II. Review of Related Literature
Because of the dearth of available literature on the impact of family eldercare responsibilities on the labour market of South Africa and Canada the researcher will present in this section piecemeal information about ageing and the labour market of each of the two aforementioned countries. The next section will generally discuss the implication of family eldercare obligations on the labour market of both developing and developed countries. Nevertheless, it is important, above all, to discuss first the theoretical foundation of this study.
A. Theoretical Paradigm
In conceptualising the labour market in the perspective of the family, time distribution frameworks are suitable. The influential work of Becker elaborating the time distribution theory pioneered an amended choice theory, putting comparative minor relevance on both predetermined time and income in household production (Lilly 2008). Becker, in his paradigm, views consumption products bought by a family as either time-rigorous or income-exhaustive goods. This classification allows us to predict an alteration in the combination of these goods when, for example, the income of a person increases (Lilly 2008). This kind of occurrence would initiate a change in the comparative physical values of time-rigorous and income-exhaustive products.
Hence, it can be assumed that an increase in income will produce a movement away from time-rigorous towards income-exhaustive products, leading to a reduction in the required sum of time for spending, thus generating more time for work. The fundamental components of the time distribution paradigm are the functions of home production and value (Kyung Do 2008). These utilities of production measure the required time to translate market procurements into consumption products. Each person evaluates their efficiency in the home against their efficiency at work to identify their most favourable time distribution between the labour market and household (Kyung Do 2008). With the objective being capitalisation of the functions and value of the household, people with comparatively low income may realise that their time is more favourably used fulfilling obligations at home (Kyung Do 2008), creating consumption products from time-rigorous goods.
An adjustment in either a person’s labour earnings or their household efficiency triggers a change in the comparative value of conflicting utilities of the person’s time. The substitution outcomes and produced earnings change the combination of market and household productivity to best distribute time so as to capitalise on the household’s value (Harper 2004). This general time distribution paradigm establishes the groundwork of the current study. The paradigm is adapted in a way that the wellbeing of a family member is a good generated in the household, with some mixture of income-exhaustive and time-rigorous commodities.
In relation to the above discussion, the current study focuses on how the labour involvement of a person is influenced by the presence of an ailing member of the family. The functional value of an individual is exposed to financial limitations and time pressures, and capitalisation under these circumstances establishes best possible demand for utility commodities and household against work time.
The family production value shows the person’s capacity to generate services in the household opposed to buying them. Time in household production comprises care for the elderly. Time in work is determined residually, or specifically the amount of time remaining after completion of home and leisure production time (Harper 2004). If an ailing member of the family requires care, this can be given either immediately by members of the family or obliquely by marketplace purchases. The way care is given relies crucially on the income of the members of the family (Kyung Do 2008). A person is more prone to be absent from the labour market and at home providing care for an ailing member of the family if his/her labour income is below their time utility in eldercare (Durant & Christian 2007) and other household production.
Caregivers, on the other hand, are less prone to withdraw from the labour market if they confront a substantial opportunity cost of departure. Members of the family with comparatively high earnings will stay in the labour market on the condition that their earnings go beyond their time value at home. Hence, most favourable time distribution between eldercare time and labour force will change as earnings change, emphasising the requirement for additional research.
B. Ageing
Demographic ageing, or more commonly known as population ageing, generally means the “process by which the older population (60 years or older)* become a proportionally larger component of the total population” (Joubert & Bradshaw 1995, 206). Ageing of a population is a result of a demographic change in the population from higher to lower mortality and fertility rates. Global movement of people is also a cause (Joubert & Bradshaw 1995). Throughout this course, according to Joubert and Bradshaw (1995), the population’s composition and structure shifts from a wide-based pyramid form with large numbers of young people to a more column-like form with enlarged numbers of adults and older adults.
Even though firstly encountered by industrialised nations, ageing of the population is presently an international concern, experienced in almost all societies across the globe. Population ageing has turned into a well-documented fact and societal problem in industrialised countries, but is generally less documented and less of a societal problem in LDCs (Messenger 2004). This comparative indifference reported in many LDCs is paradoxical (Joubert & Bradshaw 1995, 204):
First, in the year 2000, that part of the world was home to 62% of the world’s older persons, and secondly, the world’s older population is growing at a much faster rate in the less compared to the more developed regions, which means that the older population will be increasingly concentrated in the less developed regions.
