Eldercare survey shows impacts of aging in Hawai‘i  

The Department of Health Executive Office on Aging recently surveyed Hawai‘i employers – including nonprofits, with HANO’s assistance. According to the survey report, provided by Wes Lum of the University of Hawai‘i Center on Aging, one third of responding employers felt at least 15 percent of their employees were providing eldercare.

The two most common effects were that employees were arriving late, leaving early and re-arranging their work schedules. The most commonly eldercare benefit offered to employees was paid bereavement leave, unpaid family leave to do eldercare and compliance with the provisions of the Family Medical Leave Act.

Almost 60 percent agreed or strongly agreed that employers should provide benefits for their employees affected by eldercare:

• 70 percent favored a tax credit to purchase long-term care insurance for employees
• Slightly less than 50 percent favored or strongly favored a state subsidy to provide eldercare benefits or a wage replacement savings plan to provide wages during an otherwise unpaid leave

Nonprofits were less likely to provide certain eldercare related benefits than were proprietary companies and the public sector tended to lag behind the private sector, the report said. Larger and nationally based companies tended to have a much more extensive package of eldercare related benefits, however smaller companies tended to be more flexible in their practices.

Companies with unionized employees were more likely to provide certain benefits, such as employee-assistance programs but were relatively inflexible in allowing employees to work part time or to telecommute. Not surprisingly, there was also greater support for a number of eldercare-sensitive policies when the company felt that it increased productivity to offer them. Few companies, however, collect data on the cost or effects of eldercare policies.

Younger, female CEO’s, CFO’s and human resources managers tended to be more progressive in their attitudes about workplace benefits for eldercare and in support for public policies to address this issue. The survey also found companies are becoming more aware of the issue and expect to be affected by it in the future if not now.

Respondents noted employees providing eldercare experience stress. More people are taking sick leave and leave without pay to deal with eldercare issues. Smaller companies said it is too expensive to offer all the benefits they wished, but they tried to be flexible and to treat each situation with concern.

According to a companion report to the Legislature, the “State of Hawai‘i Family Caregiver Needs Assessment,” in Hawai‘i more than a quarter (26.1 percent) of households have at least one caregiver for an adult over 60. More than 73 percent of these the caregivers are female, their average age is 54 and about 56 percent care for a parent and 16 percent care for a spouse.

On average, caregivers have lived in Hawai‘i for 30 years, 82.5 percent care for only one person, their median household income is in the $30,000 to $35,000 range and more than half, 57.1 percent, help with personal care. Up to 85 percent assist with daily living tasks, such as shopping and transportation.

On average, caregivers had been do so for between one and five ears, typically providing more than 20 hours a week of care – almost 30 percent reported providing constant care. Less than 10 percent used any paid help, but 7 to 25 percent actively used community services. Most often mentioned was nursing, followed by training, case management, transportation and legal services. Service utilization varied greatly by county, ethnicity, income and hours of care provided.

Just over 55 percent of the sample had jobs and more than a quarter of these said that their employment had been affected by caregiving responsibilities; 55.2 percent said they reduced work hours, 36 percent said they had turned down a promotion or taken a leave of absence, 94.3 percent said they frequently rearranged their work schedules and 77.9 percent took time off during work to deal with caregiving responsibilities.

Public policies favored by respondents to support caregivers included a state income tax credit for caregiving and a place to get information and support. Employed caregivers expressed a greater need for more community services and greater support for unpaid family leave and training and education.

Caregivers of parents ranked the need for government support significantly higher in nearly all areas: community services, respite services, tax credits and paid and unpaid family leave. Younger caregivers were more likely to support a paid family leave program and respite programs, as were those who had taken a leave of absence from work.

Hawai‘i County caregivers were significantly more likely to say government should support family caregivers. As levels of caregiver burden rose, so did the likelihood of positive endorsement of public policy measures listed in the survey.