Stuck in the Middle: Off-Farm Employment and Caregiving Among Middle-Aged Rural Chinese

Abstract

Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011-12 baseline data, this contribution explores to what extent taking care of grandchildren and frail parents influences rural middle-aged Chinese adults' off-farm employment. The findings show that, conditional on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, taking care of grandchildren has a negative effect on rural middle-aged men's and women's off-farm job participation and hours worked. Caregiving for parents does not have the same negative effects on off-farm employment and hours worked. Furthermore, the study finds that annual earnings are also negatively affected by caregiving responsibilities, especially for women and men taking care of grandchildren.

Grandparent-provided childcare and labor force participation of mothers with preschool children in Urban China

“…The findings reported in the present paper underscore the important role that grandparents played in filling the gap created by the state's withdrawal from providing childcare and sustaining MLFP in reform era urban China. However, studies show that caring for grandchildren decreases the LFP of women aged between 45 and 64 years old (Wang and Zhang 2018;Mao et al 2018), and therefore hinders their ability to accumulate wealth for old age. Thus, grandparents' involvement in childcare does not provides a solution to the work-family conflict Chinese women face from a life-course perspective.…”

The Gender Pension Gap in China

“…3 For instance, during the public sector restructuring in the late 1990s, women were more likely than men to be laid off ( Appleton et al 2002 ). Additionally, women are more likely than men to take the responsibility of caring for grandchildren or elderly parents, and caregiving reduces one’s labor force participation ( Liu, Dong, and Zheng 2010 ; Mao, Connelly, and Chen 2017 ; Wang and Zhang 2017 ). If retirement occurs at a point when women’s age-earning profile is rising, retiring earlier may incur a substantial loss in pension benefits.…”

The Care Economy in Post-Reform China: Feminist Research on Unpaid and Paid Work and Well-Being

“…For both women and men, there are also no statistically significant relationships between caring for elderly parents and labor supply. Caring for elderly urban parents appears to be more flexible and less intensive than caring for a preschool child, a finding that is parallel to that of Mao, Connelly, and Chen (2018) for rural areas.…”

“…According to the analyses by Mao, Connelly, and Chen (2018) and Wang and Zhang (2018), caring for elderly parents has no significant effect on the employment and earnings of middle-aged women and men. But this does not mean that caring for the elderly has no economic cost.…”