1 Gendered effects of intensified care burdens: Employment and sickness absence in families with sick or disabled children. Idunn Brekke Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences - Department of Nursing and Health promotion Marjan Nadim Institute for Social Research Abstract Using longitudinal register data, we examine the impact on maternal and paternal employment, earnings, and sickness absence of having a sick or disabled child. We hypothesise that parents with a sick or disabled child will have lower employment probabilities, lower labour earnings, and higher sickness absence than parents with a healthy child. We assume that mothers are more affected than fathers when having a child with extra care needs. A quasi-experimental difference-in-difference regression model shows that the employment probabilities of parents with a sick or disabled child are comparable to those of parents with a healthy child, and this result applied to both mothers and fathers. In relation to earnings and sickness absence, the analyses reveal that having a sick or disabled child reduces labour earnings and increases long- term sickness absence among mothers. However, fathers’ labour earnings and sickness absence are less affected by having a sick or disabled child. Keywords: disabled child, earnings, extra care needs, gender, labour market, sick child, sickness absence