The Cost of Caregiving

Assisted Living

Your aging mother is struggling to live independently, and you need to help her find a solution. Hopefully the job your mom had left her with a large enough pension to cover the cost of professional care.

• Unfortunately, 83% of people in need of long-term care for themselves or a family member say they couldn’t afford the $60,000 needed to pay for a year of home care.
• 90% of adults say that it would be impossible or very difficult to pay the $100,000 needed for one year at a care facility.

Paid Leave

A friend needs rides to and from cancer treatments. Do you and your friend have unlimited paid leave or sick time?

• As of 2021, only about 1 in 4 workers receive paid family leave benefits.
• Among the lowest wage workers, who are predominantly women and workers of color, 94% have no access to paid family leave and 89% lack access to short- term disability leave.
• As of 2018, workers and their families lose an estimated combined $21.5 billion wages each year due to a lack of paid family and medical leave.
• Women lose $11.6 billion of the overall $21.5 billion lost.
• Thirty-four million workers—22% of the civilian labor force—do not receive a single paid sick day.

Disability

You’re in a car accident and now count yourself among the 44.1 million disabled Americans.

• 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. are disabled.
• A household containing an adult with a disability that limits their work requires, on average, 28% more income (or an additional $17,690 a year) to obtain the same standard of living as a similar household without a member with a disability.
• Unfortunately, 3 out of 4 disabled adults are not in the workforce.
• Average wait to receive a decision on disability bene- fits is seven months and 15 days.
• For most disabled people, family and friends are filling in the gaps.
• And if you earn $160/ month above the poverty line, you can be disqualified from receiving any benefits at all.

Child Care

Your child needs to go to daycare.

• On average, families spend 27% of household income on child care. (The federal government considers “affordable” to be 7% or less of a family’s income.)
• The average price of child care annually in the U.S. is $10,853.
• As of 2018, American workers and families have lost $9.4 billion in wages due to child care problems, both for those unemployed due to lack of access to child care and those who are working part time due to difficulties with child care.
• Women lose $8.8 billion dollars of the overall $9.4 billion lost.
• The top reason that women leave or change jobs is a lack of accessible and affordable child care.

Family Caregiver

You fixed up the basement, and now Mom has decided to move in with you.

• Of the people who financially contributed to the caregiving for themselves or a family member, either through long- term care or as a caregiver, 56% had to cut back on food, clothing, or other necessities, and one- third had trouble paying rent and utilities.
• Among lower-income households, those percentages jumped to 67% and 49% respectively.
• Unpaid family caregivers experience significant workforce and earning losses, with 40% of unpaid caregivers taking on more debt while caregiving.
• Family caregivers spend on average 26% of total income on their caregiving needs.

• Black and Hispanic/Latino caregivers experience higher financial strain than White and Asian American caregivers.
• 47% of Black caregivers and 41% of Hispanic caregivers report household income less than 50K annually, compared to 32% of non- Hispanic White caregivers.

• The employment rate of disabled veterans is significantly lower than that of non-disabled veterans. (Less than 40% v. more than 75%).
• 30% of veterans’ caregivers provide care for a duration of 10 years or more (double the percentage of civilian caregivers who do so).
• Military/Veteran caregivers incur an estimated $8,583 in annual out-of-pocket costs associated with care, and forgo an estimated $4,522 in annual household income.