While child care help for working families is extremely limited, help caring for older loved ones is even rarer, even though the U.S. population overall is aging, people are living longer and most elderly do not reside in nursing homes.
More than 54 million adults are providing some degree of care for an elderly, disabled or chronically ill family member or friend. The responsibility of providing such care can take an enormous workplace toll on these informal caregivers. Nearly one-third of working adults with older parents report having missed work to care for them. The burdens are especially great for low-income working families: Very low-income workers are twice as likely as those in upper income groups to provide 30 hours or more of unpaid elder care each month.
Formal caregivers for the elderly and people with disabilities experience many of the same workplace problems as child care providers. Whether providing care in the home of clients—as home care or home health care workers—or in institutions, such as nursing homes, caregivers for the elderly are typically underpaid, seldom receive benefits, enjoy little or no job security and often are at risk of work-related injuries (from lifting and bathing their clients, for example). Caregivers must be able to earn decent wages and benefits so they can remain in the work they love.
Getting working families the resources they need to care for loved ones who are elderly or with disabilities will require greater public and private investments. The unions of the AFL-CIO work to bring the advantage of a union voice at work to more caregivers, to bargain with employers for elder care assistance and flexible work schedules and to increase public investments to meet the needs of working families and America's seniors.
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