SURVEY: NYC Home Care Worker Wages Must Be Improved
A survey of 1,200 New York City home care workers and consumers showed overwhelming support for raising workers’ wages.
Additionally, a majority of both agency-based home care workers (62 percent) and domestic workers employed as eldercare providers (94 percent) reported that they lived in households earning less than $25,000 a year, the report showed.
The survey, published by Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN) and the New York Caring Across Generations, was introduced August 6 at an event called “Caring Across New York City.” Sponsored by the New York Care Council, the event was held at the Murphy Institute for Worker Education in Manhattan.
Nine out of ten home care workers who participated in the survey said that raising wages was a top priority for them.
Consumers also showed wide support for increasing home care workers’ wages. Of consumers getting services and supports, 87 percent cited it as a top priority.
Other top priorities for workers included health care benefits (67 percent) and better training (62 percent).
PHI New York Policy Director Carol Rodat, who was a panelist at the NYC event, explained why consumers should care about improving home care worker training.
“The quality of home care training that workers receive and the quality of care people receive are inexorably linked,” Rodat said. “The voices of both the caregiver and the care receiver are found in the survey results and guide us towards the policies and practices we need to ensure that both are treated with dignity and respect, and that both receive the care and support they deserve.”
PHI was among the organizations that contributed to the “Care Connections Survey Project.”
— by Matthew Ozga
