Shouldn’t Home Care Workers Earn a Living Wage?

Healthcare workers in Massachusetts got good news twice this past week.First, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act and its insurance exchange rules—a system expected to add some 360,000 Massachusetts residents to the healthcare rolls. On Friday, about 35,000 workers who areproviding disability and senior care through state programs got a major pay raise. Their new wage of $15 an hour puts Massachusetts personal-care assistants at the helm of the low-wage workers’ movement known as the Fight for 15.

George Gresham, president of the home care workers’ union, 1199 SEIU, said in the announcement of the deal, ‘“It is a moral imperative that all home care and healthcare workers receive $15 per hour, and Massachusetts is now a leader in this effort.”

-The Nation

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