Why it matters.

Home care workers – who do hard, essential, compassionate work for millions of Americans – are leaders in the Fight for $15, demanding higher wages, benefits like paid sick leave, and a better care system for our clients.

The demand for home care is exploding but the system doesn’t work for anyone. Families can’t afford to get the care they need and workers can’t afford to provide it.

Home care jobs are among the fastest growing jobs in the country, but they’re also among the lowest paid. The median annual wage for home care workers is just $13,000 a year. The first step to strengthening and improving home care in this country is raising wages for home care workers.

SEIU’s brave members are joining with nonunion home care workers in the fight for $15 - a fight for independence, dignity, and justice for our families and communities.

Everyone should have access to the services they need so they can live in their own homes with dignity and independence. And no one should be paid poverty wages and denied decent benefits to do this important work.

Learn more at fightfor15homecare.org

Follow us on Twitter @FF15HomeCare

What do home care workers do?

Home care workers provide daily, in-home support services like bathing, toileting, dressing, and preparing meals, for older Americans and people with disabilities.

Our country’s 2 million home care workers work hard to care for seniors and people with disabilities, but too often, do not earn enough to provide basic needs like food, clothing and rent for themselves and their families. And that doesn’t include many more home care workers who work in the informal economy and aren’t captured by government statistics.

Care Crisis: the senior care gap

America is facing a care crisis. More than 10 million people depend on long term care supports and services and tens of millions more will need care in the coming years. The number of Americans over 65 will more than double – to 89 million – by 2050, while the population over 85 will more than triple. The demand for home care services is exploding, but the long term care system in America doesn’t work for anyone. Families can’t afford the care they need and workers in this field are so underpaid they can’t provide for their own families.

In every state across the country, there is a senior care gap: there are more seniors in need of daily care than there are available home care workers.

Everyone should have access to the services they need so they can live in their own homes with dignity and independence. And no one should be paid poverty wages and denied basic benefits like health care coverage or sick days to do this essential work.

Our vision: higher wages

A critical step to strengthening and improving America’s long term care system is raising wages for home care workers to at least $15/hour.

All home care workers should earn a minimum wage of at least $15 per hour and have the right to form a union. To create a stable, professional home care workforce, home care providers must have a voice on the job to advocate for higher quality and standards, including benefits like paid time off, and access to a career ladder that ties training to increased responsibilities and higher wages.

Home care jobs are among the fastest growing jobs in the country, but they’re also among the lowest paid, with a median annual income of just $13,000. Nearly 50 percent of home care workers live in households that receive public assistance benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps, and housing or heating assistance.

Women of color bear the brunt of low wages in home care. The home care workforce is 89 percent women, 29 percent African American, and 18 percent Latino. Raising wages would give these women a more secure financial future and the chance to get ahead, not just scrape by.

Our vision: affordable, accessible, quality care

Our long term care system must be restructured to ensure affordability, availability, and quality for all consumers.

Affordability: Older Americans and their families should be able to afford the care they need in the setting they choose. Our current system – under which Medicare will cover major surgery, but daily support to keep you from another trip to the hospital is unaffordable – is deeply flawed. We must restructure our system to make long term care affordable for all Americans.

Availability: Those who need care should be able to find a qualified, professional home care worker. Finding reliable, quality care should be a consistent, easy process throughout every city and state.

Quality: In order to ensure home care services are of the highest quality, we need national competency and training standards for home care workers, along with structured career ladders and continuing education programs.

Our vision: invest in home care

It’s common sense to invest in home care.

Home care services save states hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Investing our public dollars in expanding and strengthening a system that allows seniors to live at home with dignity and independence -- rather than in nursing homes -- is not only what people want, It makes the most financial sense. In addition, public dollars that finance care services should go to workers’ wages, not agency profits or CEO bonuses.

It is time to have a national conversation about the best way to invest taxpayer dollars in high quality care for older Americans and people with disabilities. 10,000 people turn 65 every day and 90 percent of aging Americans want to stay in their own homes; home care plays a crucial role in our nation’s economic future.

The federal government must support in-home, long term care services to all who want and need them. Medicaid dollars, rather than prioritizing institutionalization, must be put to work keeping aging Americans, who want to live at home, independent.

Women and home care

Home care jobs are among the fastest growing jobs in the country, but they’re also among the lowest paid. The median annual wage for home care workers is just $13,000 a year.

They pay so little that they relegate workers—especially women workers—to living in poverty, fueling inequality.

Black and Latina women bear the brunt of home care’s low wages. The home care workforce is 89% women, 28% African American, and 18% Latino. Raising wages in home care means raising 1.7 million women out of poverty.

Home care plays a crucial role in the nation’s economic future. It is far from the only low-paying sector of the American economy, but its role is significant because it is one of the top employers of women and because it is projected to continue growing.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If home care workers earned $15 and had the protection of a union, women would be able to work their way out of poverty.

That’s why home care workers are joining the growing movement for $15 an hour and a union. It’s a wage that will allow them to cover their basic needs and help lift our entire economy.

#Take15for15

Home care workers are a powerful voice in the Fight for $15 and we aren’t afraid to take to the streets to make our voices heard. But, day-to-day, we work alone with our clients. We don’t see coworkers, we don’t go to a shared workplace, and – when it comes to taking action – we can’t walk out on our clients.

#Take15for15 is about taking 15 minutes out of your day to #FightFor15 and raise awareness of our movement to win higher wages and union rights. It’s about home care workers standing up, where we are, with our clients or families, and making our voices heard.

#Take15for15 is one- or two-person protests for 15 minutes. We capture our action with a photo and post it online to share with other home care workers and the world.