Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers

Almost 10 million people age 50 and above care for their aging parents in the United States.  The MetLife Mature Market Institute has published a report based on data from the the 2008 panel of the National Health and Retirement Study (HRS).  This report is called "The MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers: Double Jeopardy for Baby Boomers Caring for Their Parents".  Here are some highlights from this study:

• the percentage of adults providing financial assistance or personal care to an aging parent has tripled in the last 15 years.
• approximately a quarter of all adult children (mainly baby boomers) provide care for a parent.
• The overall cost in lost wages, pensions, and social security benefits for all of these caregivers is nearly 3 trillion dollars.
• the average female caregiver loses $324,044.
• male caregivers average a loss of $283,716.
• caregivers age 50 and above are more likely to have fair or poor health than people who are not caregivers.

The full report can be read here.