Taking Care of the Care Workers
By Laura Lam, Carmina Ravanera and Sarah Kaplan
The pandemic has demonstrated that care work deserves more attention from policymakers, corporate leaders and citizens. From child care and early childhood education to long-term care and from home care to health care, care work is essential and underpins both our economy and our well-being.
Now, as the pandemic continues into its third year, there are some signs that the question of care is being re-evaluated and revalued in Canada. With Ontario finally signing on in March, there is now a national $10-a-day child-care plan. It is one sign of progress. While this was greeted with jubilation by many, the proof in the pudding will be in the implementation.
When designing care infrastructure, there are dangers to viewing the challenge as simply a transactional process of finding enough slots for every person who needs one. Doing so neglects concerns about assuring quality care for those who need it and good working conditions for care workers.
Policymaking and programs also need to prioritize the significant but often-immeasurable social benefits. These include improved health and well-being, reduction in long-term poverty, and inclusion and belonging for both recipients and caregivers.
The problems with profiting from care
Since the rise of neo-liberalism since the 1980s, care work of all kinds has become financialized and viewed as any other market good. This has led to the increase of for-profit business models that would appear to fulfil these transactional needs – and this tendency to focus on the economic side of the equation is not slowing down. Increasingly, the focus – even by advocates for increased public investment – is on the economic benefits and business case for investment.
The current political environment may only accelerate these trends. Rhetoric about rising inflation and government debt may be used as a hammer by some politicians looking to score points or reduce or reverse investment in government-supported care programs in favour of market-based solutions.
At the same time, for-profit models of care have proved mainly ineffective in providing quality experiences for both care workers and care recipients. In for-profit long-term care homes, poor conditions resulted in COVID outbreaks and death for both residents and workers. Not-for-profit homes had significantly better outcomes.
Researchers have also detailed how market-based models of child care pushed up the prices to levels that are unaffordable. At the same time, early childhood educators have dealt with low wages, few benefits and unsustainable working conditions. This has resulted in low retention and a shortage of workers to fill the many new spaces that will be created through the $10-a-day child-care policy.
Policies that ensure everyone can reap the social benefits of care investments would mean assuring that the profit motive does not dominate and instead focusing on not-for-profit and other community-based models for investment. Because the conditions of work are also the conditions of care, fair wages for care workers, employment benefits and protections, and increased training opportunities are crucial.