April 19, 2023 – President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order that is designed to expand access to long-term care and child care. According to CNN, this order directs the Office of Personnel Management to conduct a review of child care subsidy policy and consider setting government-wide standards for federal government employees to access such assistance.
“Child care and long-term care systems in this country just don’t work well – high quality care is costly to deliver, it’s labor intensive, it requires skilled workers,” Domestic Policy Adivsor Susan Rice said. “Yet care workers – who are disproportionately women and women of color and immigrants – are among the lowest paid in the country, despite working in some of the most important and complex and demanding jobs. At the same time, the price of care represents an outside share of family’s budget, with child care prices up 26% in just the last decade and long-term care costs up nearly 40%.”
The executive order would also look to improve working conditions for early educators, long-term care workers and child care workers, as well as increase pay and benefits for Head Start employees and ensure Medicaid funding for long-term and home care workers caring for Medicaid enrollees.