Minnesota home care workers reach tentative deal with state with improved wages, benefits

Minnesota home care workers have reached a tentative union contract with the state that would increase wages and benefits, including taking initial steps toward the creation of a retirement contribution program for Minnesota’s most in-demand profession.

SEIU Healthcare, which represents about 35,000 Minnesota home care workers, announced on Saturday it had reached a deal with the state of Minnesota after more than 19 hours of bargaining on their final day of negotiations. The union lauded the agreement which includes some pay rate bumps and improved benefits for workers who care for seniors and people with disabilities living in their homes.

“For so many of us doing this work isn’t a choice, and we shouldn’t have to struggle to survive because we do care work,” Rachel Bendickson, a union home care worker from Mankato said in Saturday’s release. “I shouldn’t have to choose between decent pay and benefits or making sure my son has the care he needs.”

The union and Gov. Tim Walz’s administration needed to reach a contract agreement this month before the governor proposed his budget. The deal is subject to ratification votes by workers and the Legislature.

The deal provides steps toward the establishment of a defined-contribution retirement program, a rarity for personal care assistants and home health aides.

Home care workers in Minnesota and other states have been pushing for retirement benefits in the industry, which is projected to have more job openings statewide than any other group over the next decade, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development. The caregiving field has been overwhelmed by the rising number of elderly residents needing services and staffing challenges.

The agreement includes a commitment to explore options for healthcare benefits for home care workers in the next round of contract negotiations. It also bumps the pay rate wage differential for those working for clients who need 10 or more hours of care per day. And it offers a new $1,200 stipend to help defray workers’ out-of-pocket healthcare costs in addition to other pay increases.

In their last contract, home care workers earned a significant wage increase, from $15.25 to $20 per hour in 2025.

Jeremy Heyer, a home care client from Rochester who served on the SEIU bargaining team, said he was proud of the new deal.

“Progress is never as fast as we want it to be, and this year in particular the state budget situation means we can’t make as much progress as we’d like to, but with this new agreement we are making a more positive future for workers and clients across the state,” he said.

If the agreement is approved, it would be the sixth contract since the workforce unionized in 2014. The contract would go into effect in July.