Highly Praised and Poorly Paid? Professional Care Workers’ Income Across Countries and Occupations

• In Event: 335 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Paper Sessions. Gender Inequality at Work

Abstract

Although professional care work tends to be poorly paid, it is still an open question whether this equally applies to different types of care work and to different countries. We therefore explore variations in care workers’ income across countries and care occupations by analyzing data from the European Labor Force Survey (EU LFS) and the American Current Population Survey (CPS IPUMS) for the year 2011. Our analyses of four different occupational groups in the (early) education and health and elder care sector across 22 countries show that it is principally assistant workers in the care sector who are poorly paid. By contrast, in most countries, skilled care workers tend to earn higher incomes than comparable employees in other occupations. Income differences across countries and care occupations can primarily be explained by the high proportion of women in these jobs. We do not find evidence that union density in the care sector, public expenditure on education and health, or economic demand for professional care work is positively associated with care workers’ incomes.

Authors

• Lena Hipp, WZB Berlin Social Research Center

• Nadiya Kelle