The “sandwich generation” earns its name. These dedicated caregivers are caught in the middle, pressed between the needs of growing children and aging parents. But it’s more than being squeezed between two slices of responsibility. The sandwich generation caregiver is the person in the middle, tasked with holding everything together while trying to maintain a career, financial stability, and personal well-being.
One in four American adults now belongs to the sandwich generation. That means they have a parent aged 65 or older and are either raising at least one child younger than 18 or providing financial support to an adult child. Sandwich generation employees (primarily in their 40s and 50s) represent 23% of today’s workforce, adding caregiving complexity to their daily work and long-term career decisions.
This population is projected to grow significantly in the coming years, reaching a peak between 2030 and 2050. Driven by a combination of demographic and societal trends, including longer life expectancy, delayed parenthood, and increased multi-generational living, the sandwich generation will shift social, family, and workforce norms.
When caring for parents and kids collides
Employees juggling parenting and senior care responsibilities face challenges that extend beyond typical work-life balance issues, including financial stress, work performance, and burnout.
Financial stress
Sandwich generation caregivers are twice as likely to report financial difficulty compared to caregivers focused only on parenting or senior care roles. The financial impact affects both the short- and long-term, straining day-to-day budgets as well as the ability to save for retirement. In addition, career decisions based on caregiving responsibilities can also reduce a person’s lifetime earning potential.
Work performance
Sandwich generation caregivers spend 22 hours per week providing senior care and another 28 hours caring for children under 18. It’s no surprise that two in three family caregivers report difficulty balancing their job responsibilities and caregiving duties.
The juggling act affects everything from everyday productivity to long-term career planning, including increased absences and presenteeism, turning down promotions, and taking leaves. One in four (29%) of working caregivers said they have had to reduce their work hours or shift from full-time to part-time work.
Stress and burnout
According to our 2025 Future of Benefits Report, 78% of employees say balancing work and caregiving affects stress levels at work. Yet, caregiver stress often remains hidden from employers. Fewer than half of caregivers say they’ve communicated about their caregiving responsibilities with their managers.
Caregiving stress often leads to burnout, especially for the sandwich generation who have little time left in their days for self-care. In a 2023 study of sandwich caregivers, 44% reported “substantial emotional difficulties” related to caregiving, compared to 32% of other caregivers. In addition, sandwich caregivers scored significantly higher on the study’s “role overload” scale, reflecting more frequent feelings of being overwhelmed or unable to keep up.
Managers and coworkers are well-positioned to identify signs an employee is experiencing caregiver burnout, including:
- Fatigue and lack of energy
- Changes in mood or behavior
- Withdrawal and isolation
- Difficulty concentrating or decline in job performance
- Expressions of hopelessness or caregiving-related overwhelm
Caregiving challenges affect both employee well-being and workplace outcomes, including engagement, productivity, and retention. Employers can play a central role in helping sandwich generation employees navigate caregiving demands.
3 steps to supporting the sandwich generation at work
Delivering meaningful support that helps sandwich generation employees navigate intersecting parenting, senior care, and career challenges starts with three key steps.
Step 1: Ask, listen, learn
Many caregiving challenges remain invisible to employers, which can result in gaps between employee needs and available resources. As a first step, gather information to understand the scope and specific needs of your employees, including members of the sandwich generation.
Why it matters
Sandwich generation caregivers often keep their struggles private. They may worry that discussing the caregiving challenges or increased responsibilities could impact their career advancement, or they simply don’t know the caregiving support available through the workplace. Collecting baseline data about your workforce’s caregiving responsibilities enables you to design targeted solutions and measure program effectiveness.
How to get started
Begin with confidential or anonymous workforce surveys that ask about a range of caregiving responsibilities: child care, senior care, pet care, and self-care. Ask about the time commitments and challenges. Gauge interest in different support options, including existing workplace benefits and potential additions.