Population ageing in an LDC (South Africa) and developed nation (Canada) will be shown in the next sections.
b.1. South Africa
South Africa has been documented as one of the countries that is currently experiencing drastic population ageing, and in spite of the demographic effect of the outbreak of AIDS, the population is predicted to keep on ageing (Evans & Becker 2009). According to the 2001 population survey, South Africa has 3.28 million older adults, comprising 7.3 percent of the overall population (Joubert & Bradshaw 2006, para 2). Hence, the country’s population is regarded as one of the oldest populations in demographic terms in Africa. The population of South Africa, according to Joubert and Bradshaw (2006), shows comparable ageing levels as those in nations of Samoa, Mexico, India, and Brazil.
Nevertheless, these figures may be considered low, or basically lower than the figures in several industrialised countries in 2000, like Japan (23.3%), Greece (23.4%), and Italy (24.1%), but is greater than the 2000 figures in virtually all other countries in Africa, excluding Reunion (9.9%) and Mauritius (9%) (Joubert & Bradshaw 2006, para 2). According to some estimates, the population of South Africa, in spite of the HIV epidemic, will escalate over the next decades.
b.2 Canada
Similar to South Africa, Canada confronts serious population ageing at the advent of the new millennium. According to a 2001 census, the ratio is in eight Canadian one is at least 65 years of age. It has been estimated that in 2026, in five Canadian one will be 65 years of age (Health Canada 2002, 1). Older adults comprise the most rapidly increasing population sector in Canada. It was reported in 2001, as stated in Health Canada (2002, 3) that 3.92 million people in the country were at least 65 years old, a proportion that is higher than the 1981 figures.
The percentage of older adults in the general population has increased from one in twenty to one in eight from 1921 to 2001 (Health Canada 2002). In actual fact, the explosion of the older adult population will comprise almost half of the expansion of the general population of Canada in the next decades (Public Health Agency of Canada 2009, para 2). As further stated by the Public Health Agency of Canada (2009, para 3-4), the percentage of Canadians at least 85 years of age is predicted to increase to 1.6 million in the next three decades, which is 4 percent of the general population of Canada.
One of the primary roots of Canada’s ageing population is the change in the rates of fertility since 1945 (Public Health Agency of Canada 2009, para 3):
The fertility rate was three children or more per woman from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. It then fell rapidly, and has remained below the rate for natural replacement of the population for the last thirty years. The current fertility rate of 1.5 children per woman is expected to remain relatively constant for coming decades.
This trend makes up a remarkable increase in the “baby boomers” population, according to Lilly (2008) who will affect Canada by virtue of the size of their population over the next decades.
Another major cause of population ageing in Canada is the increase in life expectancy. As the ageing of the population of the country will be substantial, the percentage of older adults in Canada is presently less than in numerous other developed nations (Lilly 2008). This condition provides the country the opportunity to prepare for the impending swell in the population of its older adults. Nevertheless, in the near future, the population of the country is predicted to age more drastically than that of other developed nations as the huge baby boomer population has an effect (Lilly 2008). For instance, the percentage of older adults in Canada’s general population should be almost similar to that of the United Kingdom (Public Health Agency Canada 2009) over the next two decades.
C. The Impact of Informal or Family Eldercare on the Labour Market
One of the recognised economic effects of eldercare is linked to labour market involvement. Informal providers of care are less probable to be involved in the labour market. Country variations in the rates of employment between non-carers and carers may be connected to the total labour market involvement prospects and rates for part-time employment (Williams 2000). For example, the discrepancy in employment is modest in Nordic societies and has a tendency to be greater in Poland, Spain and Greece (Joubert & Bradshaw 1995). Concurrently, as further stated by Joubert and Bradshaw (1995), in Spain and Greece, vast proportions of family care providers are home makers.
In other nations, like Italy and Austria, a big percentage of care providers are observed among retired people. In contrast, no evident trend is discovered between the population of informal providers of care and the kind of employment (O’Connor, Orlof, & Shaver 1999). Restricted labour market involvement does not simply imply lower rates of employment but also less allocated time for full-time job. Certainly, according to O’Connor and colleagues (1999), when carers are at work, they spend typically two hours a week working than non-carers; carers also have a tendency to be overstated in part-time employment.
