Cancer diagnosis brings income loss for families

The average U.S. adult diagnosed with cancer will miss five weeks of work in the first year and see total family income decline by 20 percent, according to a new study.
Those numbers may be even higher for some, as they average the experiences of people with various types and stages of cancer, and those who started out working full-time along with those who were not employed to begin with, the authors explain.
“This is average effects across the entire population and many are retired or stay at home parents, so the effect is diluted,” said lead author Anna Zajacova of the University of Wyoming.
The researchers used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics between 1999 and 2009, a nationally representative study involving 8,000 families, or about 17,000 adults, including about 1,000 individuals with a cancer diagnosis. The researchers found that after a cancer diagnosis, hours worked decreased by about 200 hours, or five full-time weeks.Annual labor market earnings dropped 40 percent over the first two years and remained lower than before cancer diagnosis, though total family income often recovered within four years.“U.S. labor law and labor culture is among most severe compared to almost every other developed country,” Zajacova said. “There are no or very limited policies for sick leave or family leave, so the effects are likely to be worse in the U.S. than other developed countries.”