Summary
Founded in 2012, Golden Steps is a Brooklyn-based worker cooperative of immigrant women of color, all of whom have roots in Central and South America. Providing services to those who do not qualify for Medicare or need more than what Medicare will pay for, Golden Steps operates in a part of the market where home care workers are hired directly by private-pay clients and their families. Workers in this arena continue to labor under racialized legal exclusions dating back to the New Deal Era and face numerous other challenges to building power and voice. In this context, worker co-ops like Golden Steps provide one of the few available vehicles for organizing collectively on a formal basis and building a shared support structure.