How do employers show they care about employees beyond salaries and traditional benefits? And why does that matter to the bottom line? The question might sound a little unorthodox, but it’s the focus of research and advocacy efforts to support employees who are also family caregivers. And those efforts are intensifying, due to the realization that caregiving responsibilities, shouldered by an estimated one in five employees, affect employers. They also affect local, state, and federal governments, as outlined in the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers,1 which seems to be on a fast track for implementation.

In October, four states were awarded $490,000 to implement goals, recommendations, and actions in the strategy, which cites employers as a main catalyst for change.

To level set, more than 53 million Americans provide caregiving support to help millions of people live independently in their communities. From an employer perspective, more than 61% of these caregivers have full-time jobs, and 67% have trouble balancing competing demands on their time — including work, which frequently overlaps with personal time.2 Odds are you are a caregiver experiencing these types of competing priorities or you have caregivers who work for you.

There’s more to this equation than numbers. It’s the underlying message of care that employee benefit packages convey yet many executives fail to recognize. This is where the rubber meets the road for employees, who are more aware of and willing to demand work-life balance, who expect inclusivity and watch to see whether companies practice what they preach.

Why This Matters

The unpredictable nature of caregiving is one of the biggest stressors cited by employees, which leads them to shift from full- to part-time work, turn down promotions, change jobs, or leave the workforce entirely. And it can also lead to increased levels of burnout for those who stay put.3 These actions, some of which result from lack of support, have negative effects on employers that may have no idea an employee is a caregiver. Described as “the overall economic impact of unpaid caregiving” by a recent Mercer study, its estimated cost is $264 billion.4

From a national vantage point, replacing the work that family caregivers do would cost about $600 billion and tax the nation’s long-term care and foster care systems. That is one reason caregiving is a priority for the federal government, which designed an ambitious plan to support this population in the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. A progress report5 submitted to Congress on Sept. 17 highlights implementation efforts, which includes 15 federal agencies, dozens of legislative and policy changes, and hundreds of actions.

The strategy was described as a roadmap for governments, businesses, and community sectors to address challenges that caregivers face. And while discussions predated the 2022 strategy with commentary about potential effects on the nation’s social insurance system, pressure is mounting for businesses to do more for employees stretched thin by an increasing number of responsibilities.6

Putting the Cart Before the Horse?

Employers recognize the business case for action. In fact, 84% of employers have plans to enhance their paid leave benefit programs, according to the WTW 2023 Leave, Disability and Time-Off Trends Survey.7 Companies of all sizes plan to invest more in paid programs with the expectation that caregiving is leading the charge. Authors expect that almost half of U.S. employers will be offering formalized caregiver support in the next two years.

However, caregiving leave — like bereavement leave — can be challenging for myriad reasons, such as the practical difficulties of intermittent leave, legacy beliefs that personal issues should be kept separate from work, and manual systems that make it difficult to track and manage an increasing number of leaves.

Yet employers also acknowledge the need to support employees for emotional as well as practical reasons. For example, data shows how caregiving influences caregiver health and a corresponding effect on employer healthcare spend. Described as a caregiving crisis, MetLife’s 2024 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study8 shows that 73% of employees have caregiving responsibilities, 44% of them are stressed, 43% are overwhelmed, and 42% feel burned out at work.

While attending the Integrated Benefits Institute conference last month, I heard statistics that were truly shocking. During the keynote presentation, representatives from ARCHANGELS shared the following research findings:9

  • 70% of all unpaid caregivers are currently struggling with a mental health issue.
  • 33% have seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days.

And among caregivers classified as high intensity by the Caregiver Intensity Index, those figures spike to 91% and 54%, respectively.10

While some of these findings may not surprise human resources specialists, they highlight the need for employers to rethink their approach, especially with growing federal and state investment in caregiver support. The key question is what actions will employers take? What actions can you help your employer take?

Next Steps

While employers with 50 or more employees have been tracking requests for leave that qualify for the federal Family and Medical Leave Act since 1993, they must now consider an increasing number of state and locally mandated paid family and medical leave (PFML) laws that can include caregiving as well as stand-alone leaves. That juggling act continues when you consider employer-offered paid leaves. The Department of Labor created a helpful spreadsheet11 for employers to identify which leaves are covered by which laws.

Questions about eligibility, who qualifies as family members, and how long someone can be out on leave are daunting for multistate employers. Yet that’s just the tip of the iceberg when you study the landscape, which continues to morph and change.

We know employees expect more from their employers — that what was once considered generous benefit packages are now table stakes — and more employees weigh the value of paid leave on par with salary. We also know they’re willing to jump ship for more generous benefit packages.

But there’s more to this equation than numbers. It’s the underlying message of care that employee benefit packages convey yet many executives fail to recognize. This is where the rubber meets the road for employees, who are more aware of and willing to demand work-life balance, who expect inclusivity and watch to see whether companies practice what they preach. And companies should reassess what it is they’re preaching. Employee needs are different today than they were five or 10 years ago.

