On May 3rd, 2024, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), the Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color/Global Women’s Strike hosted a webinar, “Compensating Care: How US Policy Can Support Unpaid Family Caregivers.”

Elisa Minoff from CSSP stated that caregiving is essential work, but caregivers receive little support. Also, caregiving exists on a continuum, and is often either uncompensated or low-paid. An estimated fifty-three million people provide care for the elderly and children with disabilities, and 23 million young children require care. The primary unpaid caregivers are still women and caregivers are disproportionately women of color.

Some of the panelists were people with both lived and professional experiences of unpaid or poorly compensated caregiving. For example, Jane Welford recalled that when she was pregnant, TANF provided financial support to leave an abusive relationship. Also, she used Medicaid benefits to cover hospital expenses, and other government benefits allowed her to be a stay-at-home mother. Further, Welford shared that she spent a significant part of her lifetime as an unpaid or inadequately compensated caregiver, which has resulted in low social security benefits. However, Philipa Laster, a mother of a disabled child, indicated that she was forced to work outside of the home as a prerequisite for her son to receive benefits. Outside the home, she worked as a low-paid caregiver who performed the same tasks she did for her child for free. Additionally, she stated that working outside of the home took an emotional toll on her as well as her child.

Panelist provided examples of existing policies as well as made recommendations. Alex Coccia provided examples of international policies from Europe such as tax benefits, generous paid leave, and care contracts. For example, Germany was noted as providing a caregiver’s allowance in the form of cash and social support, for people engaged in elder care. Some of the policy recommendations for the US were: allow parents to get paid for working with children, use care-giving funding to pay caregivers, drop work requirements for benefits. guaranteed income for caregivers, paid parental leave, earned income child tax credit, investment in mental health of caregivers and respite, and count unpaid caregiving as points toward social security benefits.

The following resources were highlighted during the webinar:

By Aretha Shalanda Campbell, Policy Intern