PHILADELPHIA, PA: Today, Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Nick Miller held a hearing to examine direct care worker pay and trends across the commonwealth over the past decade.
“Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to experience a day in the life of a home care worker and heard firsthand about the urgent need to support home care workers and the people in their care,” she said Senator Nick Miller. “Today’s hearing further underscores the urgent need to invest in people who demonstrate unwavering dedication, compassion and selflessness in these roles. I have witnessed the sacrifices made by home care workers who often put the well-being of members of their community ahead of their own. It is time for the Legislature to make progress on investments to support these essential members of our communities.”
“Our direct care workers need a living wage. They are essential to the patients they serve, and yet we hear stories of direct care workers struggling to pay their bills or having to choose between their own health care and grocery shopping. This is not fair. We must take care of the people who care for our communities,” she said Senator Vincent Hughes, chairman of the Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee.
“Supporting our home care workers is very personal to me,” she said Senator Tartaglione. “As a person with a disability, I know what a difference care and compassion can make in a person’s life. Direct care workers provide independence, dignity and connection to seniors and people with disabilities across Pennsylvania. In my district alone, more than half of residents are on Medicaid, so the need for robust home care services is enormous. Investing in these workers is both a moral and practical imperative. I am proud to work with my colleagues and advocates to strengthen this important profession.”
“The work of hundreds of thousands of home care workers allows people across the Commonwealth to receive the dignified, compassionate support they need to stay in their homes and communities, even though these workers are overstretched, overworked and shamefully underpaid,” she said Senator Saval. “Right now, even as demand for these essential services grows, many skilled caregivers are being forced to leave their profession and take jobs that will enable them to support their families. The creation of the Direct Care Worker Wage Board would provide workers with a mechanism to meet their needs so they can continue to provide expert care. The health of our communities depends on these workers and on our community’s ability to keep them in this field.”
“The way we support our direct care workers reflects how we value our seniors and most vulnerable neighbors,” he said Senator Kim. “One day it could be any of us or someone we love, and we have a responsibility to keep the system working when families need it most. With better data collection, stronger accountability measures and competitive pay that assist us recruit and retain good people – a recent independent and bipartisan study confirms what we’ve heard from families and workers alike: we can and must do better.
Stevi Sprenkle, project manager for the PA Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC), a bipartisan, bicameral legislative services agency comprised of twelve members of the General Assembly, released the H.R. 165: Home and Community Services study.
In its findings, the LBFC said there is no government data that specifically tracks the number of home and community-based workers in Pennsylvania, and demand for home and community-based services in Pennsylvania is expected to continue to grow, further exacerbating the shortage of direct care workers.
Matt Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare PA, which represents more than 25,000 health care workers, testified that Pennsylvania must invest in this workforce to achieve improvements in its long-term care system.
“We need greater investment in direct care workers and home care services to ensure we can provide the care to the growing population of aging and physically disabled Pennsylvanians who need it,” Yarnell said. “That’s why we’re working to advance a participant-centered care model, and that’s why we support the Legislature’s work to strengthen this workforce to create good, union-friendly, family-sustaining jobs.”
Monica McDuffie, a dedicated home care worker, highlighted the sacrifices she made in her dual role as both caregiver and nursing student. She faces the challenges of living with a occasional organ disease that weakens her respiratory system and relies on Medicaid for necessary life-sustaining medications.
“Every day I take care of the people my life depends on,” McDuffie said. “One of my clients is a woman in a wheelchair. She needs me to help her eat, wash, toilet, and stay clean and comfortable. For her, home care means dignity. It means being able to live a full life and be treated as a whole person, not just survival.”
Tony Brooks, a consumer, also spoke about his experience when his carer left the industry due to low wages.
“My disability won’t be any worse than it was 15 years ago,” Brooks said. “I’m getting older and I’m going to need help. I had a caregiver who helped me, but she had to leave her job because she didn’t think the pay was what she thought would help. So I had to rely on my family.”
“Our association recently introduced our call for a rate increase for 2026-2027 to strengthen wages and benefits, protect access to care for those on Medicaid and stabilize the network,” said Cody Jones, senior director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Homecare Association. “Pennsylvania must immediately take steps in the right direction if it hopes to retain its workforce and avoid further access crises.”
Rhiannon DiClemente, employment attorney, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, shared stories about home health care workers from the time she met and worked with them, including wage theft.
“Wage theft is a very common problem in the home health care industry,” DiClemente said. “In 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor launched a nationwide initiative focused on home health agencies to enforce our wage and hour laws. In the first year of this initiative, the DOL completed 1,600 investigations and recovered $28.6 million in back wages for nearly 25,000 workers.”
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- SEIU
- Community legal services
- PA Budget and Legislative Finance Committee
- PA Home Care Association (PHA)
- Home care workers
- Home care recipients
Senator Nick Miller was elected political chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus in December 2024. Today’s hearing was his eleventh hearing as chair.
Footage of the hearing and written testimony from the panel are available at: PASenatorMiller.com/Policy. Downloadable photos and videos are available upon request.
For more information on AP Senate Democrats’ priorities, visit www.pasenate.com.
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