Take, for example, the fact that the top caregiving benefit reported by Harvard Business School in its report titled The Caring Company was a caregiving provider referral service followed closely by personal time off or other paid leave and flexible work hours. And the corresponding benefit to retention reinforces the value of asking your employees what they want and then delivering it.

I believe the days are numbered for companies with slick slogans that come up short with practical solutions for employees seeking help to stay at work or return with accommodations and benefits, such as access to backup eldercare services. In recent studies that outline options such as backup, the companies that fail to deliver fall into the category of “carewashing.”

The good news is that most employers recognize the need for change. The question is how they get there. The first step is to widen the scope for discovering who your employees are and what they want in a benefit package. And while some still struggle with the concept of generosity when it comes to accommodations, we are quickly approaching a tipping point. It will be essential for employers to know how their benefit plans and policies compare with employers of similar size and industry for future success if not simply survival.

And as we continue to see states pass PFML legislation and expand insurance codes to include family leave insurance, employers must be prepared for employees to take the leave they need for themselves, their families, and their loved ones. As the list of laws passed grows, employers should consider how they communicate with employees about their entitlements, how they encourage use of available leave, and how they support and acknowledge the people who cover for employees on leave.

New data12 from AFLAC and Prudential, which DMEC supported, shows vulnerabilities in this realm that will hobble employers in the long term. The key is to recognize the need for more holistic and comprehensive benefit packages that consider all aspects of an employee’s life, anticipate the need for leave, encourage creative approaches to an employee’s ability to stay at work and return as soon as possible. Then we start to see a new pathway forward. It’s critical to avoid the inclination to assume that what worked before will be enough, to not let unfounded fears inhibit the exploration of new paths, and to recognize that we all rise and fall together.

  1. Administration for Community Living. Sept. 24, 2024. 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. Retrieved from https://acl.gov/CaregiverStrategy
  2. National Academy for State Health Policy. Working while Caregiving report. Retrieved from https://nashp.org/hhs-releases-first-of-its-kind-national-strategy-on-family-caregiving/#:~:text=The%202022%20National%20Strategy%20to,helping%20to%20ensure%20caregivers’%20financial
  3. MetLife. Can Employers Afford Not to Care? March 20, 2023. Retrieved from https://www.metlife.com/workforce-insights/employee-benefit-trends/ and access full report retrieved from https://www.metlife.com/workforce-insights/employee-benefit-trends/
  4. Mercer. The Next Frontier: Caregiving for Adults. Retrieved from https://www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/us-health-news/ushn-202303-02/
  5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Releases Progress Report on Federal Implementation of the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. Sept. 17, 2024. Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/09/17/hhs-releases-progress-report-on-federal-implementation-of-the-national-strategy-to-support-family-caregivers.html
  6. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Paid Caregiving Leave: A Missing Piece in the U.S. Social Insurance System. March 25, 2020. Retrieved from https://equitablegrowth.org/paid-caregiving-leave-a-missing-piece-in-the-u-s-social-insurance-system/
  7. WTW. Majority of Employers Will Change Their Leave Programs in the Next Two Years, Study Finds. Jan. 20, 2024. Retrieved from https://www.wtwco.com/en-us/news/2024/01/majority-of-employers-will-change-their-leave-programs-in-the-next-two-years-wtw-survey-finds
  8. MetLife. Maximizing Employee Care. Retrieved from https://www.metlife.com/workforce-insights/employee-benefit-trends/#ebts-2024-download-report
  9. Archangels. Retrieved from https://www.archangels.me/about-us
  10. Archangels. Caregiver Intensity Index. Retrieved from https://www.archangels-cii.me/get-started/?utm_source=aasite&utm_medium=weblink&utm_campaign=general&_gl=1*1526zcg*_ga*MTI2MTc2NDQ0Mi4xNzI4NTEwMTIx*_ga_48XJYZBLB1*MTcyODUxMDEyMS4xLjEuMTcyODUxMTAyMi4wLjAuMA
  11. Department of Labor. What’s the Difference? Paid Sick Leave, FMLA, and Paid Family and Medical Leave. Retrieved from chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:/www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/oasp/legacy/files/paidleavefinalrulecomparison.pdf
  12. Prudential. Studies by Aflac and Prudential Financial Address the Impact of Paid Leave in the Workplace. Sept. 25, 2024. Retrieved from https://news.prudential.com/latest-news/prudential-news/prudential-news-details/2024/Studies-by-Aflac-and-Prudential-Financial-address-the-impact-of-paid-leave-in-the-workplace/default.aspx#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20studies%3A,in%20the%20past%2012%20months.&text=94%25%20of%20employers%20report%20taking,employers%20have%20taken%20any%20action