Harris spotlights family caregiving: A call for enhanced support in employee benefits

Kamala Harris has recently brought the issue of family caregiving into the national spotlight, by endorsing paid leave for caregivers of children and aging adults. Estimates vary in terms of the percentage of the US workforce who have caring responsibilities, but a recent report from AARP put the number of people caring for family members at 48 million with 61% of this number being employed while caregiving.

Clearly, this is a significant portion of the nation’s workforce. What’s more, demographic changes of an aging population is going to mean a greater number of retirees versus workers in the decades to come, with some forecasts estimating that the senior population might reach 80 million by 2040. This will only increase the portion of the workforce that have familial caring responsibilities.

There is also a growing body of research that demonstrates the business case for offering such benefits. For example, a recent study by MetLife showed that employees are 1.5x more likely to feel happy, 1.2x more likely to be productive and 1.3x more likely to be loyal at work when they have a benefits package that supports their needs. And when faced with seemingly permacrisis in people management–from the great resignation to quiet-quitting–employers who can best suit the needs of their employees stand the best chance of recruiting, retaining and motivating the best talent.

It’s within this context that many forward thinking companies have already adjusted their HR policies and benefits packages to better support caregivers within their workforce, while plenty of other organizations are now exploring their options here.

Existing support programs

The only federal law that provides specific support to employees with caring responsibilities is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This grants employees the right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to care for immediate family members. It covers all public sector workers, while businesses with more than 50 employees within a radius of 75 miles must also provide this to their employees.

Beyond the FMLA, 11 states have enacted Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs, which act as an enhancement to the FMLA, by providing eligible employees with the right to partial wage replacement when taking time off to fulfill caring duties for family members.

Other existing benefits that provide support to caregivers include Employee Assistance Programs (EPA), which provide employees with counseling and other support that can help them manage the stress they may be under. Flexible Work Arrangements have also grown in prevalence, especially since the pandemic, enabling employees to schedule work more effectively around caring responsibilities.

New thinking with benefits and policies

Research is showing that many companies, especially larger companies with 500 or more employees, are focusing on and investing in their benefits packages for caregiving employees. For example, a recent Mercer study found that a growing number of companies are rolling out more holistic caregiver-focused benefits programs.

Related: Why disability insurance matters to caregivers in the workplace

These include concierge services that help employees find specific services to help with their caring needs, referrals and consultation for eldercare, access to back up eldercare services should an employee not be unavailable to fulfill their care duties at certain times, as well as cash subsidies to cover the cost of back up care up to a monthly or annual limit.

As well as benefits aimed at eldercare, some organizations are providing access to a set number of hours of paid-for tutoring for K-12 students per month. What’s more, research has shown that many companies are planning to offer more support and subsidies for child care referrals in the near future.

Digital technology is also increasingly being made available via benefits packages. Many employees now have access to digital platforms where they can better manage and coordinate their care-related activities and more easily align these with their work schedules.

There are also more traditional benefits that can be better focused on care-giver support. Legal advice is a great example. Many caregivers face complex legal challenges such as navigating Medicaid/Medicare coverage or estate planning. Knowing they have free or subsidized access to expert legal assistance via their benefits package can be a huge help.

Likewise with flexible spending accounts (FSA). While certainly not new, they are often an underutilized benefit with employees not taking advantage of the tax benefits, as they’re often unaware that much of their caregiver-related expenses could be eligible.

Wrapping up

It’s undoubtedly a good thing for caregivers that this election cycle has triggered plenty of discussion and debate around how to better support their needs. However, the research shows that innovation in caregiver-related benefits is being driven from the ground up, by individual organizations listening to their workforces and redesigning their benefits packages to suit their unique needs.

Any new federal policies would be wise to follow the same approach, by giving individual organizations the flexibility, and incentives, they need to design benefits packages that best suit the needs of their employees.

Dharam Khalsa Co-Founder of Assisted Living platform Mirador, who are on a mission to remove barriers and increase transparency for consumers within the assisted living industry.