What If Family Caregivers Were Paid? It Would Be a Trillion Dollar Industry.

More than 37 million elderly caregivers spend 24 hours a week—often for 4.5 years or more—without pay, benefits, or backup. What they do adds up to $938 billion a year. That’s more than the federal government spends on home health and nursing homes combined.

You may not have applied for this job—but you’ve probably been doing it anyway. If you're picking up prescriptions, managing appointments, or answering 3 a.m. calls from a parent or spouse, you're already part of a massive, informal workforce.

This post isn’t just about stats—it’s about perspective. When you see who’s doing this work, how long it lasts, and what its worth, it may shift how you value your effort.

Elderly Caregiving Isn’t Rare—It’s Everywhere

You may feel like the only one juggling appointments, work calls, and late-night worry—but you’re far from alone.

In 2022, 37 million adults in the U.S. were providing unpaid care for someone age 50 or older. That’s roughly 1 in 7 adults managing meals, medications, mobility, and medical needs—often for a parent, spouse, or close friend.

And the numbers are growing. Every day, about 11,400 people turn 65 and enter a stage of life where care becomes more likely. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, more families—maybe even yours—are stepping into this role, ready or not.

An Unspoken Strain. If 1 in 7 adults are doing this work, why does it still feel like you’re the only one?

Family Caregivers Probably Look Just Like You

You might imagine a typical family caregiver as someone older, maybe retired, with plenty of time on their hands. But the truth looks very different. Most caregivers are right in the thick of their own lives—working full-time, raising kids, managing households—when the need to care for a loved one suddenly lands in their lap.

Caregiving Can Begin at Any Age

The average age of an adult caregiver is 49.4, with a median of 51—but that doesn’t mean you need gray hair to be in this role. Over 4 in 10 caregivers are under 50, and many are stepping into these responsibilities while finishing school, building careers, or raising young children.

Some are thrust into caregiving suddenly after a diagnosis or a fall. Others take it on gradually—checking in more often, taking over finances, then helping with activities of daily living like dressing, feeding, and using the bathroom.

As Gen Z ages into adulthood and Gen X shoulders growing responsibility for both children and parents, caregiving is no longer limited to any one life stage. It’s a role that can appear alongside everything else you're already balancing.

An Unspoken Strain. If caregiving can begin at any point in adulthood, what does that mean for how you prepare, prioritize, and plan your life?

Women Lead—But Men Carry It Too

Caregiving isn’t gender neutral. Three in five caregivers are women. That’s 61% of those supporting aging loved ones while often also managing children, households, and jobs. Across cultures, women have long borne the invisible weight of unpaid care work—and that pattern holds strong today. They're more likely to scale back hours, pass up promotions, or quietly disappear from the workforce altogether.

But that’s not the full story.

Men make up nearly 40% of family caregivers—and they’re often working more hours while doing it. Two-thirds of male caregivers are employed, and those who work average nearly 39 hours a week, compared to 33.5 hours for employed women caregivers. The balancing act is no easier—it just tends to be less visible.

And the toll? It shows up in turnover. Nearly one in three (32%) workers has left a job at some point due to caregiving demands. But men were more likely than women to have made that sacrifice: 38% of male caregivers had quit a job compared to 27% of female caregivers.

For men, the risk isn’t just burnout—it’s invisibility. A role they may not feel permitted to talk about. A responsibility they may not have expected to carry.

An Unspoken Strain. If 2 in 5 caregivers are men and 3 in 5 are women, why do both so often feel unseen?

Caregiving Crosses Every Line—Cultural and Economic

Family caregivers reflect the full racial, ethnic, and economic diversity of the country. The demographic breakdown of caregivers largely mirrors the U.S. population—and as America grows more diverse, so too does its informal care network.

What unites caregivers is not background but responsibility—and that responsibility shows up across every income bracket and employment situation. Sixty-one percent of caregivers were employed at some point in the last year while also providing care. Among those, 60% work full time, 15% log between 30–39 hours a week, and 1 in 4 work part-time under 30 hours.

More than half of employed caregivers are hourly workers, with less flexibility to manage shifting demands. But the strain reaches across the pay scale. Highly paid, highly titled workers—those with significant influence in their companies—are actually more likely to quit due to caregiving conflicts than their lower-paid peers. Fifteen percent of caregivers are self-employed or run their own businesses. And many do so without the safety net of paid leave or backup staff. No matter your income, job title, or background—caregiving finds its way into all lives.

An Unspoken Strain. If so, many are quietly juggling work and care, how are employers supporting them?

Elderly Caregiving Time Is Measured in Hours and Years

Caregiving isn’t something you just “fit in.” It expands—hour by hour, week by week—until it begins to shape your days, your decisions, and your future. As the hours pile up, other goals and plans often get pushed aside. But while this role can feel endless, it won’t last forever. Knowing how long you’ve already been on this journey can help you think more clearly about what comes next—how to make the most of the time left and how to prepare your own path forward, too.

Caregiving Time Isn’t Spare Time—It’s a Second Job

Some weeks, it feels like you’re always on—and in many ways, you are.

