Hidden Labor: The Invisible Workforce of Caregivers

The burden of care falls disproportionately on women across virtually every society, creating a hidden workforce that sacrifices careers to provide essential caregiving services.

The Gender Disparity in Caregiving

It has been conclusively demonstrated across virtually every society that the burden of care falls disproportionately on women. Women accounted for most of the former hidden workers who reported that their absence from the workforce was due to caring for children (59%) or other adults (53%).

Intriguingly, the survey also revealed the growing burden of care on adult males: Of the 11% of former hidden workers that reported they were caregivers of both children and adults, a significant portion, 81%, were males.

The Critical Need for Professional Support

The critical need for professional and reliable support is underscored by the 38 million family caregivers who have sacrificed their livelihoods to care for their loved ones. The informal nature of caregiving impedes efficiency, quality, and scalability within home caregiving services. It introduces potential risks for both care recipients and caregivers alike.

In the end, the impact is absorbed by the employers. This reliance on informal care further highlights the urgent demand for a well-supported professional workforce. Addressing these challenges by providing home care workers with competitive wages and robust support systems is not merely an economic necessity but a societal imperative.

Return on Investment for Employers

Research indicates that care benefits generate attractive returns on investment for employers by reducing turnover and absenteeism, increasing productivity, and bolstering employee engagement and commitment. An analysis of data from 97 companies that support employees with caregiving responsibilities revealed that such companies enjoy an enviable return on their investment in caregiving benefits in the form of higher retention and lower employee turnover.

However, there is also another critical benefit: the ability to attract talent more easily. Companies that invest in a caring culture are more likely to emerge as an employer of choice.

Strategic Management Perspective

Managers must adopt a strategic posture informed by a risk management perspective. Their cost-benefit analysis must expose the hidden costs of ignoring caregiving and incorporate the returns yielded by outcomes like improved retention and higher offer acceptance rates.

The Hidden Costs: Consider the cost side. Many employers will not have run the numbers in any detail (if at all). Still, they will intuitively suspect the magnitude of the hidden costs. Those include the obvious expenses related to the turnover of employees with caregiving needs, such as having vacant positions, hiring and onboarding, reliance on temporary or gig workers, overtime, etc.

Add to that the hidden costs of presenteeism and absenteeism, the loss of institutional knowledge, and the damage turnover inflicts on morale and customer relationships. One-third of the employees surveyed had previously left a job that conflicted with caregiving for children, a partner, or elderly relatives.

Research shows that recruiting a replacement for an entry-level worker can cost 30%–40% of their annual compensation and three to four times the position’s salary for a senior executive.

Building a Culture of Care

One in which employers manage the care crisis rather than continue to ignore it or dismiss it as beyond their remit. By recognizing and responding to the caregiving responsibilities of employees, employers can build an organizational culture that anticipates and accommodates employees’ needs.

The Growing Need for Home Care

The US has more than 65 million seniors and people with disabilities. According to research from AARP, more than two-thirds of adults over 50 want to remain in their homes for the long term.

Source: Fuller, J., Raman, M., Hintermann, F., et al. (October 2024). Hidden Workers: The Case For Caregivers. Published by Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work.