The Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act

Caregivers are widely underpaid, earning a median wage of $15.43 an hour and often living in poverty. The result is caregivers are in short supply—a recent survey revealed 92% of nursing home respondents and nearly 70% of assisted living facilities reported significant or severe workforce shortages.

The Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act aims to increase the number of direct care professionals, provide new pathways to enter the LTC workforce, improve pay, and identify effective recruitment and training strategies.

The Nursing Home Workforce Support and Expansion Act would provide $400 million annually in workforce grants to help states improve pay, benefits, education and retention for nursing home workers. That bill, introduced last week, has the support of the nation’s two largest nursing home advocacy organizations.

By improving caregiver compensation, benefits, and support systems, the bill would ensure the Nation has a strong, qualified pipeline of workers to provide desperately needed care for older adults and people with disabilities.

Biden announced $7 billion in federal grants for solar projects for more than 900,000 low- and middle-income households, saying those projects would save those households about $400 a year annually, more than $350 million total. The projects will also create nearly 200,000 jobs.

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers (UAW).

Biden also announced the launch of the website to apply to join the American Climate Corps (ACC), an initiative modeled after New Deal president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  ACC members will have access to training in trades with partnership between the program and the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ nonprofit partner TradesFutures.