Ask any CEO of a successful company or nonprofit organization what his or her most important assets are, and they will all say it’s the people who work for them. Unless workers have the skills needed to do their jobs, the increased efficiencies promised by new technology are worth little. A nation’s infrastructure is more than its roads, ports, bridges, transmission lines, and storage facilities. The human infrastructure that supports an economy is its true foundation, and the people most directly responsible for building the human infrastructure—educators, childcare workers, health care providers, and others—are what make it possible for workers to excel and the nation’s economy to continue growing. Countries prosper and flourish according to the structures they build to develop and sustain their human resources.
But the support systems for the U.S. workforce are critically underdeveloped in key areas. For example, the most important period in human development is the early years of life. A 2009 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a body representing 30 countries with advanced economies, revealed that the United States spends one-third less on children between ages one and six than the average spent by other OECD countries.1 In particular, other advanced economies invest far more resources in childcare and early education programs, ensuring that they stay competitive in a global economy. But the United States tries to get by on the cheap. Childcare and early education workers barely earn enough to raise their own families out of poverty. It’s possible to improve the quality of childcare and early education and help the people who do this important work earn a decent living.
Direct-care work is one of the fastest-growing job fields—and one of the worst-paid. These workers care for seniors and sick, injured, or permanently disabled people. Many direct-care workers earn less than minimum wage, and an alarming number go without health insurance in spite of being health care providers themselves. The number of direct-care jobs is expected to double in the coming years as baby boomers retire and live longer. Improving the pay and benefits of direct-care workers will help all Americans since these workers help slow the rising rate of health care costs.
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Footnotes
- OECD (September 1, 2009), Doing Better for Children, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. [back]
Issues
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