborg & Erik Plug & Astrid Würtz Rasmussen, 2017. "Can Women Have Children and a Career? IV Evidence from IVF Treatments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1611-1637, June.
    10. Pilar García-Gómez & Hans van Kippersluis & Owen O’Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2013. "Long-Term and Spillover Effects of Health Shocks on Employment and Income," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(4), pages 873-909.
    11. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1, March.
    12. Eriksen, Tine L. Mundbjerg & Gaulke, Amanda & Skipper, Niels & Svensson, Jannet, 2021. "The impact of childhood health shocks on parental labor supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Blau, Francine D. & Kahn, Lawrence M., 2013. "Female Labor Supply: Why is the US Falling Behind?," IZA Discussion Papers 7140, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Claudia Goldin, 2014. "A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1091-1119, April.
    15. Patricia Cortés & Jessica Pan, 2023. "Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1359-1409, December.
    16. Aaskoven, Maiken Skovrider & Kjær, Trine & Gyrd-Hansen, Dorte, 2022. "Effects of parental health shocks on children's school achievements: A register-based population study," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Itzik Fadlon & Torben Heien Nielsen, 2021. "Family Labor Supply Responses to Severe Health Shocks: Evidence from Danish Administrative Records," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 1-30, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Canaan, Serena & Harmon, Nikolaj & Royer, Heather, 2019. "Is Parental Leave Costly for Firms and Coworkers?," IZA Discussion Papers 12870, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Achyuta Adhvaryu & N. Meltem Daysal & Snaebjorn Gunnsteinsson & Teresa Molina & Herdis Steingrimsdottir, 2023. "Child Health, Parental Well-Being, and the Social Safety Net," CESifo Working Paper Series 10418, CESifo.
    3. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2020. "Alternative Work Arrangements," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 631-658, August.
    4. Chu, Yu-Wei Luke & Cuffe, Harold E. & Doan, Nguyen, 2020. "Motherhood Employment Penalty and Gender Wage Gap Across Countries: 1990–2010," MPRA Paper 99866, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Emily Nix & Martin Eckhoff Andresen, 2019. "What Causes the Child Penalty? Evidence from Same Sex Couples and Policy Reforms," Discussion Papers 902, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    6. Gabriella Conti & Rita Ginja & Petra Persson & Barton Willage, 2024. "The menopause "penalty"," IFS Working Papers W24/05, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    7. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauer & Josef Zweimüller, 2024. "Do Family Policies Reduce Gender Inequality? Evidence from 60 Years of Policy Experimentation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 110-149, May.
    8. Berniell, Inés & Berniell, Lucila & Mata, Dolores de la & Edo, María & Marchionni, Mariana, 2021. "Gender gaps in labor informality: The motherhood effect," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    9. Wen, Jiayi & Huang, Haili, 2024. "Parental health penalty on adult children’s employment: Gender differences and long-term consequences," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Bütikofer, Aline & Jensen, Sissel & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2018. "The role of parenthood on the gender gap among top earners," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 103-123.
    11. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García‐Peñalosa, 2025. "Interactions among gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 72(1), February.
    12. Lara Lebedinski & Cristiano Perugini & Marko Vladisavljević, 2023. "Child penalty in Russia: evidence from an event study," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 173-215, March.
    13. Crego, Julio & Kárpáti, Daniel & Kværner, Jens & Renneboog, Luc, 2022. "The Economic Value of Eliminating Diseases," Other publications TiSEM 8b51764f-3ccd-4bb8-9da1-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Dominique Meurs & Elena Vilar & Claudio Lucifora, 2019. "Having a child? Here is the bill - Parenthood, Earnings and Careers in an Internal Labor," EconomiX Working Papers 2019-13, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    15. Salokangas, Henri, 2024. "Mental disorders and earnings in the short and the very long term," SocArXiv tcer4, Center for Open Science.
    16. Fortin, Nicole M. & Bell, Brian & Böhm, Michael, 2017. "Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap: Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 107-123.
    17. Gørtz, Mette & Sander, Sarah & Sevilla, Almudena, 2025. "Does the child penalty strike twice?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    18. Ana Costa-Ramón & Ursina Schaede & Michaela Slotwinski & Anne Ardila Brenøe, 2024. "(Not) thinking about the future: inattention and maternal labor supply," ECON - Working Papers 452, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    19. Paige N. Park, 2022. "Occupational Attainment Among Parents in Germany and the US 2000–2016: The Role of Gender and Immigration Status," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2447-2492, December.
    20. Ning Li, 2023. "Health and household labor supply: instantaneous and adaptive behavior of an aging workforce," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1359-1378, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    workplace; gender gap; child health; caregiving; earnings;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17850. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.