(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

BEFORE MOST OF Boston has had its first cup of coffee, the caregivers that Massachusetts depends on are already at work.

A grandmother unlocks her door in the dark so her daughter can make a 5 a.m. hospital shift. A neighbor gets a toddler dressed, while a father straps up his work boots. A family friend answers the phone when a night shift runs long, and someone needs to stay with the kids.

These are family, friend, and neighbor caregivers — one of the most common forms of childcare in Massachusetts and one of the least recognized. FFN care is exactly what it sounds like: a trusted relative, family friend, or neighbor stepping in. The aunt who helps with homework after school. The neighbor who covers nights, weekends, and overtime shifts when no center is open.

What many don’t realize is that FFN care and vouchers are already part of the Commonwealth’s childcare financial assistance system. Families who qualify for assistance can use vouchers to pay for FFN caregivers, yet the people doing this essential work are paid shockingly little.

Current reimbursement rates leave many earning just $5.30 per hour, barely one-third of the state’s $15 minimum wage. Meanwhile, less than 1 percent of the state’s overall childcare subsidy funding goes toward FFN care, despite these caregivers making it possible for thousands of working families to stay in the workforce.

FFN caregivers are the reason parents can get to work, keep their jobs, and provide for their families. Yet for years, policies shaping Massachusetts’s childcare system have failed to reflect that reality.

This is a common and essential form of childcare, even if it rarely shows up in policy conversations. Nationally, more than 5 million FFN caregivers provide care for 11.5 million children, including 6.8 million children under age five. In Massachusetts, 96 percent of registered FFN caregivers are related to the children they care for.

That’s why last week’s vote by the Department of Early Education and Care board to increase reimbursement rates for FFN caregivers by as much as 60 percent matters. It is a long-overdue acknowledgment that these caregivers are workforce infrastructure — not charity, not informal arrangements, but the load-bearing wall of the economy for thousands of working families.

Massachusetts leaders regularly talk about workforce shortages. They talk about filling jobs, growing industries, and strengthening the economy. What they talk about less is that none of that works if parents can’t get to work.

When childcare falls through, parents reduce their hours, turn down promotions, or leave the workforce altogether. Employers feel it. Families feel it. Communities feel it. And it falls hardest on workers in jobs our economy can’t afford to lose: nurses, construction workers, warehouse staff, restaurant employees, people whose hours were never built around 9-to-5 childcare center schedules.

FFN caregivers fill that gap. They provide care before dawn and after closing time. They stay when shifts run long. They show up when the formal system can’t — or won’t.

The rate increase is a real step towards addressing decades of underinvestment. Care That Works — a coalition including New England Community Project, Brockton Workers Alliance, Brookview House, SEIU 509, and others is backing H.542/S.341, legislation designed to address those gaps directly.

The bill would do three key things:

First, it would establish a payment structure for FFN caregivers that pays at least the Massachusetts minimum wage, correcting a system where many caregivers are currently paid far below it.

Second, it would allow families to use the full value of their childcare vouchers across multiple providers in a single day — making it easier for a parent to combine a childcare center with FFN care before dawn, after school, or late into the evening when most work schedules demand it.

Three, it would create an FFN advisory committee to ensure caregivers and families have a direct voice in shaping future childcare policy.

Massachusetts cannot build a workforce economy on a childcare system that ignores the people holding it together. The families who depend on FFN care already know what it’s worth. It’s time state policy did too.

Natalicia Tracy is the executive director of Community Labor United. Noemi Ramos is the executive director of New England Community Project.

This commentary is part of CommonWealth Beacon’s ongoing coverage of early childhood education issues and is funded, in part, by the Commonwealth Children’s Fund.