The Growing Demand for Senior Care

According to the U.S. Administration on Aging (AOA), in 2015, 14.1 percent of the U.S. population was aged 65 or older, or one in every seven Americans. By 2020, 54 million people in the U.S. will be over the age of 65; by 2040, that number will top 82 million. People reaching age 65 today have an average life expectancy of 85.8 years (male) to 87.8 years (female), according to the Society of Actuaries MP-2016; which will result in a staggering number of seniors over the age of 80 in
the next 20 years, many of whom will need some kind of care. Already, we can see the growing demand for senior care is critical in our lives and so it will continue.

Senior care is essential to our expanding elderly population. Some senior care is short-term, following an accident or injury that generally resolves itself. Most, however, is long-term care which involves a variety of services which help meet both the medical and non-medical needs of seniors with chronic illness, disability, or advanced age who have difficulty caring for themselves. Long-term care can be assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) like dressing, bathing, meal preparation, and using the bathroom, or medical care that requires the expertise of skilled practitioners to address chronic conditions.

Senior care relates to a wide range of care but commonly refers to extended services for seniors who need help with ADLs. Senior care can be provided in a senior’s home, as well as the home of a family member (such as a son or daughter), in the community, or in various facilities like adult day care centers, fixed communities, assisted living facilities, and skilled nursing homes.

In-home senior care is usually provided in three ways:

1. By a home health care agency that employs the worker to work in the family’s home, and sees to payroll, taxes, and human resources. (The agency employs the senior care provider in the home and maintains control of the worker’s job duties.)
2. By a referral or placement agency that finds and recruits the senior care worker on behalf of the family, charging a fee to do so, but then withdraws direct responsibility and transfers control for the employment over to the family. This type of agency may provide advice, support, and replacement services, if needed.
3. By hiring independently, whereby the family or friend finds, hires, and employs the senior care worker according to all federal, state, and local requirements as a household employer, on behalf of the senior needing care (sometimes the senior is also the one employing the caregiver directly).

To achieve an effective and practical balance between your career and your family—making your private and professional lives enjoyable, fulfilling, and manageable—you decided to hire an in-home caregiver for your parent or elderly relative and, therefore, to have your senior or yourself become a household employer. As an employer, it is your business—one recognized by the federal, state, and local governments—to treat household employment as the real profession it is, and abide by all legal, labor, wage, insurance, and tax requirements as a household employer.

GTM is here to help. Download our Complete Guide to Household Payroll to ensure that you know all your obligations as an employer of a senior care worker. Contact us at (800) 929-9213 for more information.