The Paid and Unpaid Working Life Expectancy at 50 in Europe

Amid growing concerns about the economic implications of population aging and the sustainability of older adults' working life, unpaid family care work receives less attention despite its direct relevance to population aging. This article systematically compares the paid and unpaid working life expectancy at age 50 to understand the overlap and trade-off between paid and unpaid work among older European adults.

Using data from the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe with the Sullivan method, the article presents gender differences across 17 countries in life expectancy at age 50 at various paid (employment) and unpaid (caregiving) role configurations.

When work is defined to include unpaid family caregiving, women and men have similar working life expectancies at age 50, in contrast to prior research. However, its paid and unpaid components are gendered. The results also show that at age 50, women are expected to spend a similar number of years providing grandchild care and activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living care and that most of these years take place after retirement.

The results highlight that the gendered tension between paid and unpaid work persists into older adulthood and needs to be accounted for in working life expectancy measures. The results also underscore the gendered implications of population aging and unpaid work in older adulthood for retirement age policies and strategies for promoting gender equality in later life.