Caring for Children and Adults: Differential Access to Family-friendly Work

The importance of parents having access to work arrangements that enable them to adequately care for their children is widely recognised and accepted. Much less attention has been given to the importance of creating work places that allow employees to provide care for elderly, disabled, or ill parents, spouses or other adults. As the population ages over the next few decades, increasing numbers of employees will be providing care for their parents or other adults. This paper presents evidence on the use of flexible work arrangements to provide adult care and how this compares to the use by those caring for children