Summary
The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald Research today announced the launch of Caregiving at Work, a national, multiyear initiative designed to examine how family caregiving is affecting workers, employers and the employee benefits system. Building on EBRI’s ongoing collaboration with Greenwald Research, the initiative will run through 2027 and combine new survey research, employer-focused resources and events to help organizations better understand and respond to caregiving-related pressures across the U.S. workforce. Caregiving at Work examines how caregiving shapes workers’ experiences with workplace benefits — and what it takes to keep caregivers connected to work.
As millions of Americans balance jobs with responsibilities such as caring for aging parents, spouses, children with disabilities and other loved ones, caregiving is increasingly shaping workplace experiences, benefit needs, financial decision making and long-term retirement security. Yet despite its growing impact, caregiving often remains insufficiently measured in employer strategy and benefits planning.
At a time when employers are facing growing workforce and benefits pressures tied to caregiving, the initiative is intended to provide timely national research and practical guidance on one of the most significant but often undermeasured issues affecting employees today.
The Caregiving at Work initiative is designed to help close that gap by producing more robust data on how caregiving intersects with employment, health coverage, financial well-being and retirement preparedness, while also creating opportunities for employers and other stakeholders to turn research findings into practical action.
“Caregiving affects workers across income levels, occupations and life stages, and it often influences benefit choices, financial trade-offs and long-term retirement outcomes,” said Bridget Bearden, EBRI’s director of member growth and partnerships. “This initiative is intended to help quantify those effects and provide practical, research-based insights that employers and policymakers can use.”
At the center of the initiative is expanded caregiver-focused research produced through EBRI-Greenwald survey platforms. That work will include dedicated oversamples of caregivers, allowing deeper analysis of how caregiving responsibilities influence benefit use, household financial pressures, health care decision making, and retirement readiness.
“We’re delighted to help bring together a coalition of industry leaders committed to better understanding caregivers’ needs and advancing services and solutions that can support them,” said Lisa Weber-Raley, chief research officer and head of healthcare insights at Greenwald Research.
The initiative includes sponsorship opportunities connected to three flagship EBRI-Greenwald Surveys: the Retirement Confidence Survey, the Workplace Wellness Survey, and the Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey. Together, those surveys will generate a broader and more detailed picture of how caregiving affects workers’ lives and the role employee benefits can play in supporting them.
Organizations supporting the initiative will have opportunities to stay closely connected to the research, access findings and data, and be recognized for their role in advancing understanding of caregiving in the workplace. Founding partners include Bright Horizons, CareScout, Voya Financial, and Wellthy. The Caregiving at Work team expects to announce additional participating organizations as the initiative expands.
In addition to research, the initiative will feature events and educational programming designed to encourage informed dialogue and practical application across the caregiving, aging, health and benefits landscape. Planned activities include two in-person forums, one in fall 2026 and another in spring 2027; three webinars timed to key stages of the initiative; and a dedicated digital platform featuring employer-facing resources, research highlights and event information.
The national initiative is expected to inform employers, policymakers, benefit providers, researchers and advocates seeking to better understand caregiving’s effect on workforce participation, employee stress, benefit engagement, and financial security.