Michigan direct care workers say they will make due with a 20¢ increase, but for how long?

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The Michigan Legislature last week cleared an $83 billion state budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year, including a $28.7 million investment to increase the wages for direct care workers. That equates to a 20-cent hourly raise for individuals like nurse aides and home health aides who provide care for the elderly or those with disabilities or chronic conditions.

Sherri Boyd, executive director of the Michigan chapter of The Arc, a national advocacy organization for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said in a statement that the raise is “better than nothing,” but the implications it will have on care providers and those in need of services will be significant.

“But the underlying problem remains. We are paying DCWs so poorly that many of them are forced to leave the profession. And this leaves some 100,000 of our state’s most vulnerable residents at risk,” Boyd said.

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And work of direct care workers is challenging, Mental Health Association in Michigan President Marianne Huff, told the Advance. Because wages for direct care workers are dispensed from Medicaid funding, the state holds the power to determine the future of the job market for such workers

“I don’t want to sound like we’re not grateful for the 20-cent increase, but what the problem has been is that we don’t offer enough money to people to work with individuals that are very vulnerable and present with sometimes really challenging behavioral health issues,” Huff said. “I don’t know that we can expect people to work with individuals and provide quality care for really less than $18 to $20 an hour.”

The Direct Care Worker Wage Coalition, a Michigan group of organizations committed to supporting wage increases for those working with people with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities, asserts that the starting wage for direct care workers in Michigan is about $16 an hour or $33,000 before taxes. Salary.com reflects that the average salary of all direct care workers falls between about $34,000 and $40,000.

The coalition had asked for a $20-per-hour starting wage for direct care workers in the behavioral health system in the FY 2025 state budget to no success. Other states are grappling with an exodus of direct care workers due to wages and those who need care and their families say the problem is dire .

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that direct care workers who have developed the skills and resilience to provide hands-on services in some of the most challenging cases in the state, who went into their line of work to help people, are realizing that the pay is not getting more equitable and they have higher earning options not directly interacting with those receiving care.

“One thing I’ve observed is the farther you get away from the people, the clients served, the more money you make,” Huff said. “The people doing the work seem to be making the least amount of money and there’s kind of something wrong with that picture.”

Huff said she knows many organizations that have halted direct care services due to the lack of funding from the state and Robert Stein, general counsel for the Michigan Assisted Living Association said in a statement last Thursday that a “mass departure” is already underway.

“With only an additional 20 cents per hour, we can anticipate continued emergency care shortages, prolonged hospitalizations, reliance on aging parents for support, and the loss of independence previously provided by DCWs,” Stein said.

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