More Workers Are Caring For Aging Parents. Why Should Employers Care?

The American workforce is getting older, and people are living longer. As a result, more workers than ever before are caring for aging parents during the peak of their own careers. Over 37 million Americans are providing unpaid eldercare to someone aged 65 or older, according to 2023 data from The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics .

Employers can’t afford to ignore the shifting demographics of the U.S. labor market, which will accelerate this trend. Although employers have invested more in parental leave since the pandemic, far less attention has been paid to workers who are providing eldercare.

“While many companies have taken steps to support workers who are parents, very few have programs in place to support workers with parents,” said Liz O’Donnell, founder of Working Daughter, in a phone conversation. Working Daughter is one of a growing number of resources to help employers understand why and how to support workers with eldercare responsibilities.

The Sandwich Generation Is A Critical Talent Pool

Employers that do not address the increasing eldercare demands on their workforce are likely to face a competitive disadvantage.

The number of working adults who are also responsible for unpaid eldercare has risen rapidly since 2015, according to a 2020 report by The National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP. As of 2020, 19.2% of adults were actively caring for someone 50 years or older. While most of these workers are providing eldercare for their own parents, some are caring for in-laws, spouses, partners, siblings, or other aging family members.

The challenge of caring for aging parents is compounded for the nearly quarter of American adults who are part of the “sandwich generation.” This refers to the 7.8 million eldercare providers who are also caring for at least one child under age 18 living at home. Among the sandwich generation, 82% are also juggling paid employment, according to 2023 BLS data.

Workers in the sandwich generation make up a critical—and growing—portion of the mid-career talent pool. Americans who are caring for both an aging parent and at least one child include 27% of adults in their 30s, 54% of adults in their 40s, and 36% of adults in their 50s, according to 2022 Pew Research Center data.

The Hidden Toll That Eldercare Is Taking On Today’s Workforce

At the same time that a record number of workers have aging parents, the cost for long-term eldercare in the U.S. has skyrocketed . “So the majority of long-term, non-acute healthcare for aging parents is actually happening in the home by family members,” said O’Donnell. “These caregivers face significant pressures not only on their time, but on their finances and their wellbeing.”

Workplace cultures and employment policies have not kept pace with this recent, seismic shift. “Employers have had time to figure out what it means to have mothers in the workplace, but because these demographic trends are so new, most employers haven’t yet had time to figure out what it means to have sons and daughters in the workplace,” said O’Donnell.

“The challenges of eldercare are also more invisible in the workplace because eldercare is not an easy topic to talk about,” O’Donnell explained. “With kids, there are baby showers for your coworkers and newborn pictures sent to the office, but eldercare involves planning for the end of life, so employers don’t see it, and employees don’t talk about it.”

Workers Caring For Aging Parents Face Workplace Bias

In addition to the logistical and financial demands of juggling work and eldercare, workers caring for aging parents must also contend with workplace bias.

This fear was evident in a 2024 survey by Working Daughters of 723 working women with unpaid eldercare responsibilities. “When asked what their biggest stressors are, many of the women surveyed mentioned stigma in the workplace,” said O’Donnell.

These fears are well founded.

Research studies have documented eldercare discrimination using simulated hiring decisions by people with supervisory experience. These studies found that job applicants who provide eldercare are rated lower on perceived competence, commitment, and availability than equally qualified applicants without caregiving responsibilities. Applicants who provide eldercare are therefore less likely to be suggested for hire and are recommended for lower salaries than noncaregiving applicants.

These studies also found that applicants who have both eldercare and childcare responsibilities fare worst. Sandwich generation job applicants are rated the lowest on commitment and availability, despite equal qualifications.

Supporting Workers Caring For Aging Parents Is Good For Business

According to Care.com research, inadequate resources for employees who provide care for elderly or chronically ill family members cost U.S. employers an estimated $44 billion a year in absenteeism and turnover. These costs translate into a large return on investment from offering eldercare benefits and support.

The business case for offering eldercare benefits is supported by Care.com’s 2024 Future of Benefits Report , which surveyed 620 C-suite executives and HR decision-makers and 1,000 benefits-eligible employees.

