Andrade Carries Bill to Raise Wages for Senior Home Care Workers

CHICAGO – State Rep. Jaime Andrade, D-Chicago, is pushing legislation to raise the wages of home care providers for seniors.

“Those who take care of our seniors must be able to execute a variety of tasks and harness a wide-range of skills in order to perform their jobs effectively,” Andrade said. “The low wages the field provides makes it difficult to recruit and maintain qualified individuals.”

Andrade’s Senate Bill 3511 aims to address the shortage of senior home care providers employed by the Department of Aging’s Community Care Program (CCP) by raising their wages. CCP provides many critical services to tens of thousands of Illinois’ in-home seniors, such as personal care, meal planning and cooking, adult day care and emergency home response service. Without these services, seniors would not be able to remain in their homes and would instead be placed in costly nursing facilities. Currently, home care workers make an average of less than $11/hour. Senate Bill 3511 will gradually increase those wages to about $15 over four years.

“Data shows that in-home care is significantly more cost-efficient when compared to nursing facilities,” Andrade said. “On top of that, it is much more comfortable to remain at home. My hope is that this legislation will give home care workers a living wage and allow seniors to stay in their homes.”