Through our Valuing the Care Economy Project (VCE Project), LEAF is identifying barriers to economic security in the care economy and working towards dismantling those barriers through law reform advocacy and public legal education.
What is the care economy?
Care work, whether paid or unpaid, consists of the activities and responsibilities involved in meeting the physical, psychological, cognitive, mental health, developmental, and emotional needs of others.
In terms of which labour market sectors are included in the care economy, LEAF’s Valuing the Care Economy Project follows the International Labour Organization’s categorization education, early childhood care and education, the health and social sectors, and domestic work.
Care work is significantly undervalued in Canada. It is also feminized and racialized work.
In Canada’s formal labour market, 75% of care workers in Canada are women. Statistics Canada does not state whether this percentage includes trans women – but in its recent study on socioeconomic outcomes of transgender and non-binary people, the gender disparity in care work remains: trans women are far more likely than cis men to be working in care sectors.
Women-dominated occupations are consistently compensated at lower wages than those dominated by men. There is also a persistent gender pay gap within care occupations, with immigrant women, Indigenous women, and racialized women having the lowest employment income of all care workers.
Outside of waged work, vast amounts of care work take place – and it is also gendered and racialized. Women spend more time on household work than men, while women, trans men, and non-binary people are all more likely than cis men to be single parents. Higher-income women are able to privately contract out care and other household work to other women, who are often racialized and underpaid.
Changing law and policy to value care work
To address the undervaluation of care work, we need significant reforms to our social protection systems, in domains including labour standards and enforcement, immigration, and social welfare.
We also need a paradigm shift: care is a human right. Quality care is a necessary component of Canada’s human rights obligations. It therefore requires public investment in appropriate supports that will improve both the conditions of care work and the conditions in which people receive care. With the VCE Project, LEAF has developed three foundational demands to improve the care economy:
- Public Investment, Regulation, and Delivery of Care Services;
- Status for All;
- Justice for Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, Transgender, and Gender-Diverse+ Peoples
Read more about LEAF’s approach to care work and our three foundational demands in the VCE Framing Document.
Achieving these improvements will be a long-term effort and will require the energy and efforts of multiple advocates. Within the framework of these three foundational improvements, the VCE Project is specifically advocating for two concrete reforms to law.
The VCE Project’s Law Reform Advocacy Proposals
- End exclusions of domestic workers from employment standards legislation in New Brunswick. Excluding domestic workers from workers’ protection violates s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: it disproportionately affects women, denying women a benefit and perpetuating their historical disadvantage. See LEAF’s advocacy brief on ending New Brunswick’s exclusions of domestic workers from employment standards legislation.
- Reform Employment Insurance. Women, trans, and non-binary people should not be penalized for taking on the lion’s share of family care work. LEAF urges the federal government to update the Employment Insurance Act to reflect the gendered realities of work, and to ensure that all workers in Canada receive sufficient income support following job separation. See LEAF’s advocacy brief on reducing gender-based discrimination in Employment Insurance.
Public Legal Education Materials
The VCE Project is also developing public legal education materials, which will be launched in fall 2026.
Who is involved in this project?
We have an Advisory Committee of advocates and researchers with lived, organizing, and/or academic expertise in the care economy. Our Advisory Committee members are: Bronwen Agnew (Midwife at Maison de naissance Marie-Paule Lanthier), Pat Armstrong (The Care Economy Group), Bilan Arte (Canadian Labour Congress), Cenen Bagon (Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers’ Rights), Morna Ballantyne (Child Care Now), Alyson Colón (Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society), Tatyannah Côté, Jasmin de la Calzada (PINAY Quebec), Kathy Mallett, Johanne Perron (New Brunswick Equal Pay Coalition), and Katherine Scott (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives). Thanks to former Advisory Committee members Fatima Barron (PINAY Quebec), Shayla Claringbold (Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada), and Évelyne Bessette (Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec – FIQ) as well.
To identify barriers to economic security for care workers, we interviewed 20 stakeholders across the country – caregiver rights organizations, unions, academics, and advocates.
We are grateful to Pat Armstrong for her advocacy support, as well as to Joanne Cave, Ashna Hudani, Nicole Jowett, Siena McIlwraith-Fraticelli, Sepideh Shahi, and Sophia Wedderburn, who provided excellent research support.
Aubrey Abaya, Ashna Hudani, Cee Strauss, Margret Taylor, and Celia Zhang are the LEAF staff working on the VCE Project.
Anti-Heroine Media is providing instructional design and graphic design services.
Reciprocal Consulting is providing evaluation services.
CONTACT
Cee Strauss
Project Director of the Valuing the Care Economy Project
LEAF acknowledges the support of Women and Gender Equality Canada.
