Caregiving and Work
- Family caregivers comprise 13% of the workforce.
Source: Wagner, D. and Neal, M., "Working Caregivers: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for the Aging Network". National Family Caregivers Support Program, Program Development Issues Briefs, Administration on Aging, DHHS, 2002.
- 59% of family caregivers who care for someone over the age of
18 either work or have worked while providing care. And 62% have
had to make some adjustments to their work life, from reporting
late to work to giving up work entirely.
Source: National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Caregiving in the U.S., 2004.
- 37% of human resource directors did not feel that their
organizations made a real and ongoing effort to inform employees
of available assistance for managing work and family
responsibilities.
Source: Galinsky, E. and Bond, J.T., The 1998 Business Work-Life Study. New York: Families and Work Institute, 1998.
- Women average 14 years out of the paid labor force, primarily
because of caregiving responsibilities.
Source: Maatz, Lisa, President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security. Older Women’s League, August 2001.
- American businesses can lose as much as $34 billion each year
due to employees’ need to care for loved ones 50 years of
age and older.
Source: Metlife Mature Market Institute and National Alliance for Caregiving, MetLife Caregiving Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business, July 2006.
- 10% of employed family caregivers go from full-time to
part-time jobs because of their caregiving responsibilities.
Source: National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Caregiving in the U.S., 2004.
- Both male and female children of aging parents make changes
at work in order to accommodate caregiving responsibilities. Both
have modified their schedules (men 54%, women 56%). Both have
come in late and/or leave early (men 78%, women 84%) and both
have altered their work-related travel (men 38%, women 27%).
Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute, Sons at Work: Balancing Employment and Eldercare, June 2003.
- Over 65% of employers believe that health benefits improve
employees’ health. Sixty percent (60%) believe it increases
morale and 39% believe it increases productivity.
Source: Collins, S.R. et al, Job-based Health Insurance in the balance: Employer Views of Coverage in the Workplace. The Commonwealth Fund, Commonwealth Fund Supplement to the 2003 National Organization Study, March 2004.
- Although hard research does not exist to prove it,
researchers in the field think that only 2% of employed family
caregivers actually take advantage of the benefits their
companies offer.
Source: Dr. Donna Wagner, Professor, Director of Gerontology Program, Towson University.
Reprinted from Statistics on Family Caregivers and Family Caregiving 2006 with permission of the National Family Caregivers Association, Kensington, MD, the nation’s only organization for all family caregivers.
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