To put BBB in context, we spoke with Sadé Dozan, Senior Director of Development at Caring Across Generations-a labor and community advocacy group for homecare workers and families that is also linked to the National Domestic Workers Alliance. In turn, labor advocates hope that additional investment in the workforce will help lift up pay scales and provide for more training. The latest version of the Build Back Better bill, the House of Representatives just passed, would put some $150 billion into Medicaid-supported homecare services as part of a broader investment in social programs from affordable housing to preschool. Although there have been incremental improvements in the industry’s working conditions over the years as more homecare workers have organized and even unionized, homecare workers today are typically still earning poverty wages. As we’ve reported before on Belabored, this has long been an undervalued and overlooked component of the healthcare workforce, and for decades, homecare workers-the vast majority low-income women and women of color-were excluded from key federal labor protections, including the federal minimum wage. The bill, which still needs to pass the Senate, includes significant investments in home and community-based care-these are the home health aides and other direct care workers who tend to seniors and people with disabilities. The Build Back Better bill, also known as the “human infrastructure” package, was just passed by the House.
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