We know the current challenge of finding home care workers across New York State. For years, the home care industry has been suffering from staffing shortages of direct care workers. Help us BE LOUD in the fight to raise rates for NURSES, and the DIRECT CARE WORKFORCE (NURSING ASSISTANTS OR NURSING AIDS, HOME HEALTH AIDS, AND PERSONAL CARE AIDS) in New York.

But Covid-19 has only escalated the problem. 

The pandemic exposed long-standing problems of the nursing home industry, as family members were locked out for months, and resident care deteriorated. Although placement in institutionalized settings has been slowly declining, the pandemic surged the decline, and the number of people seeking home care greatly rose.    

Nurses and the direct care workforce play a vital role in home care with keeping the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with chronic conditions safe, healthy, and in the community- out of institutionalized settings. Thats why it’s ever so important that we protect this workforce.

However nurses and direct care workers in New York continue to battle for adequate compensation, and support. This workforce deserve competitive wages and benefits- as they can make much more in other jobs, that are usually less emotionally and physically demanding. According to the New York Times, The New Old Age, “In 2018, the nation’s estimated 2.8 million home care aides, most of them women of color and about one-third immigrants, earned a median $12 an hour and $17,200 annually. Very few received benefits; more than half relied on food stamps, Medicaid or other public assistance” (Span, 2).

It is clear that the need for nurses and direct care workers in home care has never been greater. Because without direct care workers, individuals are forced into congregate and institutionalized settings.

We truly believe that the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with chronic conditions should have a choice to remain in the community.

JOIN OUR MOVEMENT in fighting for higher home care wages for nurses and direct care workers in New York.