Beyond sacrifice? Long-term employment consequences of providing unpaid care

In today's society, many people either provide care for a loved one with health issues or know someone who is. This unpaid care takes various forms, from emotional support for a grandmother to assisting your partner with daily tasks after surgery. As the population ages, the need for such caregiving is expected to increase, potentially affecting various aspects of caregivers' lives. My sociological research focuses on how caring for a friend or family member with health issues impacts a person's employment. Analyzing survey data over multiple years, I found that combining care and paid work is not always possible, especially when caring for more hours. Some caregivers had to reduce working hours or stopped working altogether, and only a few changed their jobs or became self-employed. Caregivers earned less on average compared to similar non-caregivers and were comparably less satisfied with their work. Interestingly, men who cared were able to improve their wages when dedicating more time to caregiving or after stopping to care. However, overall, the impact of caregiving on paid work was negative, which is expected to worsen with aging populations and increased caregiving needs in the future.