Changes from plenary report to adopted text

R. whereas the double burden of care and work severely limit carers’ time for leisure and self-care, which places unpaid carers at much greater risk of (parental) burnout; whereas increased access to reproductive healthcare services and abortion services may help parents with their family planning and reduce stress resulting from unexpected pregnancies;

S. whereas the Work-Life Balance Directive has not been fully implemented in several Member States; whereas its provision on carers’ right to leave of five working days per year is insufficient to provide adequate care or to organise formal care and is not covered by the same safeguards regarding remuneration and income support as other types of family leave;

T. whereas the announcement that the Commission will assess the implementation of the Work-Life Balance Directive by 2028 is welcome;

U. whereas access to affordable, good-quality formal care services is key in ensuring that caregiving is a genuine choice, in supporting caregivers and in reducing care intensity and alleviating the burden on carers, stressing that such services can help increase women’s participation in the labour market, lead to improved gender equality and workforce diversity, promote economic independence and reduce social protection dependency, resulting in a more sustainable economic growth;

V. whereas according to Eurofound data, care workers are at higher risk of developing mental health problems because of the high emotional demands of the job and exposure to adverse social behaviour at work;

W. whereas this data also shows that social isolation is one of the most significant challenges faced by informal caregivers, with those with intensive or multiple caregiving responsibilities facing higher risks of poverty, social exclusion, loneliness and mental and physical health issues; whereas informal care responsibilities may also hinder carers’ access to healthcare services;

X. whereas caregiving for a family member with a debilitating disease such as cancer or memory disorders, among other illnesses, places disproportionate physical and psychological burdens on informal carers, which are often intensified during the patient’s end-of-life stage;

Y. whereas the care sector remains under-recognised, undervalued and underfunded in the EU and its Member States, leading to persistent staff shortages, despite the sector holding the estimated potential to create 8 million additional jobs; whereas public investment in care services contributes positively to gender equality and to closing employment gaps; whereas social economy actors contribute to improving working conditions in the care sector thanks to the participatory governance models that characterise them;

Z. whereas the care sector encounters difficulties in attracting young workers;

AA. whereas insufficient investment in care services disproportionately affects women and girls, who shoulder the majority of unpaid care responsibilities; whereas establishing quality standards for care services would directly improve women’s economic independence and equal opportunities for girls in education and employment, and ensure that care standards are used as a gender equality tool for women and girls;

AB. whereas women from non-EU countries constitute a significant proportion of this workforce and often face unfair working conditions;

AC. whereas many care and domestic workers in Europe are migrant women, who face a highly precarious situation and experience intersectional discrimination owing to their nationality, race or ethnicity, gender and socio-economic and residence status; whereas these migrants are making up for the lack of public and affordable care in the EU and they are not being treated equally in terms of their social rights and access to decent working conditions;

AD. whereas the successful implementation of the European care strategy requires monitoring, transparency and synergies between EU and national funding, research and policies, in consultation with the relevant representative organisations of formal and informal carers;

AE. whereas the provision of quality care depends on the existence of a sufficiently large and well-trained care workforce with decent working conditions and income; whereas investment in high-quality vocational education, training and upskilling opportunities for care workers, together with adequate skills recognition, is essential to professionalise this sector;

AF. whereas the establishment of a European Care Deal, minimum wages and access to high-quality, free public services would contribute to reducing poverty and closing the care gap, as well as the gender pay gap and the pension gap;

AG. whereas disaggregated data and quality indicators could improve the monitoring of care; whereas ‘hidden caring’ means that many informal carers are not identified via surveys, and data on young carers (aged under 18) is particularly scarce; whereas it is estimated that nearly a quarter of 15 to 17-year-olds in the EU provide unpaid childcare, and that 8 to 24 % are engaged in long-term care; whereas women and girls are over-represented among young carers;

AH. whereas the 2026-2030 gender equality strategy, published on 5 March 2026, mentions that the European care strategy will be developed into the European Care Deal to be delivered in 2027;

Care in numbers

2. Stresses that formal care work is often unrecognised, characterised by precarious working conditions, and physical and emotional strain, with wages 21 % below the average in long-term care and other social services, with women earning on average 20 % less than men; underlines that around 60 % of informal care work is carried out by women; notes that an estimated 32 million women provide informal care every week and perform an average of 17 hours of unpaid work per week;

3. Observes that the economic value of informal domestic and care work represents 10 % to 39 % of GDP worldwide;

4. Notes that the unequal division of informal care work reflects an unequal division of paid work; notes that in the EU, 44 % of women are in full-time employment, compared to 58 % of men;

5. Stresses that this unequal distribution of caregiving responsibilities between men and women – the gender care gap – has consequences for the gender pay and pension gaps; highlights, in that context, that the gender pay gap in the EU was estimated at 38 % in 2024; observes that the gender pension gap among persons aged 65 and over in the EU was 25 % in 2025;

