Nearly 3 in 10 Americans give unpaid care, and it's quietly reshaping their retirement
Nearly three in 10 Americans age 25 or older provide unpaid care to an adult or child, and those who do carry more debt, hold fewer assets, and feel less confident about retirement than those who do not.
That is the central finding of Caregivers and Retirement: Findings From the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey, a US study released July 22 by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research.
The report draws on the 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), now in its 36th year, which tracks how American workers and retirees view their retirement prospects.
It defines caregivers as people who gave unpaid care for an adult or child in the past 12 months in a noninstitutional setting and helped with at least one activity of daily living or instrumental activity of daily living.
Caregivers were less likely to describe their health as excellent or very good, at 36 percent compared with 45 percent of non-caregivers, and less likely to report household income of US$75,000 or more, at 53 percent versus 62 percent, the survey found.
They were also more likely to be female, at 61 percent against 47 percent.
The financial gap is sharper.
According to the report, 34 percent of caregivers held less than US$10,000 in savings and investments, compared with 25 percent of non-caregivers, and 69 percent said debt was a problem versus 57 percent.
Caregiving itself often drove those numbers: 34 percent of caregiving workers and 20 percent of caregiving retirees gave money or financial support to the person they cared for, and 20 percent of workers and 15 percent of retirees took on new or additional debt as a result.
The strain showed up most in mental health.
Sixty-four percent of caregiving workers and 52 percent of caregiving retirees said caregiving had a negative effect on their mental health with saving for emergencies (56 percent) and working the hours they wanted or needed (54 percent) the financial tasks workers most often said were hit.
Caregiving is usually framed as "a family, health or workplace issue," but the research shows it is also a "retirement security issue," said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at EBRI.
Caregivers do many of the same planning activities as non-caregivers, he said, yet they are more likely to carry debt, hold lower assets, face mental health strain and report lower confidence about their finances.
That combination, Copeland said, makes it harder to build and preserve retirement security.
Confidence tracked those pressures at the ends of the income scale.
Among households earning less than US$35,000, 75 percent of caregivers said they were not confident of having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, against 55 percent of non-caregivers.
In the US$75,000-or-more group, the split was 32 percent to 23 percent.
No gap appeared in the middle-income band.
Yet caregivers were not disengaged planners.
The report found they were just as likely as non-caregivers to have done non-financial preparation tasks such as thinking about when and how they will live in retirement, but upper-income caregivers lagged on financial steps including retirement needs calculations and saving.
Caregiver retirees were also more likely to have retired earlier than planned, at 56 percent versus 44 percent, frequently because they had to care for a spouse or family member.
For advisors, the survey points to an underserved segment.
Thirty-five percent of caregivers worked with a professional financial advisor, compared with 39 percent of non-caregivers though 40 percent of caregivers without one expected to engage an advisor in future.
Greenwald tied the results to the workplace.
Employers can "better understand the realities facing employee caregivers," said Greenwald, chief executive of Greenwald Research.
Benefits, flexibility, leave, education and support would help these workers manage caregiving while saving for retirement, she said.
