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As soon as women get their heads up from the waters of childcare duties, they\u2019re often hit by another wave: eldercare. Dealing with dueling unpaid familial responsibilities, many women are forced to take more career breaks, miss work, move to part-time, or even leave the workforce altogether. That care crunch has damaging effects beyond women\u2019s careers\u2014in fact, it often destabilizes women\u2019s\u00a0 financial security and retirement prospects, according to a new report<\/a> from Wells Fargo<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s no doubt that women feel the effects of the childcare crisis<\/a> more keenly than men. They often have to take time away from the workforce in order to deal with the brunt of childcare. That\u2019s true not only when women are the lower earners in a relationship due to the pay gap, but even for female breadwinners<\/a>. And those patterns repeat themselves when it comes to caring for the elderly.<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole eldercare responsibility that\u2019s disproportionately shouldered by women, it\u2019s just another issue in terms of their financial preparedness,\u201d Shannon Seery Grein, an economist at Wells Fargo, tells Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Older women are hit the hardest by the eldercare responsibilities, with women 55 and older making up two-thirds of those not in the workforce for reasons other than retirement or disability, per an analysis<\/a> from Wells Fargo. That\u2019s seven times the number of men of the same age that are pushed to the same responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because women earn less than men (20% less, on average), they\u2019re more likely to take a step back from work when a parent needs care, fueling \u201calmost a vicious cycle,\u201d Grein says.\u201cIf you have a parent or a loved one who requires care, suddenly, a woman is more likely to step out because they earn less, and they can have less of a financial hit to the family unit, potentially, then a man stepping out who earns more,\u201d she adds. As a result, women are set up to make less than their male counterparts and be less equipped to afford their own retirement\u2014a problem that is compounded by the fact that women, on average, live longer than men and so have more years of retirement to cover.\u00a0<\/p>\n Women provided about $113 billion worth of unpaid care in 2022, estimates Wells Fargo. And when women aren\u2019t outright leaving the labor force to take on this duty, they\u2019re working fewer hours. This past year, 1.3% of men 55+ reported working part-time due to family obligations, compared to 5.3% of women. Men and women provide the same amount of average hours of care when given the familial role as caregivers but women tend to be caregivers more often, explains Grein. The unbalanced caregiving duties at both ages \u201c[strong-arm] women into these career breaks or just entering lower pay positions in general,\u201d as they opt for lower-paid, flexible jobs, per Grein.\u00a0<\/p>\n As women reach retirement age, the question becomes, who looks after those who look after everyone else? A whopping half the nation\u2019s mothers have no retirement savings<\/a>, compared to 32% of fathers and 39% of adults without children, per a 2023 analysis from the Century Foundation<\/a> of Financial Health Network\u2019s data<\/a>. As boomers<\/a> share doubts they\u2019ll be able to outlive their retirement savings, women espouse greater concerns. Retired women are 33% more likely than men to say they don\u2019t have enough budgeted for a comfortable retirement, per a Clever survey<\/a> of 1,000 U.S. retirees.<\/p>\n Eldercare is another hurdle in labor force participation for women, Grein says, but its exact relationship to pay differences creates a chicken-and-egg question. \u201cIt all kind of comes back to this persistent pay gap, but at the same time, it also contributes to it,\u201d she says. \u201cThis has happened because women earn less? Or does this just cause women to earn less?\u201d<\/p>\n Fairness questions aside, leaving eldercare as an unpaid assignment to women \u201cis a headwind to the modern economy, even if you\u2019re somebody who doesn\u2019t deal with these challenges, on a day to day basis,\u201d explains Grein, as it affects women\u2019s participation rate and feeds into overall economic growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n An aging workforce and a burgeoning crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n The issue of women leaving their jobs to take care of their loved ones is only going to grow as America\u2019s population ages. The cohort of the traditional working-age population is set to grow just 0.2% by 2032, outpaced by the population of 65+ that is expected to grow 2.3% percent by the same year, or more than 10 times as fast, per Wells Fargo. As it stands, seniors already represent a whopping 22% of the current population.\u00a0<\/p>\n As people live longer, the cost of care expands like a rubber band. And care is already not cheap in an inflated economy, as Wells Fargo points to a report<\/a> from Genworth that clocks the median yearly cost of a private room at a nursing home at $108,000 in 2021 (although some of that is covered by federal financial aid, add the report authors).<\/p>\n By conservative estimates, another 1.7 million senior citizens will be in need of care in 10 years from now, according to the report. This aging population comes along with a \u201csmaller working force,\u201d and the need for an exodus of people of traditional working age who are looking after their parents, which Grein explains will likely \u201cput some downward pressure on labor supply going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, eldercare isn\u2019t exactly a sexy or hot-button topic \u2014and that\u2019s for a couple of converging reasons. One potential culprit for the lack of focus on the issue of eldercare is America\u2019s ageism, especially toward the older women who shoulder most of this labor. And unlike with childcare, the nation invests a fair amount of money into its eldercare, including through Medicare and Medicaid, adds Grein. Also, the problem hasn\u2019t yet reached the crisis levels of, says childcare: \u201cwe haven\u2019t really hit the peak of eldercare,\u201d Grein says.\u00a0<\/p>\n When women are paid for eldercare, it\u2019s not much. Older women account for most of the paid eldercare roles (27% of healthcare support jobs, versus just 3% of men the same age), and median pay for these jobs remains one-third below the national median in 2022. Typical pay for elder care occupations hovers between $14 and $15<\/a> an hour, less than half the national average of $34, according to the Bureau of Labor Statitics.<\/p>\n As the issue becomes more widespread, it\u2019s important to note that eldercare will not just strain women but the economy in general. \u201cThe challenge of not addressing this is just a diminished labor force and a diminished financial health of nearly half of the population,\u201d says Grein. \u201cYes, it\u2019s a woman\u2019s issue but it\u2019s really a macroeconomic challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n As America grays, it becomes clear that we can\u2019t simply lean on underpaid and unpaid women to account for our senior citizens. Of course, the highly-depended-on 55+ women will age as well, \u201cand that funnels into the eldercare issue,\u201d Grein adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Women have recently made some great progress in the workforce, which stands to be wiped out if converging care issues remain unaddressed.The current gap between men\u2019s and women\u2019s labor force participation is at a record low, according to Wells Fargo. Part of that can be attributed to the newfound flexibility<\/a> during the pandemic that especially benefited working mothers.<\/p>\n But as hybrid work becomes the new compromise and many executives usher employees back onsite, women\u2019s progress is threatened. \u201cIf we don\u2019t have businesses that become more flexible, or that allow leave for their workers, men or women, in order to care for their loved ones and family members, then I think you\u2019re going to have a challenge from a supply perspective,\u201d says Grein. That supply shortage could increase wages, inflation, and interest rates, she adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, the nation is already confronting a labor shortage. So unless immigration policy changes or there\u2019s a productivity boom, companies aren\u2019t really in the position to enforce that make workers\u2019 lives difficult, adds Grein.\u00a0<\/p>\n The solution seems apparent and the ballooning issue is just around the corner. Eldercare is \u201cnot something that is so apparent or in your face until it happens, which again, tends to happen suddenly, and I think families are just not prepared for it in general,\u201d says Grein.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nThe need for flexibility\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n