Economics of Caring Improving Population Health by Valuing Care Workers: Proceedings of a Workshop (2023) / Chapter Skim
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4 Exploring Policy Strategies and Innovations
4 Exploring Policy Strategies and Innovations
Pages 17-26
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From page 17... ...
This is a health equity issue." Chang shared two examples from her foundation's work to improve the lives of care workers: support for programs to strengthen child care entrepreneurship and a partnership with the California Domestic Workers Coalition, which organizes workers to advocate for policy change. As an example, she shared that San Francisco recently passed an ordinance, the first of its kind in the country, that creates a portable paid sick leave benefit for domestic workers.
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From page 18... ...
Kalipeni briefly described the Family Values @ Work network, which works in 27 states conducting grassroots organizing to change the culture of how Americans care for one another, and reiterated the theme that care work is not simply an individual responsibility, but requires societal attention. Echoing earlier presentations, she emphasized that the conversation about care work must be grounded in an acknowledgment of the "sexist and anti-Black racist history that has long undervalued and erased and ignored and hidden behind closed doors the work of Black and Brown and immigrant women in this country who make up the core of our care infrastructure." Kalipeni also made the link between the extractive nature of the care economy -- wealth that is built on the free or undervalued work of women of color -- that relegates the care workers to a cycle of genera
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From page 19... ...
All this had effects on stripping family wealth and on exacerbating discrimina tion and inequities that were already baked into the very structures of our country. Reflecting on the Build Back Better legislation, Boteach noted that it includes provisions for child care assistance for most working families, four weeks of paid leave, which, while not enough, would allow more than 3.7 million women caregivers to return to the workforce, and support for home care that would provide better quality care jobs.
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From page 20... ...
Chang asked why investing in care workers' economic security and mobility and their overall health and well-being is critical to improving health overall, and how health sector leaders could further the policies that would help achieve those linked goals. Kalipeni shared how the lack of valuing care and caregiving leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty, where a parent works double shifts to make ends meet and care for their own children while being unable to save for retirement, and in turn presenting an economic challenge to their adult children.
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From page 21... ...
Sims agreed with all previous remarks and added that in her family's experience, it was her mother's union job that ended the need for public assistance and contributed to economic dignity and stability that allowed her mother to become engaged in school and other civic activities. Responding to the question about how the health sector could support care workers, Boteach noted that the Build Back Better Act had health care advocates at the table with housing, economic, and racial and gender justice advocates.
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From page 22... ...
One idea being considered in Washington State is the creation of apprenticeships for child care work, along with creating a wage progression that provides workers opportunities for growth and a path to the middle class. Union membership gives workers a voice on the job, Sims said, but domestic workers were left out of the National Labor Relations (or Wagner)
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From page 23... ...
Kalipeni added that narrative must be customized to fit the audience, and that communities of color, for example, need the least amount of convincing about policies to support care workers, because they understand "how communal and generational it is and how important it is and how we have to think about it." Chang agreed that culture change and narrative change are hard work, and asked about the cost of such changes. Kashen reflected on the funds spent on advertising to persuade people about acquiring material things like a car and said she would like to see comparable resources invested in furthering the care agenda.
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From page 24... ...
Sims added that in Washington State, the governor approved $300 million in unemployment benefits for undocumented workers generally left out of safety net programs, as an example of an innovative approach to protect the most vulnerable workers. In her answer, Boteach shared research her organization is conducting to explore the relationship between women and work over the past year, and the ways in which workplace rules about remote work have shifted, the opportunities and challenges associated with formal and informal care work, and what is suddenly acceptable compared to two years ago.
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From page 25... ...
POLICY STRATEGY AND INNOVATIONS 25 for Kalipeni was "that everyone has a role to play in shaping and winning the care economy that we all deserve as individuals, as families, as communities," and people working in the health sector can play an important role in shaping and sharing data and stories -- and a key piece of the narrative is that the trajectory of the care economy will have an impact on generational poverty for decades to come. Kashen shared the tcf.org website of her organization and said that the pandemic has shown people that their lives touch each other in so many ways and expressed the hope that people can join in the fight for policies that will support a vibrant care economy.
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