Opinion: Wage gap for caregivers alarming, says League of Women Voters president

To the Editor:

March 14th, National Equal Pay Day, is the symbolic date when women’s wages for full-time work equal the wages earned by full-time working men in the prior year. Based on 2021 data, that’s 88.7 cents on the dollar for New York, and 84 cents on the dollar nationally. Including part-time workers drops the figure to 77 cents.

But equal pay is only one part of the problem. The gender wage gap also persists because the traditional type of work available to many women, caregiving in particular, is severely undervalued. To get serious about addressing wage inequality, we must tackle this root cause of the wage gap. New York has the opportunity to take bold action now.

Solving the persistent problems of early childhood caregivers will take time. One immediate action, however, would be to include one billion dollars in the state budget for a workforce compensation supplement of $12,500 for every childcare provider.

Home care workers earn only minimum wage​ for a strenuous job which requires training and licensing. The home care labor force is disproportionately comprised of women of color and immigrants. Others serve in depressed (and declining) rural areas. Legislators must pass The Fair Pay 4 Home Care Bill (S.5373/A.6329) that funds a living wage for these essential workers.

Another legislative proposal that would make a real difference to all caregivers is the Raise the Wage Act, which ​increases the minimum wage​ and indexes it to inflation. This act would secure much-needed pay hikes for almost 2.9 million workers.

If women—in all job categories in New York State—got fair and equal pay, it would reduce the strain put on county social services. Fair and equal pay would allow them to save for retirement, improving their quality of life as seniors and reducing costs for society as a whole.

New York suffers from a massive shortage of caregivers and other essential frontline workers. Equal and fair pay would begin to address that need. Governor Hochul and the Legislature have the power to make the kind of changes right now that will lift these workers out of poverty and fairly reward their indispensible work.

Kathleen Stein, Canton,
President League of Women Voters
of St. Lawrence County