Rooted in Racism
Child care costs
Medicaid cuts
Strikes
Domestic workers’ pay and working conditions in the South reflect racist, gendered notions of care

Domestic workers are the 2.3 million workers nationwide who provide vital support to our elders and chronically ill or disabled family members, care for our children, and help maintain our households.

Despite their vital role in supporting American families and the economy, domestic workers are underpaid and unprotected, particularly in the South, where nearly one-third of the country’s domestic workers live.

Lawmakers should adopt Domestic Worker Bill of Rights legislation; amend state laws to allow domestic workers to form unions; and eliminate harmful state preemption of local labor ordinances that improve upon state law. Read more

More from Rooted in Racism

Updated tool calculates the cost of child care in every state

Child care more expensive than rent? Child care more expensive than public college tuition? That’s the case in most states. 

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, child care is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income. This isn’t inevitable—it is a policy choice. Federal and state policymakers can and should act to make child care more affordable, and ensure that child care workers can afford the same quality of care for their own children. Calculate child care costs in your state

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Cutting Medicaid to pay for low taxes on the rich is a terrible trade for American families

Low taxes for the rich and for corporations is the highest legislative priority of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans. To get there, they are willing to cut federal programs that are vital to the incomes and security of American families.

These cuts will not just cause harm to individual families. They will cascade, leading to hospital closures, higher medical debt, lower earnings, poorer health outcomes.

Nothing about this policy package—tax cuts mostly for the rich and benefit cuts for the vulnerable—is good for the vast majority of families in this country. Read more

 

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271,500 workers risked going on strike in 2024 despite inadequate protections

The number of workers involved in collective action should come as no surprise. The United States has been experiencing decades of high—and rising—income inequality, largely stemming from an unequal balance of power in the labor market.

Workers’ interest in unions has surged; the number of union election petitions filed at the NLRB has doubled since 2021; public support for unions has reached a 60-year high.

Yet current labor law doesn’t adequately protect workers’ right to strike. Read more

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