(INDIANA CAPTIAL CHRONICLE) — An AARP report found that the 1.11 million Hoosiers who act as caregivers to parents, spouses and other adult loved ones contribute $16.1 billion in unpaid labor each year. Family caregivers assist disabled or elderly loved ones with daily tasks like toiletin g, dressing and preparing meals. But the AARP report found caregivers are increasingly likely to engage in complex tasks like wound care or administering injections, increasing the hours of unpaid labor they perform. Collectively, Hoosier caregivers perform an estimated 860 million hours of unpaid labor that would otherwise be valued at $16.1 billion each year if they were compensated at the market rate of $18.68 per hour, the report found. “Family caregivers are filling a critical gap in our health care system,” Sarah Waddle, AARP Indiana state director, said in a news release. “The care they are providing is often coming at a significant cost to their health, financial security and well-being. This is why AARP is raising awareness of this crucial issue and working to help family caregivers save time and money.” The numbers are up from a similar 2023 report that found an estimated 790,000 Hoosiers provided more than 740 million hours of care to their elders as family caregivers, a value of more than $10.8 billion. The report draws on 2024 caregiving data to calculate the economic contributions of unpaid family caregivers. The estimated value of caregiving varies across states from $14.12 an hour in Louisiana to $27.05 an hour in Washington. In Indiana, the market rate is $18.68 an hour. Nationally, the AARP found 59 million Americans act as caregivers for adults — the equivalent of 24 million full-time workers or 17% of the entire U.S. full-time workforce. The average family caregiver spends 27 hours each week assisting a parent, spouse of other adult. Those contributions are growing, as the AARP found more than half of adult caregivers now assist their loved ones with more complex medical tasks. The AARP estimates the value of this unpaid labor at $1 trillion, based on an average market-rate wage of $20.41 nationally, exceeding total federal, state and local Medicaid spending and almost twice that of all out-of-pocket health care spending in the U.S. ...read more read less