scholarly journals The Effect of Increasing State Minimum Wage on Family Caregiving

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 502-502
Author(s):  
Eric Jutkowitz ◽  
Derek Lake ◽  
Peter Shewmaker

Abstract Paid long-term care workers, such as personal care aides, compliment family caregivers in the delivery of care for people with long-term care needs. Nearly 12% of paid long-term care workers live in poverty. There is a call to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25/hr to $15/hr. Long-term care workers may financially benefit from an increase in minimum wage, but families that rely on paid long-term care may be unable to afford higher wages. We obtained Health and Retirement Study (HRS; 2006-2014) respondents’ state of residence which we linked with state minimum wage data. Between 2006 and 2010 the federal minimum wage increased from $5.15 to $7.25. We identified 25 states in which the 2006 to 2010 (pre period) increases in federal minimum wage increased the state’s effective minimum wage (higher of state and federal minimum wage). Seven of these states continued to increase their minimum wage from 2010 to 2014 (post period). The remaining 18 matching control states did not increase their minimum wage after 2010. We used a difference-in-differences design and ordinary least squares regression to compare hours of unpaid and paid caregiving HRS respondents received in treatment and control. There was no statistically significant change in unpaid (-2.15; 95%CI: -8.53, 4.23) or paid (2.42; 95%CI: -1.33, 6.20) caregiving hours received between HRS respondents that lived in states that did and did not increase their minimum wage. Increasing state minimum wage may improve the economic wellbeing of long-term care workers without adversely affecting people with long-term care needs.

Author(s):  
Marsha Love ◽  
Felipe Tendick-Matesanz ◽  
Jane Thomason ◽  
Davine Carter ◽  
Myra Glassman ◽  
...  

The home care workforce, already at 2.7 million caregivers, will become the nation’s fastest growing occupation by 2024 as the senior boom generation accelerates the demand for in home services to meet its long-term care needs. The physically challenging work of assisting clients with intimate, essential acts of daily living places home care workers (HCWs) at risk for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs); yet, HCWs typically receive little formal job training and may lack appropriate assistive devices. In this qualitative pilot study, HCW focus groups described workplace MSD risk factors and identified problem-solving strategies to improve ergonomic conditions. The results revealed that HCWs rely on their behavioral insights, self-styled communications skills and caring demeanor to navigate MSD risks to themselves and increase clients’ physical independence of movement. We suggest changes in employer and government policies to acknowledge HCWs as valued team members in long-term care and to enhance their effectiveness as caregivers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-392
Author(s):  
Simone Leiber ◽  
Kamil Matuszczyk ◽  
Verena Rossow

AbstractThis article looks at the role of private companies involved in organizing so-called live-in care arrangements between two EU member states, Germany and Poland. Due to gaps in the public long-term care system, employing livein migrant care workers in private households has become a widespread individualized solution to rising long-term care needs in Germany. Since eastern EU enlargement, private brokerage agencies placing Polish live-in migrant care workers in German households have grown considerably. Building on approaches conceptualizing the role of intermediaries in formalizing domestic work, we aim to provide a more fine-grained typology of private brokerage agencies, taking into account not only the legal environment and structural features of these private enterprises, but also their strategic positioning under conditions of high legal uncertainty in the EU multi-level governance system. By analyzing corporate as well as political strategies of these intermediaries, we distinguish three different agency types we call pioneers, minimum effort players and followers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5349
Author(s):  
Oliver Fisher ◽  
Paolo Fabbietti ◽  
Giovanni Lamura

To meet the rising demand for home care, many families in Italy hire live-in migrant care workers (MCWs). However, the reliance on MCWs to provide long-term care (LTC) and a lack of alternative formal care services raises concerns around equality in access to care. This study aimed to determine the socio-economic predictors of hiring live-in MCWs among older adults with LTC needs in Italy, the objective care burden placed on MCWs, and the financial barriers that people in need of care and informal caregivers face when hiring MCWs, analysing data from a cross-sectional questionnaire with 366 older adults with LTC needs and their primary family caregivers living in the Marche region. Binary logistic regression was used to calculate the predictors of hiring a live-in MCW. Having a primary caregiver that had a high school education or above significantly increased the odds of hiring a live-in MCW (Odds Ratio (OR) = 3.880), as did receiving a social pension (OR = 2.258). Over half (57.5 percent) of the people in need of care had difficulties in affording the costs of hiring an MCW in the past year. To increase the sustainability of the Italian MCW market and reduce socio-economic barriers to accessing care, the Italian Government should increase funding for LTC benefits and add means testing and restrictions on the use of cash-for-care allowances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 502-503
Author(s):  
Eric Jutkowitz ◽  
Peter Shewmaker ◽  
Derek Lake ◽  
Momotazur Rahman

