Clinton offers quiet policy lure to millions of unpaid caregivers

Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr Creative Commons
Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr Creative Commons

With the general election looming in November, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, the presumed nominees, are turning their attention to independent voters who may determine the outcome of the hotly contested presidential race.

Although not a hot button issue like immigration or trade policy, Clinton’s plan to alleviate the financial stress of caregiving—whether for a child or other family member—may be an important wedge issue to attract independent voters, especially women.

The subject gained attention last week when a research center in Berkeley, California, released a negative assessment of employment conditions and practices among early childhood workers, a predominantly female workforce.

Clinton is proposing a 3-pronged plan to alleviate the financial stress of caregiving: tax credits to help offset up to $6,000 in annual caregiving costs for elderly family members; providing credits towards monthly Social Security retirement benefits for caregivers who leave the paid labor force to care for elderly relatives; and expanding state-level grants to improve respite care access for family caregivers of children or adults of any age.

So far, Trump has not said much above caregiving, beyond backing on-site child care by employers. “It’s not expensive for a company to do it,” he has said.

Full Story: Women’s e-News »

Home Economics: The Link Between Work-Life Balance and Income Equality

ross-macdonald-atlantic-illustration
By Ross Macdonald, via The Atlantic

The central conflict of domestic life right now isn’t men versus women or mothers versus fathers; it’s the family against money.

The solution to the work-life conundrum is not “enlisting men” in the domestic sphere. The solution is establishing social supports that allow families to function. The fact is, men can’t have it all, for the same reason women can’t: whether or not the load is being shared 50-50 doesn’t matter if the load is still unbearable. It will not become bearable once women lean in, or once the consciousness is raised, or once men are full partners, always, in domestic life. It will become bearable when decidedly more quotidian things become commonplace—like paid parental leave and affordable, quality day care.

Full Story: The Atlantic »