(The Center Square) – A new study has revealed a record number of Americans are serving as unpaid caregivers for elderly relatives, and Washington residents bear that burden more than any other state in the nation.
Seniorly, an online platform service that helps families find senior living communities, used data compiled from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Census Bureau and the Genworth Cost of Care Survey to determine that nearly 40 million Americans spend a record 3.9 hours per day caring for aging loved ones.
Five factors were analyzed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., including adults who performed caregiving duties in the last six months, home health costs relative to income, cost of adult day care, multigenerational households, and access to Medicaid home-based care.
“You’re looking at nearly 40 million Americans who are unpaid caregivers. There are a lot of people [who] don’t even know that they’re a caregiver. So, this is anyone who is providing transportation, helping with medication, doctor’s appointments,” said Marlena del Hierro, director of operational growth at CareScout, in a Wednesday interview with The Center Square.
CareScout is a service by Genworth Financial that helps families find and manage long-term care for seniors by connecting them with a vetted network of home care providers and offering personalized care planning services.
She elaborated on the reasons why the Evergreen State faces the worst family caregiver crisis in America, with the nation’s second-highest adult daycare costs ($193 per day), nearly three-quarters of adults aged 50 and over as caregivers, and home health aide expenses 1.5 times higher than the median income among senior households.
“So maybe there [are] not as many adult day programs available to residents in Washington,” del Hierro said.
She suggested that regulations play into the cost of care.
“What are the laws and regulations that are in place in the state of Washington that it takes to run and operate these types of programs? How much does it take to actually staff?” del Hierro asked. “I mean, there [are] laws and regulations on caregiving wages, as there should be, as it’s a really hard occupation, but it all impacts what the cost is going to be, right? So that’s a part of it.”
According to Seniorly’s report, Department of Labor data shows that nationwide, “the average American woman aged 55 or older spends 182 hours per year tending to loved ones – the equivalent of a full-time job for five weeks of the year – but without pay or relief.”
The value of unpaid family care is estimated at over $1.1 trillion annually, according to an analysis by the National Partnership for Women & Families nonprofit.
The Center Square reached out to Elizabeth New, director of the Center for Health Care and the Center for Worker Rights at the Washington Policy Center, a free-market think tank, for comment on the study.
“Our state has made family caregiving a profession instead of something that families do, paid for by W-2 workers in the state, and helping people with or without financial need. This article says, ‘the analysis reveals which states most rely on families to fill the caregiving gap.’ I don’t think that is what it does. I also think it’s a backward thought. I think more and more families, especially here in Washington state — given a PR machine for WA Cares — are expecting other taxpayers to meet the caregiving needs of an aging population.”
WA Cares is Washington’s mandatory long-term care insurance program that deducts 58 cents for every $100 earned from workers’ paychecks. Benefits will become available in July 2026 for eligible individuals.
“Washington state is a state in which workers make higher wages and have a higher cost of living,” New said. “It should not be surprising that the cost of caregiving is high here. Labor costs are high here.”
