Over 70 MOC leaders recently assembled to launch an individual meeting campaign and plan next steps for a campaign to raise the wages of caregivers. Leaders have been writing and testifying in support of lifting the wage floor from $16.96 per hour to a living wage.
[Excerpt]
"Caregiving work is skilled and dangerous. These same workers were applauded nightly during the pandemic for their willingness to show up at a time when there were no vaccines, when we had no idea how coronavirus spread, when they couldn’t find masks or gloves to protect themselves...
We have a caregiver shortage. In doing our research, we came to understand why. In-home supportive services (IHSS) caregivers, who take care of our most vulnerable neighbors, are paid only $16.95 an hour.
In a county with as many resources as ours, this is unacceptable. The recent Marin County Civil Grand Jury report agrees this is an insufficient wage. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimates that the actual living wage for a single person in Marin County is over $26 an hour. California’s state auditor estimated an even higher living wage for Marin in February of 2021: $31 an hour.
No matter which report you pick, $16.95 is not a true living wage for Marin; it is a poverty wage."
Marin Voice: County Needs to Raise Wages for In-Home Health Workers, Marin Independent Journal [pdf]
Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for April 19, 2023, Marin Independent Journal [pdf]
Marin Grand Jury Urges County to Create Aging Services Division, Marin Independent Journal [pdf]
Editorial: Marin Should Listen to Calls for Expanded Senior Services, Marin Independent Journal [pdf]