6. Highlights that women represent 76 % of the 49 million formal care workers in the EU, accounting for 93 % of childcare workers and teaching assistants, 86 % of personal care workers in health services and households, and 95 % of domestic workers;

8. Notes that Eurofound findings show that when it comes to long-term care, for both women and men, there is a noticeable shift towards higher care intensity over time, with a growing proportion of unpaid carers reporting more than 20 hours of care per week in 2024 compared to 2014; notes that this trend is particularly evident in the highest care intensity category (51+ hours per week), which shows a marked increase for both genders; underlines that women consistently report higher levels of care intensity compared to men across all time periods, reflecting their disproportionate involvement in unpaid caregiving;

9. Notes that inadequate care systems are among the main barriers to closing gender gaps in labour markets worldwide; emphasises the need to address working conditions to make full-time employment compatible with care responsibilities, through flexible working time models or other types of work organisation, as well as the availability and accessibility of quality care services, and to favour a work climate that promotes paternity leave, fostering an equal distribution of care tasks between couples; stresses the role of employers, among others, in this regard;

10. Stresses the need to close the gender employment gap by addressing employment discrimination and building family-friendly workplaces, to implement strategies that enhance flexible working arrangements and other measures, and to reduce barriers for fathers to take parental, paternity or carers’ leave, while actively encouraging a culture of equal representation of women; stresses that this needs to be accompanied by the social and cultural destigmatisation of formal care, especially childcare;

11. Emphasises that to close the gender care gap, cultural barriers and traditional gender roles need to be addressed in different areas of life simultaneously;

Towards a care society

14. Considers that a care society recognises the vital role of care, encompassing both formal and informal care, throughout every stage of life, and integrates it into its policies, addressing all types of care provided predominantly by women, including early childhood education and care and long-term care;

15. Highlights that access to care is a fundamental right; stresses that investing in high-quality care services is essential to ensuring equal access; highlights that the persistence of barriers to accessing care is intrinsically linked to insufficient investment in long-term care; notes that women and girls in rural, remote and outermost regions, including islands, face higher risks of care poverty and a lack of access to services; calls for tailored measures, such as mobile childcare and eldercare services, digital solutions and incentives for care professionals to remain in or return to these areas;

16. Considers that care responsibilities should not fall disproportionately on women and that the Member States should promote the equal participation of men and women in childcare, eldercare, long-term care and care for family members with disabilities, as well as all other informal care responsibilities;

17. Supports gender equality in care responsibilities by promoting an equal sharing of care duties, ensuring access to high-quality, affordable and accessible care services, providing parental leave and equal pay, offering flexible work arrangements and guaranteeing fair working conditions with workplace support, recruitment systems and measures to support home care work;

18. Calls for awareness-raising campaigns targeting men, encouraging men to take up an equal share of caregiving responsibilities, thereby enabling stronger female labour force participation, taking into account the impact of social media, strengthening the fight against gender stereotypes, together with educational initiatives and other measures, such as promoting workplace cultures that value and support this care parity; calls for the launch of EU-wide awareness campaigns that revalue care work and challenge traditional gender stereotypes;

19. Stresses, therefore, the need for childcare that meets parent’s care needs during holidays and working hours; highlights the importance of developing affordable, accessible and quality early childhood education and care to facilitate parents’ return to work, especially women; stresses that the childcare gap – when families have used their childcare leave but do not yet have full access to childcare – remains one of the most pressing challenges for parents across Europe; notes that families are left to navigate the complexities of childcare without adequate support, often facing difficult decisions about work, finances and caregiving responsibilities;

20. Recognises the importance and the social value of intergenerational care contributions, such as those provided by grandparents who regularly care for their grandchildren, enabling parents, particularly mothers, to engage in full-time employment;

21. Stresses the importance of the proper implementation of effective measures and policies, including the Work-Life Balance Directive, to ensure genuine work-life balance; calls on the Commission to carefully monitor the implementation of this directive and highlights the need to close the gender pay and pension gaps by enforcing existing legal frameworks and ensuring their effectiveness;

22. Calls on the Member States to go beyond the minimum of five days of carers’ leave per year provided for in the Work-Life Balance Directive and to ensure that such leave is adequately paid in order to make it realistically accessible to all carers;

23. Underlines that targeted measures to facilitate flexible and family-friendly working arrangements, including teleworking, flexible working hours, carers’ leave and part-time options, are crucial to allow women and men to better reconcile their professional and private lives, as well as incentives and specific measures in parental leave policies; underlines the importance of a fair distribution of parental leave between parents and its impact in fostering a gender-equal society;

