ABSTRACT
The policy of extending working life (EWL) is a topical and important issue. Dependent care responsibilities affect the possibility of performing paid work in Poland. EWL is influenced by local institutional support and the scale of measures implemented by employers aimed at achieving Work-Life Balance (WLB) by their employees. The interest of employers in implementing WLB is greater in companies with more developed Human Resource Management (HRM) systems, which are usually located in large cities due to the attractiveness of their location. Also, the level of development of the institutional infrastructure addressed to caring for children and older people is usually higher in large cities. Thus, it might be expected that in rural areas having dependents will be a greater obstacle to working than in cities, and that this will affect women to a greater extent. An empirical analysis was carried out based on individual data from 2015 Social Diagnosis survey (n = 35,279). Results show that (1) persons aged 50–64 are more affected by care duties as factors limiting their economic activity in comparison with younger adults; (2) women aged 50–64 are the most heavily burdened with care responsibilities in Poland; (3) in general, the impact of care responsibilities on EWL is significant in the case of women, and by place of residence in rural areas and small and medium-sized towns; (4) only in medium-sized towns is the impact of care responsibilities as significant for women as for men; (5) the importance of human capital is greater in medium-sized and large towns than in other towns.
