| First Living Wage Victory for Homecare Workers! |
We've won our first living wage victory, thanks to those of
you who have written letters, phoned your supervisors, prayed and sung
with us, and attended Board of Supervisors meetings!
Updated 5.27.2008
On April
15th, the Marin Co. Board of Supervisors took the first step towards full
inclusion of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers under Marin's Living
Wage Ordinance. IHSS
workers are the homecare workers who make it possible for low-income elders and
people with disabilities to remain in their homes. They were excluded from
coverage just before Christmas in 2006.
The Marin
County Board of Supervisors directed the county administrator to come up with
language that eliminates the lower living wage for homecare workers. This means
that the wage floor for homecare workers will be the same as for other workers
covered under Marin's Living Wage Ordinance. The wage floor for those without
employer-provided health coverage will be $11.55/hour, and for those with
health coverage, $10.55/hour. Currently, there is one wage floor of $9.20 for
homecare workers, regardless of whether they received health coverage.
The
County Administrator projects that the Marin County Living Wage for those without
health coverage will increase to $11.95/hour in January 2009 as a result of the
April 15th decision, assuming a cost of living adjustment of 3%. (The cost of
living increase is tied to the consumer price index.)
Here's
what you can do to make sure the supervisors give homecare workers their cost
of living adjustment:
- Thank your supervisor by phone or by
email. You might say something like, "I want to see the
lower "living wage" tier for homecare workers eliminated, and
I'm calling to thank Supervisor ___________ for her/his April 15th
vote."
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Under the Living Wage Ordinance, homecare workers who don't receive
employer-provided health insurance were entitled to an additional hourly amount
to help cover their health care expenses. Just before Christmas in 2006, the
Living Wage Ordinance was amended to exclude homecare workers from receiving
the hourly health benefit offset. The rationale is a "group test"
concocted by Marin County Administrator Matthew Hymel. Under the group test, if
any employee in a group receives employer-provided health insurance, then none
of the other employees in that group are entitled to the hourly health benefit.
If that doesn't make sense to you, it's because it just doesn't make sense.
Finally, after more than a year of promises and delays, the Supervisors have taken the first step toward fully protecting Marin's homecare workers under the Living Wage Ordinance.
This will be a hollow victory if our supervisors decide against a Lining Wage Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2009.
Our supervisors need to know that the people of Marin care about this issue.
Please join us for the budget heartings in mid-July.
More information will be posted here as it becomes available .
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