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**APRIL 2, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

A $25 Minimum Wage for Caregivers

****

Among the more stunning things Biden has done is to expand the
definition of infrastructure to include human infrastructure, especially
those humans in the grossly underpaid care economy. According to the
White House briefing materials, the latest legislation

will:

Solidify the infrastructure of our care economy by creating jobs and
raising wages and benefits for essential home care workers. These
workers-the majority of whom are women of color-have been underpaid
and undervalued for too long. The President's plan makes substantial
investments in the infrastructure of our care economy, starting by
creating new and better jobs for caregiving workers.

Here's an idea. Almost all funds that pay for nursing home care, and
child care, and home care, except for self-pays by the well-to-do, come
directly or indirectly from government.

Suppose government required that all jobs caring for the old, the young,
or the sick pay at least $25 an hour. I did a rough calculation, and the
cost would be around $100 billion a year, or a lot less than the cost of
Trump's 2017 tax cut.

Government could begin with much higher payments for Medicaid nursing
homes, coupled with a requirement that all of the increment go to
workers rather than to line the pockets of nursing home operators.

Last year, we published a special issue

on the caring economy. It is a disgrace in America that anyone makes
less than $15 an hour. It is a special disgrace that we pay caregivers a
pittance.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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Can the federal government persuade manufacturers to establish a set
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Reconceiving the American Future

A new book argues that the vision of the United States as a
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CHRISTOPHER JENCKS

Altercation: An Anti-Semite Who's Anything But

Yet another fiction in the right wing's echo chamber BY ERIC
ALTERMAN

First 100: The Day One Agenda Has Stalled Out

Biden has failed to act and is even allowing constraints on executive
action to move forward. Plus: the SALT battle continues. BY DAVID DAYEN

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