Home care workers could get pay raises in $55.6M contract

Hourly wages in deal may increase to $18.50 in 2025

Home care workers for Riverside County’s elderly and disabled residents — many of whom say they struggle financially to care for their indigent clients — would get raises under a threeyear union contract before the Board of Supervisors today.

The tentative deal between the county and United Domestic Workers Union Local 3930 — affiliated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — would cost the county $55.6 million over three years.

That number will go down depending on when the state approves the contract, which also needs to be ratified by union members, a memo to supervisors states.

The union represents workers in California’s In-Home Supportive Services program, which is designed to keep low-income seniors and disabled people in their homes instead of in nursing homes. Caregivers employed through the program do everything from grocery shopping and housecleaning to taking clients to doctor’s appointments and giving them medication.

In recent weeks, union members wearing green T-shirts have attended board meetings to urge supervisors to give them raises. Many, such as April Kwiatkowski at the Jan. 31 meeting, described struggling to care for clients amid stagnant wages and inflation.

“Everything in this world has gone up, including the caregiver’s out-of-pocket expenses,” said Kwiatkowski, who has a 3-yearold daughter with autism and a client with worsening dementia.

“What’s left for me? What’s left for all my (fellow union members)? What’s left for my daugh

ter? Let me tell you, it's not very much.”

The contract provides wage supplements that boost workers' pay, currently $16 an hour. The hourly rate this year would be $16.75 and it would rise to $17.50 in 2024 and potentially to $18.50 in 2025, pending what the state does.

The contract would also pay 71 cents an hour toward caregivers' health care, up from 57 cents an hour, and three cents an hour toward caregivers' life insurance.

Also, $50,000 would be set aside to pay for personal protective equipment for caregivers and the contract gives a stipend for up to six union stewards.