In the context of population ageing, extended working lives, and the care crisis, reconciling paid work with care for older people is one of the key challenges of contemporary societies. Employed family carers often face conflicting demands of labour market and long-term care policies, particularly in intensive care situations, where such demands may lead to work-care conflicts, adjustments in labour market participation, and a lower quality of life. For appropriate support, it is essential to understand the everyday strategies employed family carers use to reconcile paid work and care, as well as the individual and contextual factors that shape this process. The dissertation examines the reconciliation of paid work and informal care for older adults within a familialist care regime and draws theoretically on the capability approach and care poverty. The qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with employed family carers of older people (n = 53). The interviewed carers cared for older people who received either a combination of formal and informal care (n = 41) or informal care only (n = 12). The data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The analysis showed that employed family carers in a familialist care regime develop a complex set of everyday strategies to reconcile paid work and care for older adults. These strategies are often not the result of free choice, but respond to structural constraints, inadequate resources, and specific individual and contextual factors that shape the use of available resources. The scientific contribution of the dissertation lies in extending the concept of care poverty through a dyadic approach, which foregrounds the relational nature of care and the interdependence of resources, conversion factors, capabilities, choices, and consequences of both members of the care dyad into a dyadic model of capabilities to reconcile paid work and informal care of older adults.
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