Economic Support for Care Work

We all want children to be well cared-for, and most people agree that quality and quantity time with parents nurtures a child's healthy development. Similarly, we know that sick and/or aging adults benefit from the care of their loved ones. Most of us want to live in communities in which people of all ages are well cared-for and connected to each other.

What do we have now, and why is it inadequate?

Right now, parents are doing work that is crucial to society - raising the next generation - without any pay, benefits, or economic security. And in addition to childcare responsibilities, families are also providing 80% of all long-term care for the sick and aging.1 In fact, the average weekly hours spent providing care for adult relatives equal a part-time job: 23 hours per week for women, and 19 for men.2

All this unpaid caregiving work is actually critical to the functioning of our economy:

  • The quality of early caregiving is now known to be one of the most important determinants of intellectual and emotional capabilities.3
  • Human capital is beginning to be acknowledged by economists as more critical to our economy than natural (land, natural resources) or physical (machines, roads, infrastructure) capital.4
  • The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) estimated the national economic value of the care provided by family members in 2007 at approximately $375 billion.5 This is more than our nation's total Medicaid that year.6 This also represents about 2.7 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.7
  • Countries around the world have begun to include unpaid household labor in their calculation of GDP - but not the US.8

The unpaid work of caregiving is not considered work in our society, and family caregivers are not eligible for our country's primary social insurance programs such as social security or unemployment insurance. They do not receive health or retirement benefits. We do have some credits and exemptions built into our tax structure that provide some families with some tax relief - but not enough. They are small, and often serve to exacerbate existing inequalities because they give more to benefit families in high-income tax brackets.9

In stark contrast to its economic importance, family caregiving comes at a huge cost to caregivers - mostly women - and their families:

  • Motherhood is the single greatest predictor of poverty in old age10
  • 19% of children in the US live in poverty11
  • Over 30% of African-American, Latino and Native American children live in poverty12

    • If we want to address poverty, we must address caregiving.

    What do we need, and why do we need it?

    We need universal policies that provide significant financial support to those who are providing family care. We need:

    • social security for family caregivers
    • health insurance that is available to those outside of the paid workforce
    • a child allowance that could be used either to pay for child care or to reimburse a stay-at-home parent for his/her labor
    • to include unpaid care work in the calculation of the GDP

    Unlike our current policies, these kinds of policies would help all families. They would:

    • increase economic security and reduce poverty among women and children
    • reduce racial and class inequalities among children by providing at least a basic level of support for the care of all children
    • help families with adult dependents be able to afford to provide needed care

    Are there any current examples of policies that support family caregiving?

    European countries are particularly well-known for their family policies, including family allowances, universal health insurance, and subsidized child care. Notably, these countries also have much lower child poverty rates than the US.13

    The United States lags behind the rest of the developed world in the support it provides for child-raising and family caregiving. Congress has considered legislation to provide social security for those who stay home to care for children or other family members but has not yet passed it. See H.R. 1161: Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2007. There is also a movement to convert the child tax credit into a caregiver tax credit that could benefit all family caregivers.

    To learn more:

    • A Better Balance
    • Mothers Ought to Have Equal Rights
    • The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values by Nancy Folbre
    • The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden
    • The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are in Jeopardy - and What Can Be Done About It by Judy Heymann
    • The War Against Parents by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel West

    1. U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Long Term Care Users Range in Age and Most Do Not Live in Nursing Homes, November 8, 2000.
    2. Belden, Russonello, & Stewart (2004). Caregiving in the U.S. Retrieved February 13, 2006, from the AARP website: http://www.aarp.org/research/reference/publicopinions/aresearch-import-853.html
    3. Ann Crittenden, The Price Of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued (New York: Henry Holt, 2001).
    4. Ibid.
    5. M. J. Gibson and A. Houser, Valuing the Invaluable: A New Look at the Economic Value of Family Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute Issue Brief IB-82 (Washington, DC: AARP, June 2007)
    6. B. Burwell, K. Sredl, and S. Eiken, Medicaid Long Term Care Expenditures FY 2007 (New York, NY: Thomson Reuters, 2008).
    7. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, NIPA table 1.1.5, 2007-A.
    8. Crittenden.
    9. Nancy Folbre, The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New York: New Press, 2001).
    10. Crittenden.
    11. National Center For Children In Poverty, "Demographics of Poor Children,"
      http://www.nccp.org/profiles/state_profile.php?state=US&id=7
    12. Ibid.
    13. Unicef, "Child Poverty in Rich Nations,"
      http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/repcard1e.pdf