Care & Caregiving
Organizing to build a more caring economy in NYC — one with healthcare for all, universal childcare and long-term care, dignity and support for family caregivers, and fair pay and respect for care workers.
In New York, most of us believe that everyone deserves care, no matter their age or race or disability, no matter where they came from or when they got here. We look out for each other. We need a city government that takes care of us as well as we try to take care of each other. From childcare to home care, we need affordable care that’s accessible to all parents, people with disabilities, and older adults. To win it, we must join together as a city and fight for a more caring New York, just like we won safer workplaces, a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, and universal pre-K in years past.
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✼ Citywide Care & Care-Giving Policy Priorities in 2025 ✼
1. UNIVERSAL CHILDCARE IN NYC:
- The average cost of childcare for a toddler in New York City is $21,000 per year. The lack of affordable child care takes people — and mainly women — out of the workforce, impacting a family’s ability to earn, save, and build a future. While the city has made some progress in providing free Universal PreK and 3K, there are very few free or subsidized options for children under three. New York City must fulfill the promise of Universal 2K this year so parents can stay in the city and raise their families.
2. UNIVERSAL HOME CARE FOR DISABLED PEOPLE & OLDER ADULTS:
- The long waitlist for Expanded In-Home Services for the Elderly Program (EISEP) older New York City residents unable to access home care. City funding can clear the EISEP waiting lists to ensure universal home care for all NYC residents. City officials must fully fund affordable housing with services for older adults.
- City officials must support and advocate for a state policy package for people with disabilities with the Medicaid Eligibility Campaign and the Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act (S7800/A8740).
3. GREAT PAY & CONDITIONS FOR CARE WORKERS:
- New York State has the worst home care shortage in the nation, in large part due to the low pay home care workers receive. We want to see full support for Fair Pay for Home Care, state legislation to increase home care workers' wages to 150% of the minimum wage, ensuring this essential work is well-paid, and attracting more workers to this essential sector.
- The 2024 MIT Living Wage Calculator puts the living wage for NYC at around $30 an hour, but the minimum wage in New York City is currently only $16.50. We must increase minimum wage in New York City to $30/hour by 2030.
- We must end 24-hour-shifts, shaped in part by consumers to ensure care needs are incorporated.
4. PROTECT VULNERABLE NEW YORKERS' ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL HEALTHCARE:
- Ensure a permanent response is in place for current and future pandemics including accessible testing, vaccines, masks and other prevention tools for free through school, NYC Health & Hospitals, libraries, as well as scaled up Health & Hospitals care for infection-associated chronic conditions, including Long COVID.
- Guaranteed full access to care, including gender-related care, for transgender and nonbinary youth and adults, with repercussions for hospitals that discriminate against trans or nonbinary people.
New York State Policy Priorities
JFREJ is also a proud member of The New York Caring Majority, a statewide movement of older adults, disabled people, family caregivers, domestic workers, and home care providers from all across NY State. We're fighting for #FairPay4HomeCare and against private insurance companies! Our goal is a society that truly values care in everyday life, and an economy that treats care-providing work as an essential sector of a sustainable economy; a world where all of us have the care and support we need to live full, healthy lives in climate resilient communities.
1. Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act
The Problem: New York State gives billions of taxpayer dollars to private insurance companies that our state's Medicaid program uses to manage and control Medicaid recipients' access to long-term care. Right now, instead of distributing taxpayer dollars to home care providers, the private insurance companies — known as "Managed Long-Term Care" (MTLC) plans — hoard the money and deny services and supports that New Yorkers need to live full, independent lives.
The Solution: The Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act (S7800/A8470) would change the Medicaid home care delivery system so that private insurance companies can no longer steal billions of dollars meant for home care. We're organizing to get it passed, and taking back up to $3 billion per year for home care worker wages.
2. Fair Pay for Home Care
The Problem: New York State has the worst home care shortage in the country. While many of us don’t think about it until we need it, 70% of us will need long-term care at some point in our lives. The vast majority of us want that care to happen in our own homes and communities. But there aren’t enough home care workers to meet the growing need. The people we rely on to care for our family members struggle to get by on poverty wages; the average annual salary for home care workers in NY is just $22,000. Unable to find home care, people rely solely on family caregivers — who themselves have to take off work in order to provide care — or are forced into institutions.
The Solution: Passing the Fair Pay for Home Care Act in the NY State Senate and Assembly will raise the wages of home care workers from ~$12.50/hour to at least $22.50/hour, bringing more people back into the home care workforce, and decreasing the home care shortage that leaves so many older adults and disabled people in New York without essential care. FULL Fair Pay for Home Care will raise care workers' wages by 150%, growing the sector and ending the crisis.
3. The New York Health Act
If we want to live in a New York that works for everyone who gives and receives care, we need to take action for single-payer health care now. We need the New York Health Act.
This legislation would provide guaranteed, comprehensive healthcare that includes long-term home- and community-based care to all New Yorkers, regardless of income. It is the result of years of organizing by women, seniors, people with disabilities, family caregivers, home care workers, unions, undocumented people, and the uninsured. We call ourselves the Caring Majority because we know that when we join forces and refuse to be pitted against each other, we are an unstoppable force, capable of creating a truly caring feminist economy. Learn more about the campaign to #PassNYHealth and get involved today!
Resources from Previous Campaigns
Rabbi Guy Austrian's D'var Torah on Faith for Fair Pay (2022). Click here to read.
#Faith4FairPay Social Media Toolkit (2022). Click here to access the google doc.
The Eldercare Dialogues: A Grassroots Strategy to Transform Long-Term Care (2014). Click here to download.
Domestic Workers and Employers: Because Your Liberation is Bound Up with Mine, Let Us Work Together (2015). Click here to download the essay.
A Covenant of Care: A Brit for Shalom Bayit Peace in Our Homes (2013). Click here to download.
Domestic Workers Justice Haggadah Supplement (2006). Click here to download it.