Caregiving has been a prominent topic in this year’s presidential race, with Vice President Kamala Harris suggesting employees could be given the right to paid leave when caring for family members.
However, while existing federal rights for this segment of the workforce may be slim, plenty of forward-thinking employers have been carefully listening to their workers’ needs and crafting HR policies and benefits tailored to their specific needs.
The incentives driving this are clear. The labor market has been incredibly tight since COVD-19, so organizations who can best support their employees' needs outside the workforce stand the best chance of recruiting and retaining the most qualified hires. And to place this in a broader context, it’s estimated that up to 22% of workers have caregiving responsibilities.
There are few existing rights for caregivers in the workplace and these can vary depending on states. At the federal level, there is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to care for immediate family members. But not only is this unpaid, it also doesn’t apply to businesses with less than 50 employees.
At the state level, 11 states have enacted differing versions of Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs. These provide partial wage replacement when employees have to take leave to care for family members. Policy wise, these are the only two programs aimed specifically at providing support to employees with caregiving responsibilities.
Firstly, let’s look at some of the existing, long-standing policies and benefits that are being repositioned or reemphasized for caregivers. Flexible spending account (FSA) have been around for a long time but are often underutilized by caregivers as they’re often unaware that many of their caregiver related expenses are eligible under FSA rules, which can provide them with tax advantages.
Legal assistance services is another benefit that has been around for a long time but may not be something that an employee would consider using as a resource to help with caregiving. However, these services offer a lot of value when it comes to the complexities of medicaid/medicare entitlements, estate planning and navigating other caregiving responsibilities.
When it comes to Employee Assistance Programs, many employers are giving these programs a new lease of life by integrating features specifically for caregivers. Examples include counseling for employees’ family members, research and concierge services for home care, rehab, adult day care and meal delivery assistance, as well as Alzheimer support and caregiver support resources.
Direct financial support to help with the cost of care is also being provided by some employers. For example, 6% of working caregivers surveyed in a recent report receive employer-provided subsidies toward the cost of in-home care. What’s more, some employers are also providing access to back up eldercare services for occasions when an employee finds they’re unavailable to provide care.
In addition to eldercare services, many employers are also providing access to enhanced services and benefits for childcare. For example, some are offering a set number of hours of virtual tutoring per month for the children of workers, which was a benefit first popularized during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Improving how employees access and manage these policies and benefits has also undergone significant improvements over the last few years. There are now an array of digital platform providers helping employees to better manage and schedule their caregiving responsibilities around their workday, which is improving both efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Whatever the outcome of November’s election, there is clearly momentum building among employers when it comes to better supporting their employees with caregiving responsibilities. The best initiatives are developed by carefully listening to the specific needs of a workforce and creating context-specific policies. Any top-down government policies will be wise to follow this logic and give individual employers the flexibility they need to be as responsive as possible to their workforces’ needs.
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.
As co-founder and CEO, Dharam Khalsa makes sure everything is clicking - from relationships with our partners to users on our website. Before Mirador, he co-founded California Burrito and grew it into India's largest burrito chain with 74 locations nationwide. He earned a BA in History and Political Science at Oberlin College and an MBA at Kellogg School of Management.
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