The United States suffers from widespread and persistent devaluation of care work.  Our country treats the work of caring for children, the elderly, and those who are sick or disabled as secondary to other forms of labor.  As a result, the work of caregiving is often poorly compensated or completely unpaid and, because it is treated as a private concern, the labor it involves becomes invisible.   The labor of stay-at-home parents is taken for granted and domestic workers who provide paid care usually perform their labor without adequate legal protections.   
 

> DOMESTIC WORKERS’ RIGHTS 

Existing laws should be expanded to cover domestic workers, who often work in an unregulated underground economy.  The nearly 200,000 domestic workers in New York City provide a vital service to their employers, and enable the city to function as a center of global business and activity.  These workers deserve the same quality of legal protections and workplace standards as workers whose labor happens outside the home.

The New York State legislature is considering a law that would guarantee basic labor protections to nannies, housekeepers and caregivers for the elderly.  These workers have been excluded from labor laws for decades.  Valuing caregiving means valuing the work of those who provide care to our families in our homes.

-  Read the New York Times editorial urging passage of the bill (June 15, 2009). 

-  Watch Women and Work: Feminists in Solidarity With Domestic Workers, with ABB's Yolanda Wu

-  Learn more about Domestic Workers United and take action to support the bill!

 - March 4, 2009, blog post by Yolanda Wu about New York's Domestic Workers Bill of Rights on the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.

-  November 21, 2008, testimony by Yolanda Wu, about domestic workers' rights, delivered before the New York State Assembly Standing Commnittee on Labor 

-  June 8, 2008, New York Times Editorial,  "Women's Work"

-  Domestic Workers United

- Jews for Racial and Economic Justice

-  City Council Press Release on Nanny Agencies

-  NOW NYS Memo in Support of Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights  

> SOCIAL SECURITY FOR AT-HOME FAMILY CAREGIVERS 

Parents who stay home to care for their children, and workers who stay home to care for sick parents and partners, earn zero Social Security credits for their efforts.  The failure of the Social Security system to recognize and value the work of at-home caregivers can leave them in financial peril if they lose their other sources of monetary support.  Congress has considered legislation to remedy this inequality but has not yet passed such a law. 

-  H.R. 1161: Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2007  

> CAREGIVER TAX CREDIT 

Caregiving is expensive and time consuming and much of it is done without pay by family members of those needing care.  The citizens and government of the United States benefit tremendously from all of this work, but show little thanks in return.  One way to recognize the work of unpaid caregivers is to grant them a tax credit to ease the financial burden of their care work.   A movement is afoot to convert the $1,000 per-child-tax credit to a Caregiver Credit for care of adults and kids, and to make it fully refundable, so that poor families as well as middle and upper would benefit. 

- Caregiver Credit Campaign   

> LEARN MORE 

Caregiver Credit Campaign

Mothers and More

National Coalition for Social Security Justice for Mothers

NOW Mothers and Caregivers  

Ann Crittenden, “THE PRICE OF MOTHERHOOD”

Nancy Rankin, “ TAKING PARENTING PUBLIC ”