Moreover, obligations of eldercare may have an effect on employment preferences and job stability. This may clarify why providers of care are more prone to enter a provisional employment contract. In fact, in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, providers of care are 30 percent more probable to enter a provisional employment contract (Joubert & Bradshaw (2006). Family eldercare can be a taxing activity that is unsuited to a full-time employment or with other forms of jobs. Existing employment opportunities may not be sufficiently flexible with regard to leave preferences or working hours to give room for eldercare obligations. Caring responsibilities may be erratic with regard to their extent, resulting in work tardiness and absences (Williams 2000). Concurrently, providers of care have diverse levels of human capital, and socioeconomic and demographic features (Mueller 2000) which may affect decisions to participate.
Choices among family members regarding who will be the provider of care or whether to register for formal care may be linked to various opportunities in the labour market and capacity to earn, as providers of care have a tendency to be older and have lesser educational attainments (Lechner & Neal 1999). Decisions to participate in the labour market may be affected by other unidentified and identified features of providers of care and it is imperative to regulate such variables when studying the effect of caring obligations on carers’ labour market involvement.
Studies monitoring people over time tender the chance to determine whether the relationship between labour market involvement and eldercare is brought about by the unfavourable impact of care giving on availability for employment, or whether people with inadequate employment opportunities are more probable to take part in caring duties. Moreover, socioeconomic standing influences both labour market rates and provision of care due to the fact that socially deprived families could be more probable to take part in provision of care and have poorer labour market prospects (Evans & Becker 2009). Several findings demonstrate a differential effect relying on the level of care provision (OECD 2011, 93): ‘the greater the hours of care provided, carers are proportionally more likely to give up paid employment. Increasing hours of care by 1% results in carers being more likely to stop working by 10%.’
The effect of care provision on employment opportunities is less significant than other variables: the presence of illness or disability or poor education have a much greater impact on curbing rates of employment. The effect of care giving on involvement in the labour force arises only when people tender a heightened level of care (OECD 2011). Likewise, the effect is important merely in the case of eldercare. Familial living patterns may reveal the substantial needs of the elderly given care and/or poor accessibility of formal care programmes. According to Durant and Christian (2007), in contrast, care giving does not result in limited labour market involvement when caring duties engage only little time.
It is simpler to merge care giving and work when only little time is required for the provision of care. Such providers of care may further be giving care to more independent persons or as a supplement to a primary provider of care, offering them more resilience. Deciding to stay at work can aid care givers to deal with escalating expenses and a cutback in their disposable earnings. Although various definitions of informal providers of care narrow the relevance of cross-country analysis on the effect of care giving duties across societies (Joubert & Bradshaw 2006), certain crude trends surface.
Specifically, being an informal or family provider of care is not linked to a substantial decrease in employment rates in northern European nations. Countries in southern Europe, on the other hand, show a sharper reduction in employment for informal providers of care (O’Connor et al. 1999). This geographic difference may be clarified by the greater labour market involvement in northern societies and various initiatives (OECD 2011) which may support a more favourable combination of family duties and work.
Another description of the relationship between labour market involvement and care giving can be discerned in the previously reported variations in the site and level of care across nations. Provision of care also results in decreased working time across all nations but in northern European countries (OECD 2011). It results in a higher drop in working time in southern European countries than in central Europe. It has also been shown in some studies that work hours are responsive to an adjustment in care giving hours (Kittay & Feder 2002): ‘a 1% increase in hours of care translates, on average, into slightly more than 1% decrease in hours of work’ (Kittay & Feder 2002, 123). Additional variables, particularly those related with socio-demographic forces like education, are relevant determinants of working time.
The effect of care giving does not result in decreased work time in instances of lesser care giving duties and can be assuaged by working time flexibility. When care givers gain from flexible working time, this has a tendency to elevate their working time (Williams 2000). Earlier studies have demonstrated how voluntary care giving is linked to lower employment opportunities and decreased working time for employees. Concurrently, a vast number of employees will confront a process of decision making where both alternatives are taken into account at the same time (Mueller 2000), such as whether to shorten working hours or whether to leave the labour force.
This decision rests on various factors, specifically those related with socioeconomic condition of the provider of care and on the prospects of shortening working hours. However, according to some studies, providers of care are much more probable to leave the labour force than to decrease working time (Mueller 2000). For instance, in the UK, voluntary care giving is linked to a greater chance of both transferring to part-time employment and discontinuing work. The comparative risk proportions on the likelihood of non-employment are nevertheless much greater than for part-time employment (Joubert & Bradshaw 2006). This finding is also reported for women in other developed nations whilst men are predisposed to enter part-time employment.