The Impact of Sandwich Care on Employment and Well-Being in Germany

Abstract

The provision of informal care has received a lot of attention during the past few decades. In the case of recurring parental care needs, adults may find themselves confronted with the task of juggling informal care for their parents and care for their children at the same time. These carers are typically called sandwich carers. Using data from the 2001–2019 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the association between childcare, informal care, and sandwich care on labour earnings, work time, and self-rated health and life satisfaction of caregivers. Our results show that the provision of sandwich care, as well as an increase in care intensity, is associated with a reduction in labour earnings, working hours, and satisfaction with life. Additionally, we found that the effects for labour earnings and working hours also persisted for at least one wave after the provision of care. Analysing our data stratified by sex revealed that only women show significant decreases in their labour earnings and satisfaction with life if providing sandwich care. The combination of different types of care that is inherent in sandwich care comes with its own unique set of challenges and stressors for the carers.