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Higher replacement rates often imply higher levels of absenteeism, yet even in generous welfare economies, employers provide sick pay in addition to the public sick pay. Using comparative population-representative workplace data for Britain and Norway, we show that close to 50% of private sector employers in both countries provide sick pay in excess of statutory sick pay. However, the level of statutory sick pay is also much higher in Norway than in Britain. In both countries, private sick pay as well as other benefits provided by employers are chosen by employers in a way that maximizes profits having accounted for different dimensions of labor costs. Several health-related privately provided benefits are often bundled. In both countries easy-to-train workers, high turnover and risky work are linked to less extensive employer provision of extended sick leave and sick pay in excess of statutory sick pay. In contrast, the presence of a trade union agreement is strongly correlated with both the provision of private sick pay and extended sick leave in Britain but not in Norway. We show that the sickness absence rate is much higher in Norway than in Britain. However, the higher level of absenteeism in Norway compared to Britain relates to the threshold for statutory sick pay in the Norwegian public sick pay legislation. When we take this difference into account, no significant difference remains.

This chapter examines the evolution of the number of days spent on sick leave following the 2011 reform which halved the maximum sick benefit provided by statutory health insurance in Hungary. This policy change sharply decreased benefits for a large group of high earners, while leaving the incentive to claim sickness benefits unchanged for lower earners, providing us with a “quasi-experimental” setup to identify the incentives effect of sickness benefits. We use a difference-in-differences type methodology to evaluate the short-term effect of the reform. We rely on high-quality administrative data and analyze a sample comprised of prime-age male employees with high earnings and stable employment. Our results show that the number of days spent on sick leave fell substantially for those experiencing the full halving of benefits. Estimating the response of the number of sick days with respect to the fall in potential sickness benefits, we find a significant elasticity of −0.45.

Prior to widespread social insurance, European governments experimented with a variety of programs to protect workers from income loss due to illness. This paper examines the consequences for worker absenteeism of making sickness insurance coverage voluntary or compulsory. Medical benefits appear to have reduced absenteeism for all workers. The effect of paid sick leave depended on insurance fund membership status. Better-paid workers found it easier to take time off in compulsory than in voluntary funds. Distinctive information problems plagued voluntary systems, and eventually were resolved by rejecting the voluntary ideal and forcing all workers into a single risk pool.

This chapter reviews the existing empirical evidence on how social insurance affects health. Social insurance encompasses programs primarily designed to insure against health risks, such as health insurance, sick leave insurance, accident insurance, long-term care insurance, and disability insurance as well as other programs, such as unemployment insurance, pension insurance, and country-specific social insurance programs. These insurance systems exist in almost all developed countries around the world. This chapter discusses the state-of-the art evidence on each of these social insurance systems, briefly reviews the empirical methods for identifying causal effects, and examines possible limitations to these methods. The findings reveal robust and rich evidence on first-stage behavioral responses (“moral hazard”) to changes in insurance coverage. Surprisingly, evidence on how changes in coverage impact beneficiaries’ health is scant and inconclusive. This lack of identified causal health effects is directly related to limitations on how human health is typically measured, limitations on the empirical approaches, and a paucity of administrative panel data spanning long-time horizons. Future research must be conducted to fill these gaps. Of particular importance is evidence on how these social insurance systems interact and affect human health over the life cycle.

Few studies have investigated the relationship between work-family human resource practices and firm-level outcomes. Several organizational studies have addressed the antecedents to firm adoption of work-family initiatives; however, the majority of work-family research investigates the relationship between work-family practices and individual-level outcomes. The current paper begins by providing a critical analysis and synthesis of the extant work-family literature. In addition, we integrate the organizational learning research on firm commitment to work-family policies and the human resource model. We suggest that the level of firm commitment moderates the relationship between work-family policies, the human resource model, and firm performance. Several propositions for future work-family research are presented.

