After rejecting a Proposed Settlement from a Mediator in July that called for a wage increase for County IHSS providers that have never received a wage increase above the state’s minimum wage or any type of health benefits, the Humboldt Board of Supervisors have reached a new low. Yesterday, the Humboldt Board of Supervisors rejected a recommendation from the recently completed Fact Finding Report from Impartial Fact Finding Chairperson and San Francisco attorney Robert Hirsch. The recommendation ruled in favor of CUHW, calling for an increase in County provider wages, from their current hourly rate of $8/hr. to $8.75/hr. and $9.50/hr. in the following year, as well as a contribution to health care benefits for County IHSS providers. Hirsch referred to his ruling as, “A fair and equitable proposal,” stating that, “The County clearly has the ability to pay the modest sought (as it has acknowledged) and has even budgeted sufficient funds to cover most, if not all, the costs.”
Below is a response to the Humboldt Supes rejection of the Fact Finder’s recommendation from University of Connecticut Economics Professor Candace Howes:
I am shocked that the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors would persist in their decision to not increase wages for the county’s 1450 IHSS workers, even in the face of the findings of the impartial chairperson for the Factfinding Panel. The county’s response is cynical and factually incorrect when it argues that “unfortunately, the fact-finder misunderstood a few important concepts. Most critically, the fact-finder incorrectly believed that the County’s 2012-2013 budget predicts financing to increase IHSS worker compensation.” In my reading of the factfinder’s report, he understood the financing perfectly well. He was arguing that the county had, in fact, put forward a budget which would have more than covered the wage cost of the increase, given what the IHSS program actually costs. The factfinder was, in fact, so impartial and careful that he did not report that the county was about to receive a refund from the State as part of a new program under the Affordable Care Act which is intended to help States fund more high quality home care programs. That refund would fully cover the cost of the wage increase without the county having to touch any current General Fund monies.
IHSS workers in Humboldt County are paid less than workers doing the same job in almost every other county in the state. Their wage has not increased in 4 years during which period the purchasing power of their wages (adjusted for inflation) has declined by 6 percent. IHSS workers have no health insurance through their job; they continue to pay for the gas they use to transport their care recipients and to get to their job, even as the average price of gas has risen by 25 percent in four years.
It is too bad the Board of Supervisors didn’t attend the Factfinding Panel for they would have come away with a much better understanding of the value of the program and how little it really costs the county. They would also have gotten a better appreciation of how much it depends on extraordinary sacrifices by the IHSS workers.
Read the full Fact Finding Report here: http://co.humboldt.ca.us/publicinfo/docs/2012-09-25_h12-079-factfinding–cuhw-humboldt.pdf
IHSS Care Supporters and Providers: Pay Rate: Minimum wage
Duties and conditions; the same or very comparable to much higher paid professions:
1. Unstable working environment: Constantly changing health condition, living skills capabilities and environment compatibility of Consumers being cared for present many complex challenges.
2. Always on call: Care support is often urgently needed when a Consumer has an acute illness, injury or medical complication. Health crises occur unscheduled and are not convenient. Care Providers usually develop a supportive partnership with their Consumers that require the care Provider to respond when the Consumer experiences a health crisis. A health crisis is a dire urgent need for care support to help prevent an escalation of the crisis or deterioration of the Consumer to a more serious and dangerous situation. This is not required by job description but if care Providers do not support their Consumers within their authorized scope during a health crisis the Consumer may not be around for the next routinely scheduled care event.
3. Working in unrestrained out of control hazardous environments: Most Consumers have diminished and compromised immunity due to advanced age, disability or disease and are ubiquitous with common contagions of fungus, viruses, and bacterial infections. All Consumers suffer some sort of afflictions and poverty to qualify for in homecare services. The lack of knowledge or ability for Consumers to maintain proper sanitization and to preform effective decontamination complicates care Providers exposure and spreads germs and disease widely throughout the working environment.
4. Personal protection equipment not provided: Care Provider duties include cleaning contaminated surfaces then handle food and possibly medications. Mask and gloves for safe handling, prevent cross contamination and spreading of germs and disease. The proper equipment is cost prohibited for the minimum wage care Provider and is not otherwise supplied. Hand washing often compromised for lack of soap, sanitizer and paper towels.
5. Unstable work schedule: Short or no notice of work hour changes by Consumer.
6. Management Role: Severely limited time task allotment to cover Consumer required needs. Needs and authorized time task always a perplexing problematical juggling of priorities.
7. Behavior Management: Consumer’s diminished capacities to plan, record, track, remember and to always act rational more often than not is a very challenging task not accounted for or appreciated.
Overarching Goals:
To attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death.
Advocate for health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of IHSS Consumer’s.
Support social and physical activities that promote good health.
Encourage quality lifestyle, nutrition and healthy habits.
Sincerely, Siskiyou County IHSS Providers.
P.S. Care Providers are dedicated, courageous, skilled, sophisticated managers, respectful and loving. A minimum wage environment or profession it is not.