Care.com’s 2026 Future of Benefits Report reveals a growing disconnect in the modern workplace: caregiving responsibilities are widespread and deeply influential, yet largely invisible to employers and under-supported by HR systems.
Caregiving has quietly become one of the most influential forces shaping workforce behavior—and one of the least understood.
New research from Care.com, through its CareBenefits division, highlights a widening gap between how employees experience caregiving and how organizations recognize it. While only 37% of employees identify as caregivers, the reality is far more complex: many are already providing care or expect to in the near future.
This mismatch is more than semantic. It reflects a structural blind spot in how organizations design benefits, manage productivity, and measure employee well-being.
The Hidden Workforce Infrastructure
Caregiving is increasingly embedded into the workday, particularly for younger generations.
The report finds that 74% of millennials and 67% of Gen Z either care for children or expect to, while more than half anticipate caring for aging family members. Over half of respondents also expect to become part of the “sandwich generation,” balancing responsibilities across both ends of the age spectrum.
Yet these responsibilities often remain informal and unaccounted for in workplace systems.
Brad Wilson, CEO of Care.com, describes caregiving as part of the “infrastructure” of work—essential but largely invisible. When organizations fail to acknowledge that reality, they risk misreading employee needs and underinvesting in critical support systems.
A Perception Gap With Real Consequences
The report also identifies a significant disconnect between employer perception and employee experience.
While 81% of employees report moderate to high stress levels, employers estimate that figure at just 55%. This gap extends to caregiving support, where only 19% of employees feel their needs are well recognized, and just 20% feel strongly supported.
These perception gaps are not just cultural—they have measurable business implications.
- 53% of employees have missed work due to caregiving challenges
- 48% report decreased productivity
- 31% say caregiving is their biggest productivity drain
Despite this, only 29% of employers believe managers are well-equipped to support employees facing caregiving demands.
The disconnect suggests that traditional HR metrics may be failing to capture a critical dimension of workforce performance.
Retention Risk in a Care-Driven Economy
The implications for talent retention are significant.
Nearly one in four employees say they have considered leaving the workforce due to caregiving challenges, while 23% have already switched jobs to access better family care benefits. Additionally, 85% report that caregiving-related benefits could influence their decision to change employers.
This positions caregiving support as a competitive differentiator in the labor market—on par with compensation and career development.
According to Gartner, employee well-being initiatives are increasingly linked to retention and productivity outcomes, while McKinsey & Company notes that benefits personalization is becoming a key driver of employee satisfaction in hybrid and distributed work environments.
The Awareness Gap in Benefits
Even when organizations invest in caregiving benefits, awareness remains a challenge.
The report finds that 39% of employers offer child care benefits, yet only 22% of employees are aware of them. This gap highlights a recurring issue in HRTech: benefits delivery does not always translate into benefits utilization.
Modern HR platforms from Workday and SAP are increasingly incorporating employee experience layers designed to improve visibility and engagement with benefits. However, adoption and execution vary widely.
Without effective communication and integration, even well-designed benefits programs can fail to deliver value.
The Role of HR Technology
The findings point to a broader opportunity for HR technology providers.
Caregiving challenges intersect with multiple HR functions—scheduling, payroll, leave management, and employee engagement. Addressing them requires integrated systems capable of capturing real-time employee needs and delivering personalized support.
Platforms from Salesforce and Microsoft are expanding into employee experience and workflow orchestration, creating new possibilities for managing complex workforce dynamics.
Caregiving, in this context, represents a use case for more adaptive, data-driven HR systems.
Employers Are Responding—But Slowly
The report indicates that organizations are beginning to adapt.
- 92% of employers agree they play a role in helping employees manage care costs
- 77% are concerned about caregiving-related stress
- Employers are six times more likely to expand caregiving benefits than reduce them
These signals suggest growing awareness at the leadership level. However, the persistence of perception and awareness gaps indicates that implementation remains uneven.
A Shift Toward Holistic Workforce Design
The broader takeaway is that caregiving is no longer a niche issue—it is a central component of workforce design.
As demographic trends evolve and longevity increases, caregiving responsibilities are expected to rise across all segments of the workforce. Organizations that fail to account for this reality risk higher attrition, lower productivity, and reduced employee engagement.
Conversely, companies that integrate caregiving support into their benefits strategy and HR systems stand to gain a competitive advantage in talent retention and workforce stability.
The challenge is not just offering support—but making it visible, accessible, and aligned with how employees actually live and work.
Market Landscape
The employee benefits and HR technology market is shifting toward personalized, experience-driven platforms. Companies like Adobe and Salesforce are integrating employee experience into broader digital ecosystems, while specialized providers are focusing on family care, well-being, and flexible work solutions.
Caregiving benefits are emerging as a critical pillar of this evolution, particularly as organizations compete for talent in a complex labor market.
Top Insights
- Care.com’s report highlights a major gap between caregiving reality and employee self-identification, revealing hidden workforce responsibilities that significantly impact productivity and engagement.
- A perception gap between employee stress and employer awareness underscores the limitations of traditional HR metrics in capturing real workforce challenges.
- Caregiving responsibilities are driving retention risk, with nearly a quarter of employees considering leaving the workforce and many switching jobs for better benefits.
- Benefits awareness remains a critical issue, as many employees are unaware of existing caregiving support, reducing the effectiveness of employer investments.
- Employers are expanding caregiving benefits, but structural and communication gaps must be addressed to fully realize their impact on workforce performance.
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