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Care workers press legislature for $25 enhanced minimum wage to ease staffing crisis
Summary
SEIU, 1199, AFL-CIO and care workers testified to the Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing in support of S.877, urging a legislated enhanced care-worker minimum wage (proposed around $24.25–$25) indexed to inflation to recruit and retain direct care workers across home care, mental health, DDS and group-home settings.
Speakers from labor unions, care agencies and direct care workers testified before the Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing in support of S.877, an "enhanced care worker minimum wage" bill that would set a floor for pay in home- and community-based services and certain human-service contracts.
Why it matters: Testimony described widespread staffing shortages across the direct care continuum—home care, group homes, community mental health and crisis response—that advocates linked directly to wages and working conditions. Witnesses argued that improved pay is necessary to retain staff and prevent service interruptions for vulnerable clients.
Union leaders and members described the urgency. Dan Hoffer, political…
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