On Women’s Equality Day, Fair Wages for Direct Care Workers Cannot Wait
On August 26, our nation marks Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the certification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Yet, for millions of Black, Native, and immigrant women, the right to vote remained out of reach for decades more. More than a century later, the promise of gender equality remains unfulfilled for millions of working women, including those who provide essential care and support for millions across the country.
Women represent 85 percent of the direct care workforce, 5.4 million personal care aides, home health aides, and nursing assistants who support older adults and people with disabilities in homes, residential settings, and nursing homes. These women hold skill and expertise, yet their jobs have been persistently undervalued. Direct care workers earn a median wage of $17.36 per hour and median annual earnings of just under $26,000, and nearly half rely on public assistance.
This is not a coincidence. It is the legacy of a labor market ethos that has long discounted care work precisely because it has been performed by women, and disproportionately by women of color and immigrants. The women who waited longest for the ballot are, in many cases, the same women our long-term care system undervalues today.
The cost ripples outward, too. When quality care is out of reach, it is most often women who reduce their hours or leave their own jobs to care for family members, sacrificing income, advancement, and long-term economic security along the way. Gender equality in America runs directly through the care economy.
True equality means a living wage for every direct care worker. It means paid leave, affordable health coverage, quality training, and real pathways for advancement. It means protecting the labor rights and standing as workers in other occupations. None of this will come from small fixes at the margins. It requires bringing sustainable financing, shared standards, and workforce innovation—to competitively value the contributions of direct care workers, and meet growing demand for care.
This Women’s Equality Day, we urge policymakers at every level to honor the women of the direct care workforce not only with recognition, but with the structural change their work deserves. The sustainability of their jobs—and the stability of care for every individual and family in this country—depends on it.
