Home Care workers and clients call Demand that the State stop Pying Poverty Wages

Baltimore, MD…Home Care providers for Maryland’s elderly and disabled will make their case for living wages from the state. Before a meeting of the Medicaid Advisory Committee of the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene, workers and their clients will rally in front of the State Office Building at 201 Preston St. in Baltimore. We will also confront the state with a direct action march.

Some 5,000 Marylanders are served by personal home care providers. The work of these providers allows people who otherwise would be placed in nursing homes or institutions to remain in their homes. This permits the clients to retain greater dignity and independence in their lives. (provider and client quote on relationship)
The providers also save the state’s Medicaid program tens of millions of dollars each year. The personal care providers however, have been exploited by the state. Most of the providers have not had a raise in 16 years, and depending on their work arrangements, many do not make the federal minimum hourly wage. Working for a health care agency, they themselves do not have health care coverage.
Home care workers have been coming together this past year to improve their conditions. The Department of Mental Health and Hygiene is now formulating its next annual budget. Organized with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Maryland Quality Home Care Campaign, the care providers are urging DMHH to provide some long overdue justice and include a raise in the budget. The workers will also be attending today’s Medicaid Advisory Committee meeting, seeking their support for the raise.