Brooklyn healthcare workers rally for better pay

Lawmakers join fight for living wage

February 5, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Healthcare workers demanded a living wage at a rally at St. Francis College. Photo courtesy of HeartShare Human Services of New York.

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Healthcare workers who assist the elderly, the developmentally disabled and those with physical ailments deserve a big boost in salary. That was the sentiment expressed at a rally attended by hundreds of workers from nonprofit agencies at St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn on Feb. 3.

Dubbed the #bFairtoDirectCare rally, the event also drew the attention of several of Brooklyn’s elected officials, all of whom threw their support behind the effort to ensure that care workers, also known as direct support professionals, earn a living wage.

Several direct support professionals who work for HeartