In the US, where according to the National Domestic Workers Alliance two thirds of care professionals don’t have a health insurance program, the Care services platform Care.com announced it was launching a scheme to facilitate covering health insurance, healthcare, training, and even transportation costs for up to a maximum equivalent amount of $500 per annum. Called the ‘Benefit Bucks’ program, the scheme will redirect a proportion of Care.com’s fees that the care givers previously fully received as salary, which the various online employers pay over its online marketplace platform for home care services, towards an account dedicated to paying the care givers’ medical, training, and transport costs.
As part of the current debate over professional benefits for workers in the gig economy with international web-based platforms such as Uber, TaskRabbit, and Care.com *, this Benefit Bucks program is a ‘first’ and ‘an important step forward in professionalizing personal services’ as well as Care.com building a social safety net for millions of care givers.
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