A large majority of employers in the Care.com survey reported that offering senior care employee benefits positively impacted recruitment (76%), retention (76%), and productivity (78%). Employees who had access to senior care benefits reported an average out-of-pocket savings of $2,909. Over 20% of the employees surveyed said they would switch jobs in order to access senior care benefits.

Supporting Workers Caring For Aging Parents Will Future Proof Your Workplace

Designing a workplace that is responsive to employees with eldercare responsibilities is an investment in younger workers as well.

Increased flexibility was the top workplace priority for the women workers who were providing eldercare in the Working Daughter 2024 survey. That’s a shared priority with Millennial and Gen Z workers.

“Younger generations may not be thinking about caregiving in their lives yet, but they still have expectations about flexibility and are questioning the 9-to-5, at-your-desk status quo,” said O’Donnell. “For these younger generations, work-life balance isn’t a ‘nice-to-have,’ it’s a ‘must-have.’”

This alignment offers employers a win-win opportunity. “When companies figure out how to make leave more flexible and less rigid, and how to help employees integrate care into their workplace, they are creating a workplace culture that future generations now expect and demand,” O’Donnell explained. “So when employers solve for employees’ eldercare challenges, they’re also future proofing their workplaces.”

How Employers Can Support Workers Who Are Caring For Aging Parents

“The first thing employers can do to support workers who are caring for aging parents is to raise the conversation in the workplace,” said O’Donnell. “Acknowledgement goes a long way.”

Employers can begin by supporting employee resource groups to bring in experts to talk about the challenges of eldercare. In O’Donnell’s consulting work with ERGs, she has found that a particularly effective approach is when a senior executive sponsors the ERG event and becomes an ally by sharing a personal experience navigating the hidden challenges of eldercare.

Employers should also survey their workforce to get a picture of their caregiving demographics. “Surveys can help employers understand the magnitude of employees’ caring responsibilities,” said O’Donnell, “and can also help destigmatize eldercare in the process.”

Employers should then audit their existing benefits plans. Far fewer employers offer caregiving benefits for the support of adults than the support of children. Only 14% of companies offer eldercare referral services, and just 1% of companies offer employees subsidies for eldercare, according to SHRM’s 2024 Employee Benefits Survey.

The audit can begin by identifying gaps in coverage. If the company offers paid parental leave, does it also offer paid eldercare leave? If the company offers backup childcare, does it also offer backup eldercare?

But O’Donnell emphasizes that benefits matching is only a first step in understanding the unique challenges and support systems needed for eldercare providers. Caring for someone who is becoming less rather than more independent requires different types of workplace support.

“With care of a healthy child, there’s some predictability in terms of when and how long women need for birth and infant care, daycare hours, school calendars, and summer breaks,” said O’Donnell, “but elder care it’s totally unpredictable, without any warning of when a parent will get a diagnosis or how treatment will play out.”

This unpredictability makes it hard for employees to decide when and for how long to take leave, and it creates an increased need for sporadic, intermittent leave. So employers should revisit their leave and flextime policies to recognize the distinct challenges of eldercare.

Potential employee benefits are not limited to flexible caregiving leave and backup or subsidized eldercare services. Some employers also offer concierge-type vendor solutions or memberships to care services, which may provide support beyond direct care to address the everyday demands of meal preparation, transportation, housecleaning, and financial services. Employees who care for aging parents may also need access to stress management resources and mental health support.

O’Donnell also recommends training managers to better equip them to lead a workforce with complex caregiving responsibilities. “Companies really need to think about whether they are creating a culture of care that demonstrates appreciation of the challenges workers are facing with eldercare demands,” said O’Donnell.

While O’Donnell’s Working Daughters organization began as a community support resource for women workers who are also caring for aging parents, it has expanded to provide expert support for companies , including manager training, employee coaching, and turnkey ERG resources.

An increasing number of employee benefits providers are also offering various forms of eldercare benefits plans, including Bright Horizons, Care.com’s Care for Business, Cariloop, Family First, and Wellthy. This trend should make it easier for companies to benchmark and expand their support for workers who are caring for aging parents.

By Michelle Travis, Contributor