By Editha Adams, UDW President and IHSS provider
alongside Governor Jerry Brown as he announced his plan to
raise minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022.
For the past year UDW caregivers have rallied and marched alongside thousands of underpaid workers to make one thing clear: no one should have to survive on less than $15 per hour in California.
And we won! On April 4, 2016 we were there when Governor Jerry Brown signed a historic $15 minimum wage into law.
The law also guarantees paid sick leave for IHSS workers for the first time ever: the first in 2018, the second in 2020, and the third and final day in 2022. It will also increase California’s current
minimum wage by one dollar over the next two years, and then by a dollar for each year thereafter until reaching $15 per hour in 2022.
This victory will have a huge impact on the more than 400,000 IHSS providers statewide who currently earn, on average, just $10.72 an hour – and many will start to see an increase in wages as early as 2017, when the minimum wage goes up to $10.50.
But we have more work to do, because home care providers deserve to earn more than minimum wage! That’s why we’re bargaining at the county and state-levels to win better wages and benefits for UDW home care providers now, and working together to protect the home care program for our clients and loved ones.
