By Geralyn Magan
LeadingAge released the LTSS Center research in a September 2020 report entitled “Making Care Work Pay.”
The $2 trillion American Jobs Plan released by President Joe Biden on March 31 calls for an investment of $400 billion to “solidify the infrastructure of our care economy by creating jobs and raising wages and benefits for essential home care workers.” The White House cited research conducted in 2020 by the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston to justify the workforce investments.
Biden called on Congress to invest in expanding access to quality, affordable, home-based or community-based care for older adults and people with disabilities.
“These investments will help hundreds of thousands of Americans finally obtain the long-term services and support (LTSS) they need, while creating new jobs and offering caregiving workers a long-overdue raise, stronger benefits, and an opportunity to organize or join a union and collectively bargain,” says a White House fact sheet about the plan. “Research shows that increasing the pay of direct care workers greatly enhances workers’ financial security, improves productivity, and increases the quality of care offered.”
MAKING CARE WORK PAY
The LTSS Center research cited by the White House was conducted for LeadingAge by Christian Weller, Beth Almeida, Marc Cohen, and Robyn Stone. Research findings are contained in a report entitled, Making Care Work Pay: How Paying at Least a Living Wager to Direct Care Workers Could Benefit Care Recipients, Workers, and Communities.
In a September 2020 blog about the report, LTSS Center Co-Director Robyn Stone, shared research findings showing that increasing pay for direct care workers brings with it many other substantial and surprising benefits. In short, higher wages would benefit:
- The direct care field: “Our models show that enhanced recruitment and retention associated with a wage increase would add the equivalent of 330,000 direct care workers to the ranks of those already employed, lower recruitment costs associated with high turnover, and increase productivity by at least $5.5 billion,” wrote Stone.
- Care recipients: Attracting more direct care workers by paying higher wages would reduce worker shortages and make it possible for care recipients to receive more consistent and reliable care. “In addition, workers earning a living wage in one care setting would not be forced to hold down two or more jobs in multiple care settings in order to make ends meet,” she wrote.
- Local economies: Direct care workers would spend their additional earnings in the communities where they live. “According to our models,” wrote Stone, “that spending would contribute up to $22 billion to local economies in 2030, and add as many as 85,000 new jobs in sectors other than direct care.”
- Government budgets: Wage increases would help reduce the number of direct care workers who receive public benefits like Medicaid, food stamps, and housing subsidies. “We estimate that 16.8% of direct care workers currently receiving public assistance would no longer receive it in 2022, allowing government programs to save up to $1.6 billion per year,” Stone wrote.
In a December 2020 blog for Health Affairs, Weller, Almeida, Cohn, and Stone recommended three preliminary steps that they said would represent a “down payment on a national strategy to value direct care workers appropriately and to provide workforce stability.” Those strategies include:
- Targeting Medicaid reimbursement rates to wages.
- Reforming the LTSS financing system.
- Professionalizing the direct care workforce.
“Our research makes a clear case for taking action to raise the wages of direct care workers, given the benefits that a living wage would accrue to workers, care recipients, providers, and local economies,” the Health Affairs blog concluded. “Our nation’s experience with the coronavirus pandemic sends another clear message: We must act now to stabilize the direct care workforce and professionalize the role of direct care workers. In the process, we will take a critical step toward helping the LTSS field navigate the current pandemic and prepare for the next.”