Employers are struggling to find caregivers
Numerous employers call the New Mexico Caregivers Coalition office to ask that we help them advertise caregiver employment openings within their companies.
They say they can’t find enough caregivers to fill the direct care staff openings at those companies. It should be no surprise that employers cannot fill those staff openings because caregivers may already have left the field for higher-paying jobs in altogether different sectors.
Caregivers may already have permanently left the direct care field en masse, not just for higher-paying jobs but for better quality jobs. I’ve talked with New Mexico caregivers and to employers across various industry sectors; both tell me that low-wage workers have used the opportunity of the pandemic to train for jobs outside of the home care field so they can leave their current job.
A caregiver with children told me last week she has permanently left her home care worker job because child care is more expensive than the $10 per hour she earned from her last job. And, she accrued no fringe benefits. In Bernalillo, New Mexico, where our organization is based, the nearest McDonald’s franchise advertises starting pay at $11.00 per hour, vacation and sick leave, full paid four-year college tuition and access to discounts like moving vans and rental cars in order for one to move one’s family to Bernalillo. I, too, would take that job over one paying $10/hour with no benefits.
But isn’t this the same conundrum we in the workforce development field were talking about more than 10 years ago? Indeed, more than 30 years ago? The Bureau of Labor Statistics documents the average wage of a New Mexico home care worker was $10.90 in 2009; in 2019, it was $10.92!
In New Mexico, 83% of caregivers are women, 82% people of color and 64% of all caregivers live at the poverty level. These statistics describe the people who are working.
A young man who works as a direct support staff for a person with a developmental disability told me, “I work 10 hours a day, five day a week and I’m still poor!” And the work is grueling. It is physically demanding, it involves lifting and transferring clients and even negotiating with family members who may or may not support that worker’s presence in the home.
Amazon, Facebook and even Walmart in New Mexico are offering $15 per hour and higher. And if those jobs aren’t attractive enough, why not retrain as a truck driver to earn $25 per hour starting pay? Lately, I find I have to refrain from encouraging caregivers and direct support staff to leave the field for retraining in new skills for better quality jobs.
Caregivers themselves seem to be making rational decisions to leave the field altogether.
Our organization shouldn’t be advocating for caregivers to stay in this field. We should be advocating for them to move to better-paying jobs with paid time off, health insurance and insistence on respect and recognition from employers that value them. Advocates and supporters of caregivers ought to help push them toward those better jobs, not encourage to remain in low-wage, low quality jobs.
PHI, a national research organization on direct care, projects that New Mexico will have to fill 75,500 new positions in home care and direct support by the year 2026. This present crisis means that those who will suffer most will be people who are elderly and those with disabilities who need their care.
Adrienne R. Smith is president and CEO of the New MExico Caregivers Coalition and a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Community Development Advisory Council. The New Mexico Caregivers Coalition advocates for direct care workers’ education, training, benefits, wages and professional development so they may better serve people who are elderly and those with disabilities. The executive’s desk is a guest column providing advice, commentary or information about resources available to the business community in New Mexico. To submit a column for consideration, email gporter@ abqjournal.com.