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Essential Workers and Care Penalties in the United States

Author

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  • Nancy Folbre
  • Leila Gautham
  • Kristin Smith

Abstract

The new category of workers officially labeled “essential” in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States includes a large percentage of women working in care services. In many of these services, health risks are often considered part of the job and are uncompensated by hazard pay. Building on previous feminist research explaining the devaluation of care work, this paper uses the most recent available data from the US Current Population Survey to show that workers in essential care service jobs – especially women – earn less than other essential workers. This pattern cannot be explained by differences in unionization rates and points to other differences in bargaining power, including institutional factors influencing the earnings of doctors and nurses. Care penalties have significant implications for the future supply of care services as the pandemic persists, highlighting the need to develop broad coalitions to challenge the undervaluation of care work.HIGHLIGHTS Care workers are half of all essential workers in the US and mostly women.Essential care workers pay a wage penalty.Features of care work contribute to disempowerment by encouraging commitment over bargaining.Pay penalties contribute to burnout, high turnover, and reduced entry into essential care jobs.Industry-level unionization coalitions should form to contest devaluation of care provision.

Suggested Citation

  • Nancy Folbre & Leila Gautham & Kristin Smith, 2021. "Essential Workers and Care Penalties in the United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 173-187, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:27:y:2021:i:1-2:p:173-187
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2020.1828602
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    Cited by:

    1. Zdravka Todorova, 2024. "Social processes of oppression in the stratified economy and Veblenian feminist post Keynesian connections," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 25-54, January.
    2. Shahra Razavi, 2022. "Making the Right to Social Security a Reality for All Workers," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(2), pages 269-294, June.
    3. Janna Klostermann & Laura Funk & Holly Symonds-Brown & Maria Cherba & Christine Ceci & Pat Armstrong & Jeanette Pols, 2022. "The Problems with Care: A Feminist Care Scholar Retrospective," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Emma K. Tsui & Marita LaMonica & Maryam Hyder & Paul Landsbergis & Jennifer Zelnick & Sherry Baron, 2021. "Expanding the Conceptualization of Support in Low-Wage Carework: The Case of Home Care Aides and Client Death," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Elena CAMILLETTI & Zahrah NESBITT‐AHMED, 2022. "COVID‐19 and a “crisis of care”: A feminist analysis of public policy responses to paid and unpaid care and domestic work," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(2), pages 195-218, June.
    6. Mark Setterfield, 2024. "Integrating the Social Reproduction of Labour into Macroeconomic Theory," Working Papers 2405, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    7. Dorn, Franziska & Maxand, Simone & Kneib, Thomas, 2024. "The nonlinear dependence of income inequality and carbon emissions: Potentials for a sustainable future," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    8. Corsi, Marcella & Ilkkaracan, Ipek, 2022. "COVID-19, Gender and Labour," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1012, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

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