What are Companies Doing to Help Caregivers?

There’s no doubt that the value of unpaid work done by non-professional caregivers is huge – estimated to be nearly $500 billion annually, and exceeding the value of paid home care and total Medicaid spending.

An important piece of the caregiving puzzle is companies, and what they are doing (or not doing) to support the efforts of their caregiving employees. Much like with the advent of working women, when companies were obligated to develop new ways of providing a more flexible work environment for Moms by instituting flex-time and day care (among others), companies today are starting to realize that many of their employees are at risk for having to manage eldercare challenges with their own parents (and sometimes spouse/ partners). And these challenges tend to hit employees right in mid- to late- career, when they are most productive.

Two new studies shed light on workplace challenges, and point out the need for companies to focus on this challenge from a human resources viewpoint:

• A survey of 1,001 working women aged 45 to 60 (not self-employed and caregivers for at least one parent and/or in-law in the United States and Canada) … was just released earlier this week at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conference, the new Daughters in the Workplace survey from Home Instead Senior Care. The study points out some pretty scary realities:
• 50 percent sometimes feel like they have to choose between being a good employee and being a good daughter
• 25 percent say that at their employer, there is a stigma attached with taking time off to care for a parent or parent-in-law
• 23 percent say their supervisor is unsympathetic when it comes to their balancing work and caregiver responsibilities

http://www.nextavenue.org/daughters-caregivers-work/

• A report from the National Partnership for Women & Families outlines the challenges with caregiving and paid leave policies, pointing out that:
• Among the 44 million Americans who provide care to adult family members or children, one-third also work full time (and another 10% work over 30 hrs per week)
• Many of these family caregivers are struggling to manage both their caregiving responsibilities and the jobs they need, especially among those aged 45 to 65, but also among younger caregivers, who are sandwiched in between caring for their parents and their own children
• Only 14% of family caregivers have access to paid leave
• Fewer than 40 percent of workers have personal medical leave through an employer’s short-term disability insurance plan
• About 60 percent have access to unpaid leave through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The report makes a strong case for developing a more comprehensive policy that recognizes the full range of serious family and medical needs with FMLA, in light of our rapidly aging population and the very real “crisis in care” that it is creating.

Our Aging, Caring Nation: Why a U.S. Paid Leave Plan Must Provide More Than Time to Care for New Children