Starting wages for home care workers would increase 31% under a tentative union contract that seeks to add financial incentives for an urgently needed but dwindling workforce in Minnesota.
Minnesota could bump up some home care provider salaries by 31%
The contract, subject to final approval, would seek to stabilize that workforce at a time of growing need in the state.
January 6, 2023 at 11:04PM
SEIU Healthcare on Friday announced the deal it reached with the state of Minnesota, which would increase starting wages from $15.25 to $20 per hour by 2025 and offer more pay bumps for veteran workers. Union negotiators hailed the deal as professionalizing the industry and offering livable wages and a state orientation program to prepare workers who are new to the challenges of caregiving.
"This new wage scale means that home care workers will be able to protect our own dignity and integrity by having the option to work our way out of poverty and maybe not having to work multiple jobs any more to make ends meet," said Tavona Johnson, a home care worker on the union bargaining team from Austin, Minn.
The deal, subject to ratification votes later this year by workers and the Legislature, would be the fifth since the home care workforce was unionized. It covers more than 20,000 caregivers in consumer-directed programs, meaning that they are employed directly by their elderly or disabled clients in cooperation with the state.
The services are funded by the state Medical Assistance program and provided by a mixture of professionals as well as relatives who take on full-time caregiving roles for loved ones. The contract covers about a quarter to a third of Minnesota's home care providers, excluding those employed by private staffing agencies and assigned to clients.
The broader industry of roughly 100,000 personal care and home health aides has been stretched thin by the rising number of Minnesotans who are elderly and in need of services. The last estimate at the end of 2021 showed more than 9,100 job openings — a vacancy rate of 8.4%, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
A University of Minnesota analysis in December found a higher quit rate among these low-wage healthcare workers than doctors, nurses and other healthcare technicians who have been burned out by the stresses of the pandemic.
The lack of home care providers contributes to a broader shortage of step-down placements, which receive patients from hospitals who no longer need high-level inpatient care. With nowhere to send patients, hospitals have reported more than 90% capacity levels in their inpatient units for months and backlogs of patients in their emergency departments and waiting rooms.
The tentative contract offers one retention solution to try to build up the workforce: a $1,000 bonus for workers who have provided care for six months or longer, beginning after the new contract takes effect in July.
"Improving wages and benefits will help more people see this as a rewarding career," said Natasha Merz, interim assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
The governor said it may be 2027 or 2028 by the time the market catches up to demand.