Abstract Most people with long-term care needs rely on family caregivers. People with long-term care needs are also more likely to be eligible for Medicaid, which is the largest public payer of home and community based long-term care services. Whether enrolling in Medicaid compliments or substitutes for family caregiving is unknown. We linked Health and Retirement Study (HRS) respondents with their Medicaid enrollment data (2002-2012), to determine the effect of enrolling in Medicaid on family caregiving hours. We identified 130 people that participated in the HRS interview prior to enrolling in Medicaid in the same year (i.e., untreated) and 142 people that participated in the HRS interview after recently enrolling in Medicaid (i.e., treated). Untreated and treated respondents had similar demographic characteristics (age, sex, race). We estimated a series of inverse probability weighted linear regression adjusted models to determine the difference in monthly family caregiving hours between individuals that newly enrolled in Medicaid compared to people that had yet to enroll. We controlled for HRS respondents’ demographics, health care utilization, and nursing home utilization. HRS respondents interviewed after enrolling in Medicaid received 5.98 (95%CI: -27.60, 39.57) fewer monthly hours of family caregiving than respondents that had yet to enroll in Medicaid. HRS respondents interviewed after enrolling in Medicaid were not statistically more likely to receive any family caregiving (risk difference 0.05% 95%CI: -0.16, 0.06) than HRS respondents that had yet to enroll in Medicaid. Initial enrollment in Medicaid does not substitute for family caregiving.


2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (12) ◽  
pp. 1315-1324

Background: Factors related to long-term care needs have been studied widely, but there is limited research about the influence of health literacy on long-term care needs among the elderly in rural communities where the social context and care environment are uniquely different. Objective: To examine factors influencing long-term care needs among Thai elderly in rural communities. Materials and Methods: The present study used the cross-sectional design. The study sample included 477 elderly persons, who were members of the communities in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Multi-stage random sampling was used to select participants. They were interviewed using the demographic and health information questionnaire, the Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS), the health literacy scale of Thai adults and long-term care needs questionnaire. The selected factors examined as independent variables included some demographic factors, depressive symptom, and health literacy. Results: The present study results revealed significant positive relationships existing between long-term care needs with age and depressive symptom, while negative relationships between income and health literacy were reported. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that four of nine determinants of long-term care needs: age, depressive symptom, health knowledge and understanding, and ability managing their health condition significantly predicted long-term care needs at a level of 18% (R² adjusted=0.18, p<0.001). Conclusion: The present study results showed associations between personal and health literacy factors with long-term care needs. These findings prove that it is vitally important for healthcare professionals to consider the rural elderly’s mental health status and health literacy when providing care and planning treatment. Keywords: Health literacy, Long-term care needs, Rural community


Author(s):  
Neta Roitenberg

The article extends the discussion on the challenges in gaining access to the field in medical ethnographic research, focusing on long-term care (LTC) facilities. Medical institutions have been documented to be difficult sites to access. The reference, however, is to the recruitment of patients as informants. The challenges of recruiting practitioners as informants have not been investigated at all. The article presents the key issues that emerged in the process of gaining social access at the sites of two LTC facilities as part of a study on care workers’ identities. The main obstacles encountered during the fieldwork were organizational constraints and negotiating control over the process of recruiting the lower occupational tier of care workers with gatekeepers. The article presents the coping strategies implemented to overcome the ethical and methodological obstacles: continually reassessing the consent and cooperation of participants and developing a rapport with nurse’s aides during interviews.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 39-39
Author(s):  
Katie Aubrecht ◽  
Ivy Bourgeault ◽  
Tamara Daly

Abstract Intersectionality is a useful method (Lutz, 2015) for interdisciplinary long-term care (LTC) research to advance a more critical understanding of how experiences of quality are shaped by mutually reproducing social divisions, identities and relations of power that shape LTC. This paper discusses insights from the “Mapping Care Relationships” stream of the Seniors – Adding Life to Years (SALTY) project, a pan-Canadian program of research examining clinical, social and policy perspectives on quality in LTC. “Mapping Care Relationships” mapped how promising approaches to care relationships are organized and experienced in LTC. From January 2018-August 2019 our team of nine researchers conducted rapid ethnographies in eight nursing homes, two in each of four provinces across Canada. We purposively observed and interviewed workers from a wide variety of positions and backgrounds, informed by an intersectionality approach. We traced how promising approaches in person-centred dementia care (PCDC) in particular may reify the subordinated status of care workers (some more than others) and reinforce inequities within LTC systems. In multiple LTC homes, front-line care workers described experiencing physical and emotional harm in care relationships with residents which caused them distress. However, consistent with a PCDC approach, the harm was attributed to ‘behaviours’ clinically symptomatic of dementia. In framing power differentials from a medical perspective, PCDC makes it possible to interpret harmful experiences as 'part of the job’ and something workers should know to expect, prevent, avoid, redirect, or ignore. Lutz, H. (2015). Intersectionality as method. DiGeSt. Journal of diversity and gender studies, 2(1-2), 39-44.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 725-725
Author(s):  
Yoko Ibuka ◽  
Yui Ohtsu

Abstract Socioeconomic status (SES) is generating considerable interest in terms of health of individuals, but how it is associated with long-term care has not been established yet. We study the relationship between SES and long-term care provision to parents among the Japanese adults using JSTAR. We use the following six measures of SES for the analysis: income, asset, expenditure, living condition, housing condition and education. We find a greater probability of care provision to parents among those in higher SES categories for some SES measures, compared to the lowest category. However, after considering the survival probability of parents, the relationship is reversed and the probability of care provision is found to be greater among lower SES individuals. The association is more pronounced among males. The association is likely to be partly mediated by care needs of parents. These results suggest a higher burden of care disproportionately falls in low SES individuals.


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