Lauren Melodia on the True Cost of Care and New York City’s Economy

On this week’s episode of The NYC Workforce Drop, Greg sits down with Lauren Melodia, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School, for a conversation about child care, affordability, economic justice, and building an economy that works for working New Yorkers.

July 16, 2026

Listen on:

At the center of the conversation is New York City’s child care system and the workers holding it together. Lauren and Greg examine the realities facing home-based providers, many of whom are immigrant women and women of color earning far below a living wage. They discuss the need for wage subsidies, stabilization funding, rental assistance, and contracts that cover the true cost of care.

Along the way, they talk universal programs, targeted investment, housing affordability, the Rent Guidelines Board, racial unemployment disparities, immigrant labor-force participation, the Knicks, and the challenge of turning bold policy commitments into systems that work.