Cleveland home care workers are rallying for a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour for their occupation, which, some say, is demanding as it requires aides to feed, dress, bathe and take care of patients in their homes, an article on Cleveland.com reports.
With a median hourly wage of $8.39 and little mileage compensation, most home care workers in Cleveland make less than $9 an hour, and the median wage for home care workers in the state gives them a salary of less than $17,500, the article reports. With a raise to $15 an hour, workers would make more than $31,000. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, while Ohio’s is $7.95.
Rallies were scheduled to take place around the country by home health aides in states including Ohio, California, Michigan and Oregon. These rallies are part of a nationwide push among several industries to demand a higher minimum wage. Recently, fast-food workers have gone on one-day strikes to make $15 a minimum hourly wage in the industry; Wal-Mart workers also held strikes, demanding a $25,000 minimum, or $12.50 an hour; and Cleveland Greyhound terminal workers have demonstrated for a $15 minimum.
A proposal before Congress to raise the hourly minimum wage to $10.10 has stalled, but some states and municipalities are taking it upon themselves to raise their minimum wages — including Seattle, which recently voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Nearly every demand for a minimum wage increase has been met by opponents arguing that higher pay would result in more automated systems and a financial burden to businesses. However, because home health care is one-on-one by nature, it is less likely the industry would experience automated replacements.
To read the full article, click here.
Written by Emily Study
