Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 80

relying on the income of one person in a poverty-wage job could afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rates.58 In addition, child care is hard to find—particularly high-quality child care, and particularly care during the nontraditional days and hours required of many low-wage workers. These families have good reason to feel frustrated. Having the second parent enter the paid workforce may make their household income look good on paper, but paying for child care and other work-related expenses makes their actual financial situation far less rosy. Suzanne Bianchi, professor of sociology at UCLA, explains: “They may feel that they have done everything right—completed high school or some college, married before having children, worked hard at their jobs—and yet they still struggle to carve out a reasonable family life and hold onto jobs that are critical to their family’s economic well-being.”59 Adult Care Richard Lord People 85 and older are the fastest growing share of the U.S. population, with about two-thirds reporting functional limitations performing routine daily tasks. 70? Chapter 2 n While child care is a major concern for many workers, many others need to care for adult family members, especially elders, who are sick or disabled. Some workers face both challenges at once. About 25 percent of workers report that they have elder-care responsibilities; by 2020, this figure is expected to rise to 40 percent.60 With the baby boom generation now starting to retire and advances in health care making it possible for people to live longer, adults in the coming decades may start to spend more years caring for their parents than for their children. The typical caregiver is between the ages of 35 and 64, female, and employed.61 Women— most often wives or adult daughters—provide more than 75 percent of the care given to adult family members.62 While relatives may well be caring for elders out of love, it is likely to be a financial necessity as well, since the cost of paid care for elderly people is outpacing the ability of families to pay for it.63 In 2009, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) put the value of unpaid care at $450 billion a year, more than twice what the country spends on paid long-term care services from all sources.64 The Family and Medical Leave Act is the only law that deals specifically with the challenges of working while providing elder care.65 For those who qualify, the offer of up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave is better than nothing, but it is not feasible for most low- and moderateincome families, nor will it meet the needs of those whose relatives have chronic health problems rather than an acute crisis once a year. “Two-thirds [of caregivers] say they reduce hours at work [when they start caring for elders],” says Howard Gleckman, author of Caring Bread for the World Institute