Caring for human beings should pay better. WA lawmakers must increase Medicaid investment

My old job as a legal assistant paid me more money than I make now as a direct support professional, but it just wasn’t a good fit for me. In the past two and a half years that I’ve worked in Supported Living, I’ve had the opportunity to support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in seeking their best lives while living in their own home.

It is a difficult but rewarding job. It also pays less than if I worked at a fast food restaurant. That’s why I’m hoping that our state Legislature increases its investment in Medicaid so that those providing foundational care to the 4,600 clients in Supported Living can earn a starting wage of $18-$20 per hour.

Supported Living is a model of foundational care that allows clients to live in their own homes while relying on the care of direct support professionals. In a typical day, the 12,000 direct support professionals in Washington may assist their clients with bathing and dressing, taking their medications, paying their bills on time and socializing, all while teaching them how to perform these tasks to the best of their abilities independently.

In short, we help with all the activities of daily living. It can be a very demanding job and we often work much more than a typical 40-hour work week due to staffing shortages, exacerbated by low wages amidst this hypercompetitive hiring environment we are all experiencing. I am hopeful that by increasing wages, we can reduce the nearly 50% annual turnover we are seeing among direct support professionals so that our clients can experience more consistency in their care.

As a mom of three kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, for short), my experience helping my kids navigate doctor appointments and school programs to make sure their interests are best served has directly translated into my work with clients. I often need to think outside of the box and manage challenging behaviors to help my clients appropriately navigate a disruptive experience in their day.

As with any field, wages are a big factor both in recruiting workers and retaining them. Nobody is serving as a direct support professional so they can buy a mansion in Martha’s Vineyard, but our state really has fallen behind in helping our wages keep up with inflation.

Since more than 99 percent of our clients rely on Medicaid to support their care, wages cannot be increased unless the Legislature increases its Medicaid investment in Supported Living. And Washington just hasn’t kept up – today our starting wage is only 5 percent above minimum wage, compared to 14 years ago when it was 23.7% above minimum wage. Our state is now 46th in the country when measuring the gap between the starting wage of direct support professionals and the minimum wage.

I am hopeful that our state can make some progress this legislative session to invest in the foundational long-term care that direct support professionals provide to our clients.

I am encouraged that the proposed budget from the state House includes funding to increase our wages to $20, but there is still a lot of work ahead before it is included in the final adopted budget. If they include the funding, I look forward to having to work fewer hours to cover our rent and I especially look forward to spending a little more time with my kids.

I might even pick up that new bicycle that one of them has an eye on.

I also look forward to making it a little easier to recruit high-quality candidates for this important work and losing fewer of them to less demanding jobs that may pay more.

In many different ways, depending on your perspective, the pandemic has really forced us all to think about what we value most. Two years ago, when everything was first shutdown, direct support professionals still went to clients’ homes to make sure they were receiving care.

In a moment of crisis, what could be more important than ensuring that those in need among our vulnerable populations are receiving the support and care that they require? Our clients are just adults trying to live their best lives and have the freedom to make their own choices. It’s our job as direct support professionals to back them up and support them in pursuing their best lives.

I am hopeful that the Legislature decides that now is the time to help us in that work by investing in those providing this foundational care.