Why National Caregivers Day Is a Thing
When and What Is National Caregivers Day?
National Caregivers Day takes place annually on the third Friday of February and is not to be confused with National Family Caregivers Month, which is the month of November. This year, National Caregivers Day falls on Friday, February 21, 2025! It’s a day to recognize the hard work and dedication of caregivers, both paid and unpaid, and aims to raise awareness of the personal and structural conditions that shape the needs and experience of caregivers.
Why Do We Need National Caregivers Day?
Professional caregivers are heroes. These direct care workers (including nursing assistants, personal care aides, and home health aides) care for 20 million older adults in the United States at their homes or in long-term facilities, assisting with self-care and other daily tasks due to physical, cognitive, developmental, and/or behavioral conditions. This provides a huge benefit to our society by allowing the families of these folks to maintain their own wellbeing and/or continue participating in the labor force.
However, the direct care workforce is often underpaid, undervalued, and limited to part-time hours, which leads to frequent workforce turnover, which may also lead to interrupted and potentially compromised care for our loved ones. With a national median wage of just $15.43 per hour, 39 percent of professional caregivers in the U.S. live in or near poverty and 46 percent rely on public assistance programs to make ends meet, including Medicaid. And since a majority of the care workforce is comprised of women, in particular Black, Brown, and immigrant women, this is a racial justice and gender justice issue.
In Minnesota, the median wage for Home Health and Personal Care aides isn’t much higher than the national average at just $15.88. These jobs are in high demand as our large Baby Boomer population continues to age: the vacancy rate of direct care occupations is a combined 10 percent, compared to 6.9 percent across all occupations statewide. Currently, 18 percent of the direct care workforce (including 27 percent of Home Health and Personal Care Aides) are foreign-born, and this trend will likely continue to grow as the overall labor force of the state shrinks compared to the retired population.
Will the long-term care industry offer a livable wage and well-deserved benefits to professional caregivers to fill these open spots and properly compensate the Black, Brown, and immigrant women who keep Minnesotans cared for and our economy on track? If we make it so! Finally, nursing home staff in Minnesota are paid time-and-a-half for working holidays, but industry lobby groups are attempting to take away the benefit.
TL;DR: we all should lift up and advocate for professional caregivers!
How You Can Support a Caregiver This National Caregivers Day
Is your loved one receiving professional care, perhaps by home healthcare aides or staff at an assisted living, memory care, nursing home, or other long-term facility? You could consider:
thanking the caregiver in person and explaining how their labor makes a difference in your life
telling the caregiver’s boss what a great job they’re doing and how you hope the organization can retain them for a long time
if you have the resources, treating the caregiver(s) to something special, even a small gift card for gas or groceries
Do you have a friend or family member who is a caregiver? You could consider:
sending them a note to let them know you’re thinking of them and support them–even a funny meme can provide a breath of fresh air on a hard day
if you have the resources, treating them to something special
if you have the time, offering to run an errand for them or asking them if you could help with another task
Are you one of the 53 million unpaid family caregivers in the U.S.? You could consider:
giving yourself a damn pat on the back
giving yourself one compliment or affirmation about your work and your efforts as a caregiver
reaching out to ask for extra support from someone who has offered to lend a hand
if connecting with other dementia family caregivers in Minnesota would be a helpful support in your life