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Working Caregivers Cost Employers $33.6 Billion a Year

It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that workers with caregiving responsibilities cost
employers money in the form of lost productivity. In July 2006, the MetLife Mature Market Institute
released a report entitled "MetLife Caregiving Costs Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business"
which provided insight into how much money was actually being lost by employers. They
discovered that the total estimated cost to employers for all full- time, employed caregivers is
approximately $33.6 billion annually. This is approximately $4 billion more than in 1997, when the
Mature Market Institute conducted its last study. The researchers estimated such productivity
losses to U.S. business as the costs associated with replacing employees, absenteeism, workday
interruptions, and crises in care that required workers to take time off to make arrangements for
services, move the care recipient to a different living situation, or put the care recipient in the
hospital.

The study estimates that 7 million men and women are providing intense care for someone over the
age of 18. An intense care giver is one who provides help with at least two Activities of Daily Living
(ADLs) such as bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, transferring from a chair or bed, and at least
four Instrumental ADLs, such as financial management, transportation, help with medications,
shopping, and preparing meals, for an average of 12 to 87 hours per week.

The researchers discovered from an existing study that 5% of the men and 7% of the women polled
reported that they left the workplace as a result of caregiving responsibilities. Gender seemed to
have little bearing on who retired early as a result of caregiving responsibilities. Since the average
length of time providing care for employed caregivers was 3.7 years, the researchers estimate that
an average percentage of intense caregivers leaving the workplace on an annual basis is 2.4%,
67,301 men and 100,951 women for a total of 168,252 employees. To estimate the replacement
costs for employees leaving the workplace as a result of caregiving responsibilities, they used a
basis of 50% of median salary, for a total replacement cost of $2.8 billion.

To estimate the costs associated with absenteeism, the researchers used a study of couples with
both eldercare and childcare responsibilities. The study found that 10% of the men or 280,421
missed an average of 12 workdays per year, and 18% of the women, or 757,136 missed an
average of 33 days a year. Wage figures used to estimate the dollar impact were based on the
Bureau of Labor Statistics developed in 2004 for the median weekly wage for men and women:
$731 for men, and $588 for women. Using these statistics, the researchers estimated the total
annual cost of absenteeism to be upwards of $3.4 billion.

Workday interruptions of at least one hour per week per caregiver cost $6.3 billion, and having a
crisis that requires attention during the workday, experienced by 60% of employed caregivers, costs
$3.8 billion a year.

The study recommended that to meet this growing challenge, employers, employees, and
community organizations must work together to help develop programs and services for working
caregivers, such as:

· Flextime, telecommuting, and job- sharing

· Programs to provide respite care, adult day services, and caregiver support groups

· Information, referral, and educational programs

· Employee- and/ or employer- funded Long- Term Care insurance.

Employers should consider offering voluntary Long- Term Care insurance because group discounts
are often available for employees and their immediate families.