On average, caregivers spend 23.7 hours per week providing support. That includes everything from arranging transportation, cleaning and home maintenance, and doing laundry to direct hands-on care like bathing or mobility help. The median is 10 hours, but for many, it quickly escalates. About 1 in 5 caregivers (21%) provide more than 40 hours of care per week—the equivalent of a full-time job.

And caregiving hours don’t stay static. They often grow with time—and with the increasing complexity of your loved one’s condition. In the first year, caregivers provide an average of 22.9 hours per week. That number dips slightly to 20.9 hours during years one to four—when logistics like rideshares or grocery delivery may help lighten the load. But as chronic conditions progress and physical or cognitive decline increases, hands-on care becomes unavoidable. That’s when hours climb. Those in the role for five years or more average 27.5 hours each week, reflecting how often family members take on responsibilities typically delivered by professionals in long-term care settings.

Living arrangements also make a difference. When your loved one lives with you, it’s not 24 hours a week—it’s 37. That’s because home-based caregivers often cover everything: middle-of-the-night monitoring, unscheduled needs, and the absence of rotating shifts found in institutional care. Even with occasional help from home health providers, the daily demand rarely disappears. In contrast, caregivers who don’t live with the recipient still average 15 hours per week—a number that may sound smaller, but can be incredibly disruptive, especially for those balancing paid work, children, or long commutes.

All in, it adds up to an average of 1,232 hours of care per year—without pay, benefits, or vacation days. That’s 30 full-time workweeks spent ensuring someone you love can eat, bathe, heal, or live safely. And those hours come at a cost: your career progress, your sleep, your mental and physical health.

An Unspoken Strain. If caregiving already takes this much of your time, what’s it taking from the rest of your life?

It Feels Endless—But It’s Usually Measured in Years

If you’ve been caregiving for a while, you may feel like there’s no clear end in sight. The routines blur together, the demands quietly grow, and the role can begin to feel permanent. But statistically, it’s not forever. Most family caregivers support a loved one for an average of 4.5 years. About 1 in 3 continue caregiving for five years or longer.

And yet that half-decade is anything but short. It’s enough time to shift careers, lose retirement savings, or quietly wear down your health. Caregivers between the ages of 50 and 64 tend to carry the load the longest, averaging 5.6 years.

This information isn’t shared to discourage you. It’s here to help you make sense of how long elderly caregiving can last and plan wisely for what’s still ahead. Armed with this perspective, you can gauge how much longer it might last and proactively find resources to support expanding needs along the way.

And while it’s hard to say aloud, the end of caregiving often comes with the end of life. That may be a painful thought, but it’s also a clarifying one. When you know time is limited, you’re more likely to make intentional choices, preserve meaningful moments, and prioritize what matters most.

An Unspoken Strain. If you knew this season might last five years—or end in five months—how would you prepare differently?

The Unpaid $22K Job Powering a $938 Billion Family Caregiving Industry

There may be days when it feels like what you’re doing is invisible. You don’t clock in. There’s no paycheck, no 401(k) match, and certainly no PTO. But make no mistake—what you’re providing has enormous financial value.

Start with the time: caregiving averages 24 hours per week, which adds up to 1,232 hours a year. Multiply that by the 37 to 42 million people in the U.S. doing this work, and you get between 48 and 52 billion unpaid caregiving hours annually. That’s unaccounted for time relied upon by the healthcare system.

Now assign those hours a modest wage: $18.12 per hour—the U.S. median hourly wage in 2022. That’s an annual “income” of $22,331 per caregiver. Across the estimated population tending to older adult needs, that translates to $828 to $938 billion a year in unpaid labor.

That’s not just a staggering number. It’s nearly three times what Medicare and Medicaid spent on nursing homes and home health care combined in the same year—just $324 billion total.

And with 11,400 people aging into Medicare every day, the scale of this work—and its economic impact—keeps growing.

Family caregiving isn’t just a role. It’s an industry in itself—quiet, unpaid, and holding up the very foundation of our healthcare system.

An Unspoken Strain. If informal caregivers aren’t being paid for their time and there is a shortage of healthcare workers, how big is the true gap?

When You’re a Family Caregiver, Preparation Matters

“Every single one of us, if we live long enough, is likely to experience being a family caregiver, needing a family caregiver, or both.” And yet, most families aren’t prepared for what’s coming—or even what’s already here.

Nearly 1 in 5 caregivers aren’t sure if their loved one has a plan in place. Close to 2 in 5 say there’s no plan at all. And even when plans exist—for finances, healthcare decisions, or future living arrangements—fewer than half of caregivers (44%) report that those conversations have been clearly outlined. What’s more, only 45% of caregivers say they’ve made any plans for their own future care.

It’s not because you’re failing. It’s because the role often starts slowly and builds—yard work here, a grocery run there—until one day you realize your time, energy, and resources are constantly being stretched.

But when you understand how many hours you’re giving—and how long this journey typically lasts—you can make space to plan. Not everything, not perfectly. But enough to reduce the guesswork and guilt.

An Unspoken Strain. If this role could last years and shape your future, what would planning—even imperfectly—make easier for you and those you love?