America's Recovery Depends On An Infrastructure of Care

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By Angela Glover Blackwell & Dawn Huckelbridge, Yes! Magazine, June 22, 2021. - Ed.

The Biden-Harris administration has taken crucial steps toward addressing the devastating fallout of the pandemic. In a series of relief and recovery packages, the White House and leaders in Congress have made historic investments, from small business supports to commitments to home and community-based services. These policies and proposals have marked a significant shift in recognizing the value of investing in working families, and will no doubt make a difference in the lives of workers, small business owners, and caregivers.

But what we do after these initial proposals is critical. The Biden-Harris administration & Congress must follow through on their commitments for the people who showed up for our democracy & kept our country afloat. Overwhelmingly, that has been women of color.

And the best way the administration and our elected leaders can thank women of color is by expanding its current care infrastructure investments to be more equitable. They must include permanent, universal paid family and medical leave to relieve the unjust and untenable gap between work and care. The forthcoming American Families Plan and the Building an Economy for Families Act already in Congress offer a prime opportunity to transform praise into meaningful policy, and to make clear that work and family policies are inseparable- and imperative to an equitable and sustainable economic recovery. Even before the pandemic, most workers in America could not afford to take time off to care for a newborn child or a family member.

Increasingly, many women- disproportionately women of color- have had to leave the workforce, losing income, Social Security benefits, & savings to provide care. These impossible choices have devastating impacts.

There's Tameka Henry in NV, whose lost work cost more than 200K over a decade, & has to care for her husband, who has a disability, without paid leave. Ashley Bostick in GA, who lost her job when her first child was born had to return to work too soon after her second child was born, while she was still facing health complications. Many workers have been infected or exposed to COVID-19 without a single paid day off to quarantine or recover. The U.S. remains one of the only countries in the world where protections to care for ourselves & loved ones aren’t a given. Only a fraction of workers can use the unpaid leave policy we do have- the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)- because many who qualify cannot afford to lose a paycheck. Black, Latinx & Native Amer/Alaska Native workers are less likely to be eligible for & able to afford unpaid FMLA leave...

Read More,
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2021/06/22/care-economy-recovery-paid-leave

[ShazamIam]

1. Yes, we must pay moms with infants enough to stay home if they want to and must have

a national child care/preschool and after school program if we are demanding that mothers work and for those who choose to have a career and work.

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2. The Scandinavian countries and some

others are able to provide far better benefits and leave to women and men for parenting and family care. It's so inadequate here.