National Guides
CARE INFASTRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC SECURITY
The 2024 election offers an opportunity to support candidates who will strengthen women’s economic security, honor caregiving as the backbone of our economy by expanding affordable access to these services and increasing pay for care workers, and advance our fight for gender justice.
The United States has never recognized care work as essential. This lack of public investment in the care economy has left care workers—who are disproportionately Black, Latina, and other women of color—living paycheck to paycheck or working multiple jobs to survive. Yet as women and families struggle to make ends meet, corporations continue to rake in record profits.
We can and must vote for change.
For too long, Republicans have prioritized their wealthy donors over hardworking families. Over the last couple of years, billionaire wealth has increased by more than $2 trillion (a 78 percent increase) while the child poverty rate has more than doubled.
If the wealthiest individuals and corporations simply paid their fair share in taxes, there would be more than enough to invest in child care, paid leave, and aging and disability care, which would help our families, our communities, and our economy thrive.
We all want to do what’s best for our families, and electing leaders who will make public investments in care will help us ensure that our loved ones receive the care that they need.
Our 2024 Care Policy Agenda:
- 1.
Invest in Child Care for Children and Early Educators. Enact the Biden administration’s $16 billion Emergency Child Care Funding Request to address the looming supply crisis, while laying the groundwork for the sustained and transformative funding needed to ensure child care is accessible for all families and early educators are paid a thriving wage.
- 2.
Ensure Access to Aging and Disability Care. Establish a comprehensive system for aging and disability care, with long-term investments that ensure access to care for every person who needs it in community-based settings that enable maximum autonomy and support unpaid family caregivers.
- 3.
Guarantee Paid Family and Medical Leave. Establish a robust, federal paid family and medical leave program that provides every worker with at least 12 weeks of job-protected paid leave for caring for a new child, dealing with a personal or family illness, or handling needs arising from military deployment.
- 4.
Expand Economic Support for Families. Expand the Child Tax Credit by making the credit fully refundable, so that families with low incomes can receive the credit’s full value, as well as by increasing the size of the credit and by allowing families to receive the credit in monthly payments.
- 5.
Strengthen Tax Credit for Families. Improve the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, primarily by making the credit fully refundable, so that families with low and moderate incomes can benefit.
- 6.
Tax the Rich. Make millionaires and billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes, so there are more public dollars to invest in people, their families, and their communities.
- 7.
Raise the Minimum Wage to At Least $17/Hour. The floor for our federal minimum wage must be raised to at least $17 per hour, and we must eliminate the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and people with disabilities to achieve one fair minimum wage for all.
- 8.
Close the Wage Gap. Strengthen pay discrimination laws to help close the gender wage gap, including by prohibiting employers from relying on salary history in setting pay, requiring employers to provide salary ranges, and requiring employers to collect and report pay data.
Questions to ask federal candidates:
- 1.
We can raise the money we need to invest in care by taxing the wealthiest individuals and mega-corporations. Will you commit to ensuring that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes?
- 2.
Women and families are struggling to find and afford child care amid a nationwide shortage. Do you commit to supporting $16 billion for child care so that families can afford quality child care?
- 3.
The pay gap is widest for Black women, Latinas, and Native women. How would you work to address this disparity?
- 4.
The United States is one of the only countries without some form of national paid leave. Will you commit to ensuring that all working people have access to paid time off to care for themselves and loved ones?
- 5.
Black women, Latinas, and Native women are disproportionately represented in the low-wage workforce. Raising the minimum wage would go a long way toward strengthening their economic security. How will you ensure that anyone who works gets paid at least $17 an hour, before tips?