As more and more adult children are caring for their aging parents, the costs of missed days, workday interruptions and unpaid leave is taking a toll on their finances and their productivity.
One in four American adults provides care for an aging parent, a threefold increase since 1994, according to a study released in June. In aggregate, those caregivers have lost an estimated $3 trillion in wages, pension and Social Security benefits, the researchers found.
Women, who tend to provide more of the basic care such as feeding and dressing, lost an individual average of $324,044. Men, more likely to provide financial help, lost $283,716, said the study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, the National Alliance for Caregiving and the Center for Long Term Care Research and Policy at New York Medical College.
In Thursday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at the toll of caring for aging parents. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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