The issues of women empowerment and gender equality have gained the increased attention of scholars and policymakers in Western societies. Gender diversity and the professional participation of women are increasingly acknowledged as transversal drivers for economic development. However, in less developed countries, research and evidence are still accumulating. Thus, this study aims to explore actors and factors empowering female talent to work and achieve managerial positions and run their businesses in two countries with patriarchal social and cultural norms, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan. Based on the qualitative interview data collected from 15 female managers and entrepreneurs working in the healthcare sector, we explore the conditions under which women can start their businesses and get promoted to managerial positions in the organizations. Our findings indicate that individual agencies and structural factors in female talent capacity building and empowering women to achieve higher hierarchical positions in organizations form together important dynamics that foster more inclusive practices and internalized schemes. Furthermore, the findings also demonstrate the importance of female talent empowerment in achieving gender diversity in managerial positions in healthcare organizations. Hence, by stating that increased female talent participation in the upper-echelons of the organization and entrepreneurship contributes to the decent employment of women in countries with male-dominated social and cultural norms and promotes the more inclusive and sustainable economic growth of these countries, our research contributes to United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) #5.5, #8.5 and #10.2.

Despite the important implications for families, limited research has examined how workplace environments influence parenting behavior. Situated within the Work–Home Resources Model, the purpose of this study was to investigate (a) whether workplace flexibility, a contextual resource, predicts positive parenting behavior, a home outcome, and (b) whether work–family guilt mediates this relationship. A sample of working mothers with children between the ages of 1 and 18 (N = 302) completed an online survey. Linear regression analyses indicated perceived workplace flexibility predicted overall positive parenting, positive reinforcement, and warmth behaviors in working mothers, but not proactive parenting or supportiveness. Ordinary least squares (OLS) path analyses indicated work–family guilt did not mediate these relationships, but was significantly associated with workplace flexibility, indicating workplace flexibility had a significant negative effect on work–family guilt. The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that mothers’ workplace flexibility may influence positive parenting behaviors; thus, policies that promote flexible work arrangements could promote positive family outcomes and reduce feelings of guilt related to work and family life.

Purpose: This paper aims to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between gendered ageism and sustainable work in Croatian context through the perspective of the founders of the Association of Women 50+, the first association which gathers women aged 50 and above in the Republic of Croatia.

Method: Using a case study approach, semi-structured interviews with four founders of the Association of Women 50+ were conducted and the questions were divided into three sets. The Transcripts were analysed through unitising data and then the answers were fit into those three sets.

Findings: Gendered ageism represents a serious obstacle to employability and work progression for older women. Looking at the gendered ageism in the realm of the workplace through the eyes of four women, founders of Association of Women 50+, the first association in the Republic of Croatia which empowers women aged 50 and above discovers that gender ageism must not be ignored.

Research limitations: The results derived from this case study cannot be generalised since they are based on a single case in one country and the interview sample is small.

Social implications: The results derived from this case study can serve as a valuable resource for national political decision-makers to get a deeper understanding of the relationship between gendered ageism and sustainable work in the Republic of Croatia.

Originality/value of paper: The paper represents the first research on the relationship between gendered ageism and sustainable work in the Republic of Croatia for women aged 50 and above.

This chapter conceptualizes forms and processes of erasure and visibility of migrant domestic workers through the analysis of interview data, media coverage, and public policy. This chapter builds on the existing literature on foreign domestic labor by synthesizing a framework to better represent the mechanisms that produce instances of visibility and erasure; these include transnational forces of erasure like sexism, xenophobia, and domestic labor stigma that interact with country-specific policies and norms. Within this framework of visibility and erasure, we also delineate different aspects of each, such as spatial erasure, erasure in the media, and self-erasure. Finally, this chapter explores how each of these components interconnect into a system of erasure, each aspect enabling another aspect in dampening the individuality of migrant domestic workers. This chapter is intended to illuminate the realities of erasure with careful specificity, while still crediting domestic workers for their resilience and creativity in promoting their own visibility.