PHI is preparing America to care for its growing long-term care population.
PHI’s recently released Chart Book on State Wages (pdf) reveals that real wages for personal and home care aides fell by 4% between 2000 to 2006.
This is disheartening news to many workers who are suffering through some of the highest gas prices in history. Workers who log high miles while tending to their clients are seeing their low wages pushed down even further.
Fahntah Staples, a personal care assistant in Philadelphia, assists seven clients a day. Though her hourly wage is close to $12/hour; her real wage, after filling her tank, is only $7/hour.
“This is happening at a time when demand for these workers is greater than ever before. It is the second fastest growing occupation in the nation,” says Dr. Dorie Seavey, Director of Policy Research at PHI.
While demand grows and job quality suffers, many are wondering whether America is prepared to care for its elders and people with disabilities.
Resources:
PHI’s Expert Interview Series
PHI Expert Interview: Marcia Mayfield
Gathering the Evidence that Makes Progress Possible
This is the third in a series of PHI Expert Interviews, which bring you insights from four senior PHI staff. They’re an impressive group - among the nation’s leading experts on long-term care’s direct-care workforce - and collectively they’ve spent decades studying the challenges facing the workforce and how to […]
PHI EXPERT INTERVIEW: Peggy Powell
Tapping the Power of Peer Mentoring
This is the second in a series of PHI Expert Interviews, which bring you insights from four senior PHI staff. They’re an impressive group - among the nation’s leading experts on long-term care’s direct-care workforce - and collectively they’ve spent decades studying the challenges facing the workforce and how to […]
PHI EXPERT INTERVIEW: Sue Misiorski
Over the next month, the PHI Expert Interview series will bring you insights from four senior PHI staff. They’re an impressive group - among the nation’s leading experts on long-term care’s direct-care workforce - and collectively they’ve spent decades studying the challenges facing the workforce and how to address them. We think you’ll be interested […]
Amy Hewitt: Direct Support Work is a Highly Skilled Job
“If I had only one sentence, this would be it: Direct support work is a highly skilled job,” says Amy Hewitt.
“It’s not viewed that way by society - or, frankly, by many employers - but not everybody can do this job. You have to be smart; you have to be able to problem solve; you […]
Joanne Rader: “It’s the Direct-Care Worker, Stupid”
“My passion for working with people with dementia, for making life better for them, has been my major motivating factor. But over time, I keep saying to myself: ‘It’s the direct-care worker, stupid,’” says Joanne Rader. “The only way to make the lives of people with dementia better is to improve the working lives of […]
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