24. Emphasises that care workers provide vital support; highlights that all support targeted at carers must recognise their rights as carers and ensure psychological support, respite services, healthcare services and flexible work arrangements (leave, working hours, teleworking), without losing pay or entitlements to balance caring responsibilities and employment; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote trauma-informed and mental-health-friendly approaches in care provision, recognising the psychosocial risks for both workers and recipients; highlights that these measures need to be accompanied by fair wages and social protection for care workers in order to guarantee quality employment and tailored support for carers whose careers have been disrupted by healthcare duties so as to facilitate their reintegration, financial independence and well-being;

25. Considers it important that all these measures aim to provide support to families and carers, promote women’s employment and eliminate the gender care gap, together with the measures provided under the European care strategy; stresses that special recognition should be given to parents of children with disabilities, who face compounded barriers to labour market participation and financial independence as a result of their long-term care responsibilities; underlines that the same goes for carers of relatives with disabilities and chronic illnesses; highlights that caregiving for a relative with a long-term illness can be a prolonged, intensive and emotionally difficult experience, placing significant strain on informal carers; emphasises the need, in such cases, for support by healthcare professionals; notes the importance of developing policies that simultaneously strengthen the care sector, ensure access to high-quality community-based care services and promote equal pay for the (re)integration of informal carers, particularly women, into the labour market;

26. Considers that particular attention should be paid to the care sector in the context of the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework; highlights that ensuring sufficient funding in this area is necessary to support the implementation of the European care strategy and the European Pillar of Social Rights;

27. Highlights that a care society integrates various care models, such as those by public or private providers, self-employed caregivers, or caregivers directly employed by households, and promotes the deinstitutionalisation of care through home or community-based services; emphasises the community-based and intergenerational approaches to care that promote solidarity, reduce social isolation and foster resilience in families and neighbourhoods; highlights also the importance of maintaining the right to choose the care model, in order to preserve the dignity of both carers and persons in need of care, as well as their autonomy, independence, well-being and inclusion in the community, taking into account the needs and aspirations of care recipients and ensuring protection against gender-based violence in care settings and including adequate and personalised support for informal carers; recognises that the formal long-term care sector still relies mainly on residential care, while home and community-based care better support the right of persons in need of care to live independently; notes the urgent need to prioritise a person-centred and rights-based approach that enables people to receive care at home and participate fully in society;

28. Emphasises that targeted skilling, upskilling and reskilling programmes and support for (re)integration into the labour market without any form of discrimination against women who have experienced career interruptions because of their caregiving and household responsibilities are essential to support their continuous professional development and equal opportunities in the labour market; stresses, furthermore, that these women possess valuable transferable skills for further employment or entrepreneurship in the sector; calls for specific programmes and support to recognise these skills through training, certification schemes or business creation support, thereby facilitating their ‘reintegration’ into the labour market as individuals with valuable lived experiences, such as entrepreneurs and job creators; highlights the need for this training to be accessible, adequately funded and linked to quality employment opportunities;

Care at the heart of the economy

29. Considers that the care economy encompasses care work delivered through the public and private sectors, including small and medium-sized enterprises, civil society and any other type of organisation, the social and solidarity economy, and households, including care providers and recipients, as well as employers and institutions offering care services; stresses that the care economy must be recognised as a public good and a pillar of upward social convergence, supported through stable investment and quality job creation;

30. Emphasises the need to strengthen long-term care services, particularly home and community-based care, and the development of automated digital health monitoring technology;

31. Recognises that women entrepreneurs in the care sector face systemic barriers in accessing credit and investment; calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop dedicated support programmes for female entrepreneurship in the care sector, including specific guarantee funds, women-focused mentoring schemes and preferential criteria in the EU; calls for proposals for women-led enterprises innovating in the care economy;

32. Stresses that a care economy recognises care work as being vital to Europe’s resilience, contributing 11 % to the EU’s GDP and employing over 6 million people, the majority of whom are women, with the potential to create 8 million new jobs, and recognises the invaluable economic contribution made by informal carers; notes that the economic cost of the gender care gap could reach an estimated EUR 147-220 billion a year, while, simultaneously, research demonstrates that investment in the formal care sector could generate positive economic returns – at least EUR 4 for every EUR 1 invested in childcare or long-term care;

33. Emphasises the potential for employment and economic growth presented by the professional care sector and highlights that investment in care frees up informal carers to be more integrated into the labour market;

34. Encourages the Member States to develop local and regional care strategies, and targeted measures for quality and sustainable jobs in rural and remote areas, and outermost regions, thereby strengthening territorial cohesion and reducing labour market inequalities; considers that, for these areas in particular, EU funding instruments could be mobilised to support the creation of new, quality jobs in the care sector, thus addressing the phenomenon of depopulation in certain areas and labour shortages; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen their support for non-profit social economy enterprises and organisations; encourages the Member States to facilitate access to funding and enhance the visibility of social economy actors, as highlighted in the 2021 social economy action plan;

35. Highlights the importance of social economy enterprises and cooperatives in providing care services in areas and for populations that are underserved by the traditional public or private providers, especially when profit motives are low;