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The Care Work Crisis

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Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Ilana Berger, head of New York Caring Majority, have a critically important op-ed about the care worker crisis hitting at a time when the U.S. has a rapidly aging population that desperately wants to avoid the late-life prison that is the nursing home.

Loretta Copeland, an 81-year-old who lives in Harlem, uses a wheelchair and depends on an aide to help her with daily tasks like cooking and bathing. But New York’s home care labor shortage, currently the worst in the nation, has made it hard for her to get help. While she understands why people won’t work for such low wages, she is afraid she will end up in a nursing home.

“I worked all my life and now I can’t even get help. That bothers me,” Ms. Copeland said in a recent interview. “I want to be able to enjoy what time I have left.”

By 2040, the population of American adults aged 65 and older will nearly double, and that of adults aged 85 and older is expected to quadruple over the same period. As our aging population grows, the need for home care is increasing. Yet in New York, as in much of the rest of the country, there are too few workers.

The idea of moving into a long-term-care home is accompanied by dread for many older adults. Indeed, research shows that a majority of Ms. Copeland’s peers want to age at home. In the past few years, the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating toll on nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and group homes further highlighted the need for more long-term-care options. Yet right as home care workers are needed more than ever, these workers are fleeing the profession.

A 2019 report found that about a quarter of all home care patients in New York reported they were unable to find workers, and nearly 20 percent of home care positions went unfilled because of staff shortages. Between 2021 and 2040, the state is projected to have nearly a million home care job openings, and the rest of the country is not far behind. But despite a surplus of unfilled jobs, many are finding that they simply can’t afford to do this type of work.

Home care workers in the state earn $13.20 an hour in most counties — less than fast-food workers. A report by the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State found that low pay and lack of basic benefits were driving home care workers in the state away from the profession. Of those who remain in the work force, a majority rely on public assistance.

I remain astounded that we don’t take these questions more seriously. Why do we pay the worst wages to the people who take care of our most vulnerable family members–not only the elderly, but babies, the disabled, those in rehab, etc? It’s a tragedy and one that is completely avoidable.

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