- I'm Edie Lush and I'm here at Davos.
It is 2023.
Really pleased to be here in the studio
with our partner BCG
and I'm absolutely delighted to be here
with Sharon Marcil.
Thanks for stopping by.
How are you? - Oh, I'm good.
It's great to be here.
- Good. - Thank you.
- So, Sharon,
you are the North America Regional Chair
for Boston Consulting Group.
- Yes I am.
- And you're going to talk to me about a subject
that I care passionately about,
which is the care economy.
But as a good journalist, let's define our terms.
What is the care economy?
- Okay. So, Edie, the care economy
is the $6 trillion economy within the US for care.
And 4 trillion of that is actually unpaid,
2 trillion of it is paid
and people typically think of that being for childcare
but this is the entire care network.
So, it includes eldercare, spouse care.
$6 trillion economy.
- It's extraordinarily large.
And as somebody who has
taken time off work
to look after small kids
and also who has aging parents,
I know, and I know a lot of folks, not just women
have issues with it.
But tell me what the problem is with it.
- It's a big issue.
It's been a long-term issue due to demographics,
people living longer,
but the issue actually exploded during COVID.
So, I'll share a few facts with you.
So, if you look at the economy right now,
there are 11 million open positions.
1.8 million of those are in the care economy.
Digging into that,
if you look, for example, in nursing homes, eldercare,
400,000 workers quit during or after COVID
and they have not come back to the workforce.
- And tell me why.
- It's super hard work.
It's really hard work.
The pay is pretty low,
and many of these people have
people they need to take care of,
whether it's their parents or their children.
And so, they're weighing,
the cost of gas, what they're making,
the hard work that it is
and they're making the choice for their family
to not do it and to stay at home.
If you flash that forward
between childcare and eldercare,
BCG estimates that in the year 2030,
this will result in a $290 billion gap
in terms of our economy.
So, it's a big deal.
- It's extraordinary.
Okay. So, what about solutions?
What can companies do about this?
- It's going to take companies and government, I think,
but I think there's a lot companies can do.
So, first of all, embracing
some of what we learned during COVID
in terms of remote work.
I think that provides flexibility in terms of care,
reduces, obviously drive time.
So, I think there's just the embracing of flexibility.
The other thing is please offer
paternity leave and maternity leave.
We've seen a reversal of some of those policies,
in fact, fewer companies
offering paid paternity and maternity leave.
- I find that extraordinary. - It's extraordinary.
It increased for many, many years
and now we're seeing a reversal.
And the last thing is paid family leave.
It's not just when you have children,
that's not the only time that there are care needs,
you know, whether it's a spouse or a parent,
you need paid family leave.
So, I think best-in-class companies are doing that
and I think that's what companies can do.
- Sharon, thanks so much for stopping by
at the studio here in Davos 2023.
And I'm Edie Lush.