In 2024, a government referendum attempted to replace Article 41.2 of the Constitution on the work of mothers in the home with wording that diminished the State’s obligation to caring in the home and outside. Their amendment ignored Citizens Assembly’s recommendations for more, not less, support. The government proposal was voted down by 73.9% of the electorate.

They propose to remove the only constitutional recognition of caring work that mainly women do and replace it with a patronizing, sexist and discriminatory proposal which assumes women will continue to do this work without any payment or other resources… and those of us with disabilities will be denied our right to the support we need to live with dignity and to be able to choose who provides our care and support… We say No to the slavery of invisible unwaged work and forced dependence! No to Victorian charity! No to the Workhouse or the Asylum! Global Women’s Strike, Ireland

The Global Women’s Strike in Peru works with the Domestic Workers Federation of Peru (FENTTRAHOP) and the Union of Remunerated and Unremunerated Workers in the Home (STRNRH). They were part of an international campaign which won ILO Convention 189 for domestic workers, guaranteeing fundamental rights. 189 has been ratified and legislation passed in a number of countries, but implementation is patchy. They are demanding a care income “for caring work in your home and the home of others”.

1. The government must take account of our contribution. All workers must receive a living wage – a care income – including mothers and other carers.
2. Workers who need to care for a relative must be entitled to paid time off. Without this right, women will always be disadvantaged when we go out to work.

The Community Women Human Rights Defenders Collective represents 19 sectors of community women – “the mothers, the carers, the Indigenous, the rural and urban poor, sex workers, the women resisting mining and mega-development projects, the migrant and refugee women, the women with disabilities, and those in Thailand’s Deep South living in the shadow of conflict”. They are demanding:

A New Constitution for Women’s Rights must recognize the caring work done in the home and on the land as socially and economically valuable work. Caring work performed by mothers, other primary family carers, and those who care for the land and the planet must be properly remunerated by the State… they are on the frontlines of both social and environmental justice. Statement for International Women’s Day 2025

The International Wages for Housework Campaign which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike was first launched in England in 1972. It is based at the Crossroads Women’s Centre in London.

Safety First Wales, a coalition of sex workers, health professionals, church representatives, anti-poverty, anti-violence, migrants and trans rights campaigners, are demanding a care income for mothers “similar to the £1,600 a month given to young people leaving care – in recognition of the fact that most sex workers are working to support families.” (They mention that Hawaii recently passed a law to pay a basic income of $2000 a month to sex workers aiming to exit prostitution.)

Payday, an international network of men, based at the Crossroads Women’s Centres in London and Philadelphia, endorses the care income.

A coalition led by the GWS and Women of Color GWS is demanding the reinstatement of Child Tax Credits, fully refundable, paid monthly to all regardless of immigration status, and paid directly to mothers/primary caregivers with no impact on other benefits and with no work requirements – raising children is work! It also supports Congresswoman Gwen Moore’s Worker Relief and Credit Reform Act, reintroduced In March 2025, which expands earned tax credits to unpaid caregivers “to honor the often-unrecognized work that our families and communities depend on”, as well as the work of students.

It is the welfare rights movement that laid the foundation for today’s Care Income Now! movement. As welfare rights leader Johnnie Tillmon said: “If I were president, I’d just issue a proclamation that “women’s” work is real work…I’d start paying women a living wage for doing the work we are already doing…And the welfare crisis would be over, just like that.”

In San Francisco, a Guaranteed Care Income pilot paid $2,000 monthly to 10 single mothers at risk of criminalization or having their children taken by social services. It was co-ordinated by the In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project (of US PROStitutes Collective). This historic pilot was the first in the US to offer direct cash in recognition of the caregiving work of mothers. It ran for one year. Participants reported improvements in health and housing, increased ability to buy nutritious food and pay bills. They were able to leave sex work and avoid contact with child welfare.