The Missouri Home Care Union has reached an agreement with the Missouri Quality Home Care Council to raise the hourly wages for the home care attendants it represents.
Completed on Oct. 17, the bargaining process took 11 months and will raise most of the approximately 8,000 home care attendants' hourly wage to $10.15, according to a release from the union. The average pay for attendants is $8 per hour. With the new agreement, consumers will be able to choose what their attendants can earn.
"We reached an agreement on wages - obviously not the full amount we hoped to get, but an important step forward for home care attendants and consumers," said Jeff Mazur, co-chair of the Missouri Home Care Union. "We think in future agreements everyone will think the wage needs to go up further, and this is the first agreement of its kind in the state. We hope the implementation of the agreement goes smoothly, and we want to make sure people's wages go up as a result, so the fight continues."
The vendors, centers and private companies that pay the attendants' wages receive $15.56 per hour that the attendants work through a Medicaid program, according to a report from the union. Mazur said the remaining funds not paid to attendants presumably are used to administer and advocate for the program. With the new agreement, the attendants will be able to receive more of the Medicaid funds for their work.
"We are not glorified maids; we do so much more," said Elizabeth Travis, home care attendant and union member. "It is very exciting. We are pretty impressed with what the state came back with. The wage raise was a really good idea. Honestly, I think we deserve more, but it is a start."
A wife and mother of two, Travis cares for multiple consumers. She got into this work after providing care to a disabled family member. During the bargaining period, she provided the only income for her family, which earned below the federal poverty line. If her base pay was raised to the originally requested $11 an hour, her family would still fall below the line, she said. Before the agreement, she said, the attendants' wages had been frozen since 2000.
"It has been a long year and everybody worked so hard, and I think this will improve the circumstance of our consumers," Travis said. "This contract is stabilizing the profession and standardizing some important aspects of health care, such as consumer rights, grievance procedures and access to information."
The grievance process will provide means for consumers and attendants to address mistakes within the system, such as missing payments and scheduling conflicts. The access to information she mentioned will allow the union to draft a comprehensive list of attendants, complete with certifications and skills so consumers can find home care workers who can assist with any special needs. The stabilization will come from decreased turnover because attendants can earn more money, Travis said.
"It is important work, and that is why we reached an agreement It is also important to remember that we are starting from a place where the average home care worker is making $8.60 an hour," Mazur said. "The program is not sustainable if attendants are only making $8.60 an hour. We hope the wage grows beyond what we set here, and we hope that moving the wage beyond $10.15 an hour will make it more sustainable in the future."
Travis said she believes home care will grow as an industry as Missouri continues to diversify its health care industry. This is because home care gives the elderly and the disabled another option besides being placed in a treatment facility or nursing home.
During the negotiations, the union called workers to send letters to the governor's office, requesting that he endorse the raise. Also, partner groups such as Missouri Jobs with Justice and Caring Across Generations helped by generating more than 1,500 phone calls from senior citizens supporting their attendants and brought more than 200 home care workers to St. Louis to stand in support of a fair wage, respectively, according to the union's release.