Voya’s 2026 research describes caregiving as a widespread, lasting responsibility that reaches employees at every age and career stage.² Financial Finesse’s data sorts employees into four groups based on what they report when first surveyed: no dependents, caring for children, caring for elderly parents or other family members, and the sandwich generation, who care for both children and aging parents.¹

A Growing Older Population

The Population Reference Bureau describes the growth of the population ages 65 and older as unprecedented in U.S. history.³ It projects that this group will grow from 58 million Americans in 2022 to 82 million by 2050, a 42% increase.³ Over the same period, its share of the population will rise from 17% to 23%.³

Most caregivers expect the responsibility to continue.⁴ In the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, 72% of caregiving workers said they were likely to provide unpaid care in the next five years, compared with 42% of workers who were not caregivers.⁴

Caregiving Strain Is Not Only a Matter of Income

A fair question is whether income, rather than caregiving, explains the financial gaps between caregivers and other employees.

Survey data suggests that income does not explain the whole gap.⁴ In the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, caregivers in both the lowest and highest income bands were more likely to lack confidence that they would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement than non-caregivers with similar income.⁴

Financial stress rose among the employees Financial Finesse surveyed from 2024 to 2026.¹ The 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey found that workers’ confidence in a comfortable retirement fell to its lowest level since 2017, and that debt and cost-of-living challenges affected many Americans.⁴ Financial Finesse’s survey data shows the same pressure: the share of employees reporting high or overwhelming financial stress rose in every group, including employees with no dependents.¹

Caregivers took on that increase from an already higher starting point.¹ In the first nine months of 2026, 38.0% of employees caring for children reported high or overwhelming financial stress, along with 42.8% of those caring for elderly parents or other family members and 41.5% of the sandwich generation.¹ Among employees with no dependents, the share was 28.8%.¹

The gap between caregivers and their colleagues is large and has persisted across all three years.¹ In 2026, the share of elder caregivers reporting high or overwhelming stress was 14.0 percentage points higher than among employees with no dependents.¹ The gap was 12.7 points for the sandwich generation and 9.2 points for employees caring for children.¹ Financial Wellness Scores declined for every group over the same period.¹

Sources of Financial Pressure

The rise in stress follows several years of sharp increases in the price of paid care.⁵ An AARP Public Policy Institute analysis found that private-pay costs for home health care and assisted living rose by almost 50% from 2019 to 2024.⁵ Over the same period, the median income of households headed by someone 65 or older rose 22%.⁵ EBRI found that sandwich-generation workers, who live with both their parents and their children, were more likely to see their financial assets shrink.⁶ From 2020 to 2022, 39% of them saw a decrease, compared with 29% of other workers who lived with their parents.⁶

Caregiving also reaches into the workday.² In the 2026 Voya survey, 73% of employed caregivers had used their own sick, vacation, or personal leave to provide care, and 48% had cut back on work hours.² Caregivers also pay for care out of their own pockets, according to AARP’s 2021 study, which tracked these costs through a survey and a week of expense records.⁷ Among caregivers who reported such costs, the average was $7,242 a year, most of it for a loved one’s housing and medical needs.⁷ Those costs rise with work disruption: caregivers whose jobs were disrupted in two or more ways spent an average of $10,525 a year, almost twice as much as those with one or no disruption.⁷

The effects can last beyond the working years: in the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, 56% of retired caregivers had retired earlier than planned, compared with 44% of retirees who were not caregivers.⁴

Most employers do not yet offer elder care services or caregiving education, though many plan to add them.⁸ In EBRI’s 2025 employer survey, fewer than four in ten employers offered either benefit, and nearly half planned to add each.⁸

From 2021 to 2025, employees in all four groups who engaged with their employer’s financial wellness program reduced their financial stress and raised their Financial Wellness Scores.¹ The groups started from different baselines but improved at similar rates.¹

Score gains ranged from 0.60 to 0.67 points.¹ For benefits leaders, this means caregiving employees respond to financial wellness programs as well as their colleagues do, so the main challenge is reaching them.¹ Outreach timed to the moments when caregiving responsibilities surface can connect caregivers with help as their financial pressure rises. Examples include Medicare’s annual open enrollment period, for employees helping a parent choose coverage; a W-4 update or benefits change that adds a dependent; and a request for caregiver leave or a more flexible schedule.

Caregivers Are Asking for This Support

Caregivers are looking for personalized financial help.^{2, 4} In the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, caregivers were more likely than non-caregivers to turn to family, friends, and their own online research for retirement planning.⁴ Among workers offered a retirement plan, more personalized financial guidance was the only one of caregivers’ six most-valued plan improvements that they named more often than non-caregivers.⁴ Emotional stress can get in the way: in the Voya survey, 41% of caregivers cited it as a barrier to seeking financial planning support, compared with 25% of the general population.²

Employers have their own reasons to act.² According to Voya, 64% of employers are concerned about reduced productivity among caregivers, up from 57% in 2018.² Voya also found that 95% of employers agree financial services companies should provide customized financial planning support for caregivers.²