Doctoral Dissertation Research: Regulating the Care Boom: Labor Standards and In-Home Care Work in Three U.S. Cities

以家庭为基础的老年人护理和其他形式的在家工作正在推动美国护理职业的就业快速增长，部分原因是该国的人口老龄化。然而，这些职业的工作质量仍然很低，工资中位数停滞在每小时11美元附近，侵犯工人权利的行为屡见不实。这种工作条件加剧了日益严重的家庭保健劳动力短缺，并加深了性别和种族不平等，因为妇女和有色人种在这一部门的就业比例过高。劳动力短缺反过来又阻碍了那些照顾老人和年轻人的人，特别是妇女的劳动力参与。当政府和非政府机构寻求改善这些条件时，他们面临的一个关键挑战是实施劳工标准——在原子化的工作场所、亲密的劳动过程和模糊的雇主-雇员关系的背景下，这是一项艰巨的任务。本研究考察了克服这些挑战的监管努力，并将纸面上的劳动标准转化为改善的工作条件。研究结果将提供证据，证明这些努力何时以及如何影响工人的工作成果，并为政策制定者提供信息，帮助他们解决这一正在显现的有偿护理工作危机。本研究主要关注美国的两种监管力量——工会和政府-民间社会合作——以及它们对雇主合规、工人主张权利的能力以及由此产生的居家护理工作工作条件的影响。这项研究包括对原始调查数据的个人层面分析，以及对纽约市、旧金山和西雅图的比较分析。调查数据提供了各城市工人成果的指标，主要通过有针对性的数字广告招募参与者。这些结果的变化将通过对公共记录、行政数据的分析，以及对工人、雇主和政策参与者的120次定性访谈来解释。除了跨城市的比较，结果将在西雅图的两个时间点进行衡量，即新的家政工人法规最初实施之前和之后。调查结果将展示工会和政府-民间社会伙伴关系是否以及如何影响家庭护理工作背景下的劳工标准执行。在此过程中，该项目为有偿护理工作和工作场所监管的社会学理论提供了信息，促进了对政策变化转化为工人成果实质性变化的条件的了解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Home-based elder care and other forms of in-home work are driving rapid job growth in care occupations in the United States, in part because of the country's aging population. Yet job quality in these occupations remains low, with median wages stagnating near $11 per hour and worker rights violations commonplace. Such work conditions exacerbate a mounting home health care labor shortage and deepen gender and racial inequality, given that women and people of color are disproportionately employed in this sector. The labor shortage, in turn, hinders labor force participation among those, particularly women, who provide care to elderly and the young. As governmental and non-governmental actors seek to improve these conditions, one key challenge they confront is that of implementing labor standards—a difficult task in the context of atomized workplaces, intimate labor processes, and ambiguous employer-employee relations. This study examines regulatory efforts to overcome those challenges and translate labor standards on paper into improved working conditions. The findings will provide evidence of when and how such efforts impact worker outcomes and will inform policymakers as they work to address this unfolding crisis in paid care work.This study focuses on two regulatory forces in the U.S.—labor unions and government-civil society collaborations—and their impacts on employer compliance, workers’ ability to claim their rights, and resulting work conditions in home-based care work. The research involves an individual-level analysis of original survey data, and a comparative analysis of New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle. Survey data provide indicators of worker outcomes across cities, with participants recruited primarily through targeted digital advertisements. Variations in these outcomes will be explained through analysis of public records, administrative data, and 120 qualitative interviews with workers, employers, and policy actors. In addition to the cross-city comparison, outcomes will be measured at two points in time in Seattle, before and after the initial implementation of new domestic worker regulations. Findings will demonstrate whether and how unions and government-civil society partnerships affect labor standards enforcement in the context of in-home care work. In doing so, the project informs sociological theories of paid care work and workplace regulation, advancing knowledge about the conditions under which policy change translates into substantive change in worker outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.