‘We’ll end up on the streets’: L.A. caregivers for elderly, disabled push for higher pay
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Julie Tate | Oct 14, 2017 3:07 pm
Los Angeles (CNN) — It’s a long drive back home after a long shift at your nursing home, an extra buck left over for gas.
So when you get home, grab your shopping cart, pull out your iPhone and check to see if you’re eligible for a raise because you are a caregiver, or because you’re a single mom with a 4-year-old and a $400 monthly payment, or you are one of the 4.6 million people in the United States who have worked as care-givers for someone older or disabled for at least a year, with an average age of 50.
For years, Americans got little to no pay, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, care-givers are making more and getting more pay — with the nation’s highest average annual pay, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number of people who worked as care-givers rose by 2.7% in 2015, and the average annual pay rose by 3.1%.
Why are people getting paid more? It is an attempt to try to make up for economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on healthcare providers and care facilities, as well as financial hardships for families.
But it doesn’t make sense if you think about the nature of the profession, a type of work where people rely on their own bodies and minds to give a person a sense of happiness and joy, said Jessica R. Smith, a professor of educational leadership at California’s San Francisco State University.
“Carers’ job is to take care of people when they are sick, and it’s really like a role that has been in the American culture since the beginning of time,” said Smith, who studies the workforce for the Department of Labor. “I have a lot of people who feel that their life was more important than doing a job that is in a service industry.”
Caregiving can be tough. Some of the hardest hours are in the late evening, when a
