Last Thursday, a federal court considered a challenge to the U.S. Department of Labor’s important decision to extend minimum wage and overtime protections to the nation’s home-care workforce. As a member of the Colorado legislature and a home-care worker, we strongly believe our state shouldn’t use this lawsuit as an excuse to delay extending the same basic protections that most of us take for granted.
Home-care workers help older Coloradans and those with disabilities live and age in their homes, surrounded by those they love. The work is both challenging and critical, including everything from helping clients shower and dress to helping them keep track of medications to taking them to doctors’ appointments.
Without these workers and the support they provide, many seniors would need to move into nursing homes. Remaining at home with the assistance of home care is dramatically better for one’s health and quality of life. Not only do the vast majority of seniors want to stay in their homes as they age, but home- care services cost the state substantially less than nursing homes.
We know the value of being able to stay in one’s home and live a full and independent life. Rep. Jessie Danielson’s grandparents continue to live in the home they bought in Wheat Ridge nearly 60 years ago. Many people who are older or have disabilities depend on care workers to achieve that kind of independence.
Marilyn Sorenson is one such worker. She’s spent more than 20 years as a care worker, working in hospitals, hospice, nursing homes and in-home direct care. In order to ensure we are getting high quality workers like Sorenson to trust with the care of those we love the most, home-care workers must be trained and paid in a way that attracts dependable, compassionate and capable professionals. Currently, that is not the case.
Though Sorenson has worked with many other passionate and committed care workers over the years, she’s also seen seniors suffer from a lack of quality care. She knows first-hand that poverty wages and long hours are driving qualified and dedicated workers from the profession.
Though these stories are personal, most of us have family members or friends who rely on home health-care workers. In Colorado, personal-care aides like Sorenson on average earn less than $10 an hour. The reality is most can’t make ends meet without relying on public assistance like food stamps and Medicaid for their health care.
With Colorado’s senior population expected to grow by 600,000 in the next 25 years, we cannot afford to wait until it’s too late. Ensuring that home-care jobs are quality positions will be critical in the coming years with the rapid aging of our population. We need to act now so that we are doing right by Colorado seniors.
As the state’s population ages, we know that home-care work will only become a more critical issue for all Coloradans, regardless of where we live, how we vote, or how much money we have. We all want to age with dignity in the places and with the people we love, and at some point most of us will need the assistance of a care worker to do so.
Home-care work is necessary. It deserves more attention, more training, more opportunity at a career, more pay, and fair overtime compensation. This will not happen overnight, but the state must begin planning now so we are fully prepared to implement the new rule once it goes into effect, ensuring the rule doesn’t cut into the services already being provided. For now, senior citizens and those who care for them deserve a conversation about how Colorado is going to support them. Let’s start talking.
Rep. Jessie Danielson is a member of the Colorado House, representing District 24 in Jefferson County. Marilyn Sorenson is a home-care worker.
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