[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 3, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 22881-22882]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-07174]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89 , No. 65 / Wednesday, April 3, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 22881]]
Proclamation 10715 of March 29, 2024
Care Workers Recognition Month, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Every day, care workers dedicate themselves to ensuring
the people we love are safe and secure. They watch over
our children, assist our parents, and support loved
ones with disabilities. Their work makes all other work
possible. During Care Workers Recognition Month, we
honor their tireless efforts; express our gratitude for
their unwavering devotion; and commit to ensuring they
receive the pay, benefits, and recognition they
deserve.
The services care workers provide are not only
essential to so many lives--they are crucial for our
economy. But for too long, care workers' paychecks have
not reflected the value of their demanding and
important work. In fact, care workers are among the
lowest paid workers in the country. Of the millions of
care workers in our Nation, the majority are women of
color, deepening racial and gender wage and wealth
gaps. Each year, half of the long-term care workforce
and nearly 20 percent of the child care workforce end
up leaving their jobs, which makes it difficult for the
families who depend on care workers to find the stable
and secure support they need.
My Administration is committed to getting care workers
the resources and respect they deserve. In 2021, we
invested over $60 billion from our American Rescue Plan
in the care economy. That funding helped keep 225,000
child care centers open during the COVID-19 pandemic,
ensuring that the 10 million children they served had a
place to go. It also provided increased pay and bonuses
and secured better benefits for child care workers,
helping hundreds of thousands of mothers with young
children enter or re-enter the workforce. Through our
expanded earned income tax credit alone, we delivered
financial relief to nearly 300,000 child care workers.
My Budget includes robust proposals in care
infrastructure, including through investments in
caregiving for military families and investments in
child care to increase accessibility and guarantee
affordable, high-quality child care from birth until
kindergarten.
In addition, the Executive Order I signed last year
includes the most comprehensive set of actions any
administration has taken to increase access to high-
quality care and support for caregivers. It directs
almost every cabinet-level agency to take over 50
actions that provide more peace of mind for families
and more dignity for care workers who deserve jobs with
good pay and good benefits. For example, the Department
of Health and Human Services released a proposed rule
that would raise Head Start teacher wages by more than
$10,000 on average and strengthen Head Start's ability
to recruit and retain staff. Further, I directed the
Department of Veterans Affairs to give veterans who
need assistance at home more flexibility to pick their
own caregivers. The Department of Labor has invested
tens of millions of dollars in boosting the quality of
care jobs and expanding access to them.
Additionally, agencies are working to improve the
quality of home care and nursing home jobs. My
Administration is taking steps to get home care workers
the pay they deserve by making sure they get a bigger
share of Medicaid payments, and to strengthen
requirements for nursing homes
[[Page 22882]]
so that staff are not stretched thin and residents get
the attention they need. My Administration is also
promoting apprenticeship programs that put careers as
registered and licensed nurses within reach so that we
can both add and keep long-term care workers on the
job.
Care workers are our Nation's hidden heroes. They
support so many of our families across the country, and
it is our responsibility to ensure that they are not
left behind. This Care Workers Recognition Month, in
addition to expressing our gratitude for their selfless
dedication to our loved ones and honoring their
tremendous value to our society, we also recommit to
ensuring that they are rewarded for their extraordinary
contributions to America.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2024 as
Care Workers Recognition Month. I call upon all
Americans to celebrate the contributions of care
workers to our Nation with appropriate ceremonies,
activities, and programs.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-07174
Filed 4-2-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P