What are the costs of personal caregiving burdens to both employers and employees, particularly for female employees?
Women’s Economic Challenges
Women’s path to professional success and economic security are blocked by a variety of barriers. Two major barriers are 1) the demands of caregiving and working concurrently, and 2) taking time out of the workforce to provide care full time. These impact a woman’s ability to afford expenses today and tomorrow, and advance in her career, resulting in decreased lifetime earnings and adding significant stress. This not only affects women during their working years but can negatively impact their financial and physical wellbeing in the future.
Older women receive about 80% of the retirement income that older men receive, mirroring the gender wage gap for women vs. men. These rates are more significant for women of color, women with disabilities, and single women, keeping in mind that a woman may belong to several or all of these categories.
In addition, caregiving has a significant negative impact on women’s retirement preparedness according to a study by the National Institute on Retirement Security. Over her lifetime, a woman’s lost income due to caregiving is estimated to be over $330,000 and she may care for any or all: children, aging parents, and her husband or partner.
Impact on Employers
These factors also impact employers, as “caregiver absenteeism costs the U.S. economy an estimated $25.2 billion in lost productivity each year. The U.S. General Accounting Office has estimated that 68% of working parental and spousal caregivers find themselves needing to arrive late to work, leave early or take time off during the day to provide care.” Absenteeism and presenteeism costs U.S. employers $13.4 billion annually for workers who are caregivers, but this does not reflect the over $25 billion impact on the nation’s economy.
How can we minimize the interdependent issues of women’s caregiving burdens, lower lifetime earnings and retirement savings, as well as the negative impacts on companies?
Impact of Design
The answer lies in the built environment. Our society is increasingly aware of the role of the design of the places where we live, work, and play, especially evident in the emphasis on walkable communities to improve health outcomes. The design of places represents a significant untapped resource: our homes, and most of the products and furnishings in them, as well as the communities in which they are located, and most public and workplaces, are not designed for the true range of people who use them. Our status quo is ideally designed for the default—the average height male (approximately 5’-9”) between the ages of 20 and 40, with the highest physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities. Because of this inherent bias by design, the farther a person is from this design default, the more they are forced to adapt, resulting in preventable injury and forced frailty, especially for older people.
Why do we allow this to happen to our loved ones and to add to women’s caregiving burden? Because few are aware of the extent of these issues.
Fortunately, there are solutions.
Women Can THRIVE! by Design
Women can positively impact their own lives and economic fate by leveraging the design of their homes and their parents’ homes to minimize the negative impacts created by standard design and decrease preventable caregiving demands and expenses. Home modifications are beneficial, IF one can afford them and IF they are done before one’s home environment has permanently reduced one’s abilities. What is really needed is a shift in our housing stock and built environments to be enabling of all abilities. Specific examples and resources for home features can be found in this article: https://www.farmers.com/learn/real-stories/aging-in-place/
Employers Can Enable Independence
Employers can reduce absenteeism and help all employees, particularly female employees, by sharing resources on the power of design to minimize caregiving needs. Employers may even choose to offer financing programs for home renovations, similar to education benefits. Additionally, employers can make sure the physical design of the workplace is enabling for people of all abilities, ages, genders, and behaviors. Workplace injuries leading to absenteeism and reduced productivity due to biased-design is another category disproportionately impacting women as the average male is typically the default or “reference man” for designing workplaces, equipment, and furniture.
The Best Case Study
Simple Enabling Design features can have enormous positive effects. While I have consulted on such projects as the design of the first elder-focused Emergency Room, my best case study is my own. My expertise provided my mother with an ROI of over 3000% on a less than $1000 design feature (a bidet seat) by reducing the need for home health care visits. Overall, features in her home saved my mother over $500,000 by delaying a move to a long-term care facility–and that does not even include interest earned. Simple design choices, which had minimal or no additional costs, helped my mother maintain as much physical and financial independence as possible and reduced caregiving demands and expenses. We have the power to replicate this simple and successful model in homes throughout the country, benefitting women and those they care for, as well as the companies and organizations who employ them. Employers can be a catalyst for making this a reality.