Investing in Care Is Essential Infrastructure

The availability of care and care workers is integral to maximizing workforce participation and building a healthy, resilient economy. A continuum of care for children, sick loved ones, older adults, people with disabilities, and workers themselves is and always has been vital to sustain families, protect jobs, and drive economic growth. But the pandemic has revealed how decades of underinvestment in care—if not ignoring the need entirely—has hurt families and cost millions of women their jobs. In order to equitably rebuild from the pandemic, policymakers must learn from the past year and prioritize robust investments in care as essential infrastructure that makes all work possible. Without measures to fill caregiving gaps, people who have been harmed the most by the economic crisis will continue to pay the price. Policymakers must prioritize quality, affordable child care and early education; permanent, national paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave; home- and community-based services; and higher wages and improved benefits and protections for care workers and early educators.

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Executive Summary: Differentiating Between Harmful Child Care Deregulation and Helpful Reform Fact Sheet
A preschooler is lying down on a cot and smiling up at the adult sitting in front of her. Three other children, napping on their respective cots, are in the background.

Executive Summary: Differentiating Between Harmful Child Care Deregulation and Helpful Reform

Instead of rolling back critical child care regulations, policymakers should streamline regulations and reduce administrative burdens that are not directly tied to child health, safety, and quality learning.

Understanding the Basics of Child Care in the United States Article
Children sit on the rug at the TLC for Tots daycare center in Nampa, Idaho, November 20, 2024.

Understanding the Basics of Child Care in the United States

The United States needs real solutions at all levels of government, coupled with robust public investment, to build a child care and early learning system that works for children, families, educators, and providers.

The Early Childhood Policy Team

Increasing America’s Child Care Supply Report
Photo shows a woman seated in front of a crib, holding an infant in each arm.

Increasing America’s Child Care Supply

With additional funding, an existing federal subsidy program could forestall closures and supply losses in the child care sector until policymakers secure meaningful investments.

Hailey Gibbs

Why K-12 Teachers and Their Students Need Investments in Child Care Article
Teacher standing while helping student seated at desk

Why K-12 Teachers and Their Students Need Investments in Child Care

To meet the caregiving needs of the K-12 educator workforce and the developmental needs of the youngest students, the United States needs sustained, significant federal investments in the accessibility and affordability of high-quality child care.

Emily Katz

President Biden’s Home Care Proposal Would Create Massive Job Growth in Every State Article
A home health aide in Haverstraw, New York, gives a patient her medicine on May 5, 2021. (Getty/Michael M. Santiago)

President Biden’s Home Care Proposal Would Create Massive Job Growth in Every State

A bold investment in the care economy would help aging Americans and people with disabilities live at home affordably and create hundreds of thousands of good-paying home care jobs, addressing the industry’s severe job shortage.

SEIU, Center for American Progress

These Interconnected Policies Would Sustain Families, Support Women, and Grow the Economy Article
Long-term caregivers and supporters rally in Los Angeles on July 13, 2021, for greater federal and local investment in the country's caregiving infrastructure as Congress debates the president's significant investment in quality home care. (Getty/Frederic J. Brown/AFP)

These Interconnected Policies Would Sustain Families, Support Women, and Grow the Economy


Together, the policies included in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better agenda would propel families’ and the country’s economic security by prioritizing child care, the child tax credit, paid family and medical leave, and good jobs that get Americans back to work.

Arohi Pathak, Diana Boesch, Laura Dallas McSorley

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Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice
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Tackling Climate Change and Environmental Injustice

We pursue climate action that meets the crisis’s urgency, creates good-quality jobs, benefits disadvantaged communities, and restores U.S. credibility on the global stage.

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy
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Restoring Social Trust in Democracy

Democracy is under attack at home and abroad. We must act to ensure it is accessible to all, accountable, and can serve as a force of good.

Building an Economy for All
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Building an Economy for All

Economic growth must be built on the foundation of a strong and secure middle class so that all Americans benefit from growth.

Advancing Racial Equity and Justice
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Advancing Racial Equity and Justice

We apply a racial equity lens in developing and advancing policies that aim to root out entrenched systemic racism to ensure everyone has an opportunity to thrive.

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