By Melanie Marich, Madison Gusler and Mariana Navarrete Villegas
Credit: Mariana Navarrete Villegas
On the Saturday before Election Day, Lollie Edinger, a 53-year-old home healthcare worker living in rural Ulster County, drove 35 miles to an event in Newburgh, a small city in upstate New York. Edinger gathered signatures on behalf of Kamala Harris and New York Proposal 1, also known as the Equal Rights Amendment or Prop 1.
Though she has barely enough time, between caring full-time for a man with quadriplegia and being a mother of two young kids, Edinger has been committed to weekly political volunteering since 2019. Canvassing outside of her work hours, the issue that drives Edinger is, in fact, her care work.
“On the weekends, I usually try to find at least one block of time that I can carve out,” Edinger said in a video call while she was on a break from another canvassing event. “With this last push, I’ll probably be doing something every day. Even though it’s exhausting, it’s kind of uplifting too, because I’m reminded there are caring people out there.”
Edinger, who became a home healthcare worker in 2017 as a way to help her friends’ loved ones stay at home rather than moving to an assisted living facility, is one of many care workers who has become politically active because of her work. Across the country, organizations like Caring Majority Rising and Care in Action US are advocating on behalf of those who work in what is known as the care economy – the paid and unpaid work of taking care of others. These nonprofits are organizing and campaigning around issues like increased resources for home care, higher wages for domestic workers, and increased protections for employees who work in someone’s home.
Though care work was once seen as a fringe issue for voters, topics like childcare and national family paid leave have become so essential that both major political parties now talk about them. For those like Edinger, their own needs and those of the people they work for are at stake this election cycle. That’s why, on a national level, they’re supporting Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, and on a state level, they’re mobilizing for Prop 1.
These campaigns, which highlight both domestic workers and the people who receive their care, follow a steadily growing trend of increased political action around these issues. In 2019, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Caring Across Generations lobbied with grassroots organizations to introduce a Federal Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Though it has never passed, the bill has since been reintroduced every year with more cosponsors each time The latest version was reintroduced on June 13, just days before the National Domestic Workers Day.
Care workers fall within the broader category of domestic work. The Economic Policy Institute classifies care jobs as jobs that take place in private homes. It includes at-home childcare, home health care, and housekeeping. For home health care, tasks around these jobs include helping their charges take a shower, go to the bathroom, get dressed, cook, eat, and others also clean the common areas and private rooms. Many domestic care jobs do not require certification, and this factor, coupled with the high physical and emotional demands, plus low wages, means that the work often attracts vulnerable workers such as immigrant women.
There are an estimated 2 million domestic care workers in the United States, though many experts believe this is a low estimate, as much of this work may be “under the table” or unregistered by employers. Of these millions of domestic workers, over 90% are women and more than half are women of color. Care workers are also twice as likely to have been born outside the United States than other professions.
Many in the domestic work field are women, people of color, immigrants or older and already face discrimination in the labor market. The typical domestic worker is paid far less than other workers in New York State.
Nonetheless, their ranks are growing. In 2023, the number of health aide and personal care jobs in New York State was 566,000. This number is projected to rise to over 700,000 by 2028. Care workers are in high demand, but the industry struggles with high turnover rates associated with low pay, lack of benefits, and the immense physical and emotional demands related to their labor.
‘Rooted in Slavery’
Jacqui Orie, an organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, began her work with Black domestic workers because she felt their voices were not being represented in the political work– despite their historical impact on the work.
“This work is rooted in slavery,” Orie said, referring to a long history of Black enslaved women doing domestic labor, followed by a long period of time where Black women made up the majority of domestic workers in the United States. “It’s often Black work, Black women do this work. This work is not valued.”
The history of domestic labor is also informed by the history of labor protections. In FDR’s 1935 New Deal, a social welfare package credited with some of the country’s strongest labor protections, the administration specifically excluded domestic workers, who were predominantly Black women.
Since then, protections for domestic workers have come slowly. In 2010, New York became the first state in the country to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. A similar Bill of Rights has been stalled in Congress for nearly four years.
Promises from politicians on issues such as increased help for childcare costs and stronger worker protections have led to grassroots political action. On a state level, an amendment as far-reaching as Prop 1 may provide further protections not only for care workers, but the people they care for as well, according to advocates.
“New York’s constitution currently bars discrimination by the government based on race and religion,” said Naomi Young, a law and policy associate with the ERA Project at Columbia Law School. “If voters approve Proposal One, the New York ERA will expand that list to include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex—including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare, and autonomy. This list ensures protections for abortion rights and LGBTQIA+ rights.”
If Prop 1 is approved, New York will have the most expansive protections against discrimination of any U.S. state, according to Young. “Anybody who lives in New York could see themselves included in the Constitution because of this ERA.”
Proposal 1 would further protect people with disabilities, aging adults, and others who receive care, from discrimination by the government. This may help increase the state of care work, along with more affordable access to aid.
“We are creating stronger protections for women within the New York State constitution,” said Katharine Bodde, interim co-director of policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union, in regards to Prop 1. “This also creates protections for the people caregivers serve, such as those with disabilities and aging adults, that is important on a broader level.”
Edinger, the home care worker who canvassed at Newburgh, works through New York State’s Medicaid Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program and is a board member of the political organization Caring Majority Rising. She thinks Proposal 1 is promising for those in the care field and the people relying on their work. “It guarantees the rights of people with disabilities and older people,” said Edinger. “The people I work for have rights, and that should include the right to live a dignified life in their own home.”
Edinger does not think she will be doing care work for more than five years due to the chronic arthritis she has in her hands, back, and feet. However, she hopes care work support increases every year at a state and national level, because if not “everything else breaks down.”
“With most home care workers being women, and most being people of color or minorities, being able to say, ‘I shouldn’t be discriminated against because I work in an industry that has historically been a woman’s job, and is historically unpaid or very low pay.’” she added. “Having the ability to say, ‘Look, this is an important job and should be paid more’ will make a difference.”