By John Paul Marosy, President
Bringing Elder Care Home LLC
jpmarosy@charter.net
(508) 854-0431

Editor’s Note: In 1997, MetLife and the National Alliance for Caregiving conducted a ground-breaking study, The MetLife Study of Employer Costs for Working Caregivers. In July of this year, the two organizations released updated findings, based on a 2004 study. The report summary cites the work of Donna J. Wagner of Towson University and Margaret Neal of Portland State University in producing the new findings.

A July 2006 study, entitled The MetLife Caregiving Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business, estimates the productivity losses to U.S. business of employees who must make workplace accommodations as a result of caregiving responsibilities. It pegs total losses at $33 billion per year, the highest estimate ever.

The report actually includes two sets of estimates. The first estimate is based on employed caregivers who provide more intense care, assessed by their involvement in at least two Activities of Daily Living – or ADLs - (like dressing, bathing, feeding, toileting, transferring from chair or bed, or incontinence) or at least four Instrumental Activities of Daily Living – or IADLs – (like financial management, transportation, help with medications, shopping, preparing meals). The second estimate “is based upon all caregivers who are employed full-time.”

Here are some of the highlights of the findings from the estimate based on all caregivers who are employed full time (all dollar amounts are estimated annual losses):

• There are at least 7 million family caregivers who are employed full-time: 4.2 million women and 2.8 million men.
• Replacement costs for employees who leave the workplace = $2.8 billion
• Absenteeism costs = $3.4 billion
• Partial absenteeism (defined as “coming in late and leaving early due to elder care responsibilities) = $824 million
• Workday interruptions (estimated at one hour per week per employed caregiver for 50 weeks) = $2.8 billion
• Crisis in care (examples: take of a few days to make arrangements for services, move a loved one to a different situation, deal with a hospitalization) = $1.6 billion
• Supervision costs (hours spent by a supervisor dealing with employees’ elder care issues) = $780 million.
• Costs associated with unpaid leave (uses the average annual usage of Family and Medical Leave Act leave – 10 days – as the basis for this estimate) = $3.3 billion
• Reducing hours from full-time to part-time = 4.7 billion
• Total = $33.6 billion

Eldercare Calculator

The on-line version of the report includes a new feature: an Eldercare Calculator that helps employers estimate their productivity costs for employed caregivers. “Employers can input the requested information and can instantly view the results,” says the report. You can read the full report at www. maturemarketinstitute.com The Eldercare Calculator can be accessed at www.elder carecalculator.org

---

What do you think? Take a moment now to send us an email with your opinion and we will publish your thoughts in the next issue.

John Paul Marosy
Editor and President,
Bringing Elder Care Home, LLC

John Paul Marosy is the author of Elder Care: A Six Step Guide to Balancing Work and Family, available from Bringing Elder Care Home Publishing online at our Web site or by calling
508-854-0431.