Remarks by Acting Secretary Julie Su at the Care Can't Wait Bus Tour (As Delivered)

Chicago, Illinois
August 26, 2024

Good morning, everybody. I'm really thrilled to be here. It's so good to see you all.  Thank you to Karen and to Access Living for hosting us. And, I just want to say something about my friend and hero Ai-jen Poo. Ai-jen has made care a national priority. Ai-jen has put care policy at the top of our national policy agenda. But it's not just that, it's also that Ai-jen demonstrates all the time that how we do this work also matters, and that we can do it with care for one another, for each other. So, thank you so much Ai-jen for who you are, and for what you bring to this work.

And to Greg Kelley for your history making leadership. We are in a moment of talking about history making leaders who break the glass ceiling. I'm so proud of you and everything that you do. And, to the NCIU family…

Thank you all for everything that you do every single day. And to Dawn for your leadership and your work. To Sharita and, of course, to our Congressmembers, to Congresswoman Shakowsky, thank you for your longtime leadership in this space and in this work.

So, I'm also going to just state very quickly, I mentioned a whole bunch of leaders, so I'm thinking a little bit about leadership right now. And, so often, those of us in leadership positions are told, "not yet, it's not your time." And, that's also something that's been said about the care agenda, right? Not yet, not our time. But you all know that care can't wait.

And so, that is why I'm so proud to be here to kick off this multi-state bus tour called "care can't wait" and also so proud to be part of an administration—President Biden and Vice President Harris—this entire administration knows that care cannot be an afterthought. It has to be central to everything that we do. Because we also know that when we need care, it is never just an afterthought, right?

And so, I want to thank all the caregivers—the child care givers who enable all work, who not only care for our children, but teach them how to share and how to stand up for themselves, how to stand up for other people. To the personal care aides and the health care aids, who, as Michael said, become extensions of the people that they care for, thank you for all the work that you do. As you heard many, many times I just want to echo this because this is a fundamental principle that President Biden and Vice President Harris believe—which is that every job should be a good job.

Every job should be a job where the worker has the right to join a union. Every job should be a job that pays secure wages.  Every job should be one where people get to come home at the end of the work shift or the workday healthy and safe. Every job should be one where people have paid sick leave, and we need to expand national paid family and medical leave in this country because nobody should have to choose between talking care of themselves or making a living and being able to take care of their life.

So, that work continues. But what this administration has done, is prioritize care and care giving. So, with the help of our allies in Congress, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act which invested in child care and showed what is possible when we invest in child care. We made child care facilities supported, we keep them open, and we give raised wages for child care workers.

The other thing that we have done in this administration is a child tax credit to make sure —

Exactly—which cut child poverty in half. But half is not enough, and so we need to keep on doing that work to make sure that no child grows up in poverty. We also have ensured that there are staffing levels in nursing care homes that are reasonable and rational.

We also put out a template so that care givers and domestic workers have power in their workplace to negotiate the terms of their arrangement, and so…

[Audience: Sí, se puede…]

Si, se puede. Sí se puede.

[Audience: Sí se puede]

…that working people and their employers can actually come to agreement about expectations and wages and responsibilities. And, we have made historic investments in this country to create good jobs in communities all across the country.

And so, I will just close by saying that we know the Department of Labor has a study that shows that if this country invested in our care infrastructure and in families, supporting policies like paid leave comparable to other countries, we would increase the economic benefit to this country by $775 billion a year.

Right. So, people often say, when we talk about policies like this and a care infrastructure, "how can we afford that?" And, I say to that, how can we afford not to do it?

So, let's get this done. Let's get this show on the road and thank you so much for all you do.

Delivered By
Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su