HRES 1192

Whereas there is a growing need on the part of families and individuals for care and support, from childcare to services for older adults and people with chronic illnesses or disabilities;

Whereas childcare workers provide the essential service of taking care of a child’s basic needs while fostering a child’s early emotional, social, and intellectual development;

Whereas direct care workers enable older adults, people with disabilities, and children with complex medical needs to remain in their homes and communities and live healthy, independent, and dignified lives by providing support with critical daily tasks such as eating, dressing, personal hygiene, and community activities such as working, going to school, and engaging with neighbors and friends;

Whereas investment in care workers is vital to labor force participation and a strong economy;

Whereas care workers give family caregivers the assurance their children, parents, and loved ones are in the hands of professionals and that their homes are being looked after;

Whereas care work is a profession that particularly benefits women, who account for the majority of this workforce, and which enables other women to participate in the labor force;

Whereas access to childcare and home and community-based care helps families boost their economic stability by working for pay, taking fewer days off, and pursuing opportunities to advance their education and careers;

Whereas when families are forced out of the labor market due to caregiving responsibilities, they will experience diminished income, access to benefits, and retirement savings over their lifetimes;

Whereas children who receive high-quality childcare are healthier, more likely to graduate from college, and have higher incomes;

Whereas older adults who have home care and services available to them have better health and a higher quality of life;

Whereas substandard wages and poor working conditions continue to fuel shortages and high turnover in the care industry;

Whereas the median annual earnings for full-time childcare workers and home care workers is less than $40,000, and as a result, nearly 1 in 6 home care workers lives in poverty, and over half of childcare workers are experiencing food insecurity;

Whereas the demand for home and community-based care services is growing because the population of adults who are 65 and older will nearly double by 2050, while currently 11,400 people per day are turning 65;

Whereas 74 percent of aging adults prefer to receive long-term supports and services in home and community-based settings;

Whereas, across the United States, over 600,000 aging individuals and people with disabilities are on waiting lists to access home and community-based services through Medicaid;

Whereas home care jobs are the jobs of the future, with this workforce projected to add more new jobs than any other single occupation in the country and will add more than 7000,000 new jobs from 2024 to 2034;

Whereas home care is high-value work that provides services to millions of people deserving high quality jobs that reflect their value;

Whereas unpaid caregiving economic value is estimated at over $1,000,000,000,000 annually;

Whereas turnover and shortages in the care workforce are costly to the economy because they lead to higher costs for employers who need to continuously hire and train new workers;

Whereas large-scale labor force exits due to childcare needs cost the economy an estimated $122,000,000,000 annually in lost income, productivity, and tax revenue;

Whereas investing in care infrastructure will lead to fewer staffing shortages and higher productivity, while ensuring a more robust and stable pipeline of workers for businesses; and

Whereas investing in direct care infrastructure specifically will result in savings because it costs approximately $80,000 per person per year to receive care and services in their homes in contrast to over $100,000 per person per year in semiprivate congregate settings: Now, therefore, be it