In support of our essential direct care workers

New Mexico is at the forefront as a state that supports its direct care workforce. We are demonstrating again that if we convene stakeholders of a public system, we can often go well beyond simple and rote compliance.

Direct care work is the second fastestgrowing occupation in the country and the fastest-growing in New Mexico, but the average direct care worker earns just over $17,000, a salary that requires those caring for the most vulnerable of our state to work two and even three jobs just to make ends meet. She is typically a woman caring for a child and also for an older parent. If she leaves her job because of caregiving responsibilities, she may join the countless others over age 50 who will lose, on average, more than $300,000 in wages and benefits over her lifetime.

The fates of caregivers, the persons they provide care for and their families are deeply intertwined with each other. Their overlapping interests were made especially clear when the interpretation of Fair Labor Standards Act protections were extended to home care workers in 2015.

Known as the “Home Care Rule,” the U.S. Department of Labor interpreted Fair Labor Standards Act to apply to all direct care workers in this country for the first time since the law’s original passage in 1938. All domestic workers were excluded from Fair Labor Standards Act protections in the original 1938 bill due to racial animus against African-American women. The exemption excluded “domestic service” workers, using domestic service workers as a proxy for AfricanAmerican women in the South, because legislators would not agree to passing federal legislation that would in any way equalize the wages of African-American and white workers.

The exclusions served to further racial, economic and gender-based inequality, as the direct care workforce is overwhelmingly female and disproportionately workers of color. More than 40 years later, Congress amended the law to include most domestic workers, but due to vague wording and the Department of Labor’s interpretation, many direct care workers still were left behind.

Until 2015. In 2015, in response to the requests of thousands of direct care workers and advocacy groups across the country, the U.S. Department of Labor finally updated its interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, clarifying that these protections applied to almost all direct care workers.

Now, for the first time, direct care workers serving people funded through Medicaid programs are entitled to minimum wage, overtime and paid travel time between clients, basic employment rights that most of us take for granted. And, since states administer Medicaidfunded programs, they have a crucial role to play in ensuring these protections maximize the benefit for workers on the front lines of care, while also protecting consumers.

There has been a mixed range of responses to the new protections from state governments across the country. But in 2017, the New Mexico Legislature made the visionary decision, voting nearly unanimously, to pass Senate Joint Memorial 6, legislation to convene state agencies, caregivers, employers and consumers of care, and recommend state legislative responses to Fair Labor Standards Act protections. The memorial also asks stakeholders to recommend short- and long-term solutions to problems of affordability, low pay and high turnover within the field.

Adrienne R. Smith is president and CEO of the New Mexico Direct Caregivers Coalition. Mariana Viturro is deputy director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.