Americans Struggle to Balance Work and Caring for Family Members
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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How prevalent is workplace caregiving among American workers?
Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, June 18th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Millions of American workers are struggling to balance the demands of their job, as well as caring for a family member.
Why are care demands increasing for aging family members?
People are living longer and they have more complex medical needs and chronic illness and they need more help. And people, for better or worse, rely on family members to provide the bulk of long-term care.
Wall Street Journal columnist Claire Ansbury will join us after the break.
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Millions of American workers are struggling to do their jobs while caring for an adult family member. Wall Street Journal columnist Claire Ansbury joins me. Claire, how have family or elder care demands increased for workers?
Well, first of all, there's many more of us who are working in caregiving, about 29 million workers. Americans right now. And the care demands are increasing because people are living longer and they have more complex medical needs and chronic illness and they need more help. And people, for better or worse, rely on family members to provide the bulk of long-term care.
How is that impacting people's careers?
How is caregiving affecting workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans?
By a lot. More than one-third of working caregivers said that they plan to leave primarily because of their caregiving. Close to a third have shifted from full-time to part-time work or reduced their hours. Many turned down promotion or stopped working entirely for a period of time or changed employers in order to meet their responsibilities.
So this could potentially alter significantly their career track.
Right. There was a really surprising number to me of about three quarters of people 50 and older retired early. and said that they would have continued working if they had better access to supports. And these are employees who are in senior positions and senior management. There was another survey that said about half who left their job because of caregiving responsibilities were senior executives and leaders. So that takes a toll on their savings for retirement and social security. It's a long-lasting impact.
For people that haven't left their jobs and are still caring for family members, how is it affecting their workdays?
What day-to-day adjustments do caregivers make to juggle work and care?
They have to figure out how to juggle things. I talked to one woman who manages a research lab. And at a point where her mother-in-law, who lived with them, needed care and her husband broke his leg and he couldn't provide care, she went in at 8 o'clock at night and worked through the night. to take care of the specimens in her lab and order the supplies so she could be home during the day. She couldn't manage that for forever, so then she had to work with her supervisor to figure out when she could be in the lab for the students, when she could be home. So there's a lot of juggling. I also talked to some people who answer emails and make their phone calls from a parking lot of a hospital or a doctor's office, or they use their lunch breaks or paid time off to take parents to doctor's appointments.
Did you also run into people not wanting to talk about caregiving because they're concerned about burdening other people with what's going on in their lives?
That's such a natural thing. I mean, when people take a paternity leave or a maternity leave, it's a happy occasion. But having to take a leave because of a parent's cancer diagnosis or dementia or Alzheimer's, it's a difficult subject. It's not one that brings them any joy, and they don't feel like they want to talk to others about it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:33
2
How prevalent is workplace caregiving among American workers?
0:33–0:47
3
Why are care demands increasing for aging family members?
0:47–2:25
4
How is caregiving affecting workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans?
2:25–3:32
5
What day-to-day adjustments do caregivers make to juggle work and care?
3:32–6:07
6
Why do employees hesitate to disclose caregiving needs at work?
6:07–6:47
7
What elder-care benefits do workers want from employers?
6:47–8:19
8
What legal protections and practical options exist if employers don’t offer elder-care support?
8:19–9:09
Speakers
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