Based on the survey responses, you can identify how many employees are managing dual caregiving roles and identify common pain points. Pair the survey with analysis of existing data to identify patterns. For example, look at absenteeism trends, assess benefits utilization, or examine turnover.
The survey and analysis provide a foundation that will help you move beyond assumptions to create sandwich caregiver support that aligns with employee needs and has a measurable impact.
Step 2: Make schedules work for caregivers
Traditional work schedules don’t always accommodate school pickups or doctor’s appointments for aging parents. When employees don’t have schedule flexibility or other caregiving support resources, they often have to make difficult choices between their family and their job.
Why it matters
The unpredictable caregiving demands from multiple directions are one of the biggest stressors that sandwich generation caregivers face. Half of working caregivers say they have made work-related scheduling changes due to caregiving responsibilities, including going into work early, leaving late, or taking time off.
When companies are able to offer schedule flexibility that allows caregivers to manage both regular and unexpected caregiving demands, employees use and value the support. Among employees with access to flexible work schedules, 80% say they’ve used it, and 84% of those who used the benefit say it is very helpful.
How to get started
Based on business needs and job responsibilities, identify opportunities for schedule flexibility. There are a wide range of ways to offer schedule flexibility, including the ability to adjust workday start times or end times, options to make up time taken for doctor’s appointments during the day, hybrid roles that allow employees to work from home part of the time, and compressed work weeks or job-sharing options that give employees extra days off work.
Create guidelines for the flexibility so that managers and caregivers are on the same page when the flexibility comes into play. That includes establishing clear protocols for scheduling requests, identifying the backup coverage needed when an employee is away, and developing a process for same-day adjustments when caregiving emergencies arise.
Most importantly, provide training for frontline managers to ensure the flexibility is implemented consistently. Consider starting with a pilot program to gather feedback and make adjustments before rolling out across the organization.
Step 3: Provide meaningful benefits
Sandwich caregivers face a range of challenges on a day-to-day basis. Access to an array of caregiving benefits and resources through the workplace can help alleviate stress, reduce financial pressures, and lower burnout risk.
Why it matters
For sandwich generation caregivers, much of the strain comes from feeling stretched thin. Finding reliable support takes time that these employees often don’t have, which only compounds the challenges they face. In addition, the combined responsibilities of juggling medical appointments for senior parents, parenting duties, and professional obligations often leave little room for self-care.
For employers, caregiving benefits do more than demonstrate employee care or boost productivity. They also have a direct impact on a company’s retention and recruitment. One in five employees report leaving a job because their employer did not offer family care benefits.
How to get started
Consider offering caregiving benefits to help sandwich generation caregivers across four core areas:
Access to a care network: A go-to resource for vetted caregiving relieves the time-consuming task of finding care. Look for a care benefits partner that offers a user-friendly online platform and app that simplifies the task for employees.
Expert guidance: Caregiving needs can change quickly, especially for aging parents. Offer benefits that include access to concierge-style care experts who can provide customized referrals for caregiving options. Look for partners with teams that include care specialists with deep senior care experience who can assist with evolving needs related to assisted living support or memory care.
Backup care: It’s inevitable in the life of a sandwich generation caregiver: Regular child care falls through on the same day the employee needs to take a parent to an important doctor’s appointment, and they don’t want to miss a full day’s work. Provide backup care options to help employees solve unexpected caregiving gaps and reduce absenteeism.
Financial support: Help reduce financial concerns related to caregiving with care spending accounts. Designed to give employees a financial resource for planned and unplanned care needs, employers decide the amount to contribute to the accounts and the types of care expenses covered; from child care and senior care to pet care and self-care.
Bringing it all together
The sandwich generation is growing, and so is the impact on the workforce. These employee caregivers are doing double-duty every day. And they’re bringing the challenges to work with them. By recognizing their needs and responding with empathy, flexibility, and practical support, employers can ease the burden and help sandwich caregivers stay present, productive, and engaged at work.
Ready to explore caregiving benefits for your sandwich generation workforce? Get in touch.
