Families can’t afford care, care workers aren’t paid enough to feed their families, and our most vulnerable loved ones — children, aging parents and family members with disabilities — can’t get access to the care they need to thrive. Our country is facing a care crisis, John. We wanted to go a little deeper about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and why it’s about to get worse. |
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No matter where you live in this country, no matter your age or your race: families are not able to access the care they need and the need for care is growing.
Child care can cost more than $15,000 a year and approximately ten thousand babies are born in the US every day. The average cost of a nursing home in the United States is around $8,000 to $9,000 per month and the growth of our aging population is unprecedented in U.S. history. Almost 692,000 Americans have been waiting for an average of more than 3 years to receive home care services through Medicaid. The numbers just don’t add up for most families, and they don’t work for care workers either. |
Child care workers make a median wage of only $13.42 an hour while home care workers earn an average hourly wage of $14.50 — that’s just $20,599 a year.
Almost 1 in 6 home care workers live in poverty and more than 40% rely on public assistance. Many care workers can’t afford to feed their families, and face exploitation, harassment and stolen wages just to make rent.
The equation is broken. But how did it get this way? |
WHY IS THE CARE CRISIS HAPPENING?
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In America, we are taught that care is an individual personal responsibility: if you can’t save, if you can’t figure it out, if you don’t have enough money – it’s your fault.
But the reality is that care is something EVERYONE in society will need or provide at some point in their lives.
Fifty-three million people are now unpaid family caregivers who devote a portion of their day to feeding, driving, cleaning, administering medication, and more for their loved ones.
Our society doesn’t value care work the way it should: it's often talked of as ‘help’ or not as legitimate work at all.
That’s because the majority of both paid and unpaid care work is done by women, and mostly by women of color, and the combination of systemic misogyny and racism in our society has devalued work performed by women of color and deemed it less valuable than other work.
One incredible example of this: when New Deal laws gave most all other workers protections like minimum wage, racist southern lawmakers explicitly excluded domestic workers — leaving them unprotected from exploitation and harassment, which continues to be legal to this day. |
WHY IS THE CARE CRISIS GOING TO GET WORSE? |
The nation is aging. Ten thousand people turn 65 every day, and at the same time people are living longer than ever before.
By 2060, the number of people 65 and older will nearly double, and the number of adults 85 and older will nearly triple – exponentially increasing the need for quality care and care workers in the US.
All this without a change in how we value care or changing anything about the culture or making investments in care programs and policies to meet our needs.
Care can’t wait. The care work to support our families can’t be outsourced overseas or replaced by technology. It will be led by workers who deserve respect and dignity in everything they do. |
At NDWA, we are working to tackle the Care Crisis by: - Fighting for bold and unprecedented investment in our nation’s care systems including Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), early education programs, and more
- Raising care worker wages
- Strengthening protections for care workers
But the reality is that while the care crisis is talked about constantly at the kitchen table, it's not talked about nearly enough at decision making tables. That’s where we come in.
John: join our fight for better care programs that will raise wages and expand access to care now, and help build the power we need to win the future that we all deserve by signing the pledge to become a Care Champion! |
Thank you for all you do, Care Team National Domestic Workers Alliance |
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