Forging a Sustainable Future for California’s Direct Care Workforce

The crisis facing the paid direct care workforce is evident: a rapidly aging population, a critical workforce shortage, poverty-level wages, and poor job quality – all disproportionately impacting immigrants and women of color. California has committed to addressing this crisis and creating a sustainable future for direct care workers. This primer is intended to create a deeper understanding of the direct care workforce and the systems, structures, and policies that impact their wages, benefits, job quality, and workforce development opportunities. Divided into four parts, this primer includes background on the direct care workforce, an overview of public funding for long-term services and supports, potential levers for increasing wages, and the current landscape for building direct care worker career pathways.

Consumer advocates possess in-depth knowledge of funding for long-term services and supports, while worker advocates are well-versed on strategies for increasing job quality. Philanthropic organizations generally focus on either direct care consumers or workers. This primer aims to bridge the gap between these areas of expertise. We hope that it will serve as a tool to support collaborative action among advocates, philanthropy, and government to create an equitable future of care for direct care workers and the families who rely on their support.