5 Valentine’s Day To-Dos If You Employ Someone In Your Home

Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to let people who are special to you know how much you care. Hopefully, you care very much about the home care attendant, childcare provider, or house cleaner who cares for or supports you, your home, and/or your family members! After all, nobody on this planet survives without support from others.

Here are five things you might do today to celebrate this very particular relationship that is both professional and inherently personal:

1) Make sure that the worker you employ knows you appreciate them. A gift, flowers, a card, kind words, a favorite food? Employ a childcare provider? Have your child help make or sign a valentine. (We’re offering a printable or digital valentine to anyone who donates today.)

2) If you’re hiring a babysitter for a date night tonight, make sure that your holiday doesn’t put them out. Some groups, like Care.com, promote the idea that you should pay whatever the going rate is in your area, but doing what’s popular isn’t the same as doing what’s right!

A living wage is the highest sign of respect, and domestic workers are providing care for the most important people and places in your life.

3) Need help calculating a living wage? Check the info on our site. Need to hire a babysitter, but can’t afford the local living wage? Get creative — maybe you can team up with another couple for shared babysitting.

4) Share messages of love and appreciation with the hashtags #LoveIsLouder and #ToImmigrantsWithLove. (Did you know that a majority of domestic workers are women of color and immigrants?)

5) Our community of domestic employers that’s supporting the domestic worker movement, fighting for affordable and accessible care and support, and envisioning a win-win future for all people, is of course built on the support of each and every one of our members! Join us.