HR 101: A brief history of caregiver benefits

Welcome to HR 101. Class is now in session. Today’s discussion will focus on the history of caregiver benefits.

The history. The second most significant factor keeping people out of the workforce is caregiving, according to the Washington Post. Although caregiving often brings to mind childcare, it isn’t just parents who are forced to quit their jobs when someone they love needs care.

Courtney Russell told the Post that she had to leave her position as the manager of a candy store to support her husband, who needed a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy. And Aida Beltré spoke to USA Today about how she left her job at a rental property company to provide full-time care to her father, who had suffered a series of strokes. There are just two of many examples of people having to choose between work and providing care.

Employer-provided caregiver benefits are a fairly recent phenomenon, despite legislation dating back to the late 1970s that provided caregivers with services including education, legal council, emotional support, and respite care, according to the Family Caregiver Alliance.

But it wouldn’t be until 2019 that employers started to recognize their employees were struggling with these responsibilities after noticing greater absenteeism and lower productivity, both of which were negatively impacting their bottom line, according to SHRM. That year, 28% of employer respondents to a survey by AARP and Northeast Business Group on Health said they offered paid leave benefits either exclusively for or able to be used by caregivers, 8% said they have leave policies for caregiving for someone other than their immediate family, and 17% provide employees with the ability to donate leave to a caregiver colleague.

Fast-forward. Some 73% of employees report having caregiver responsibilities, according to a 2019 Harvard Business Review report.

Another 73% of caregiving employees surveyed by the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers in 2022 said they’ve had to leave work early or unexpectedly due to their responsibilities, and 70% have had to call out of work for at least one day. More than two-thirds (68%) reported not taking on additional work as a result of their caregiver responsibilities, while 60% said they felt the quality of their work suffered and 52% said they lost out on income.

The US is expected to lose $290 billion annually in gross domestic product starting in 2030 if the number of paid caregivers doesn’t grow and employees continue to leave the workforce for this reason, according to an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group.

Despite this, the majority (79%) of employers still do not offer elderly caregiving benefits, according to 2021 research from caregiving services provider Homethrive.

As HR looks to 2024 and takes stock of its employees’ needs, identifying the caregivers within the organization and prioritizing benefits that meet their needs could end up being key retention strategies for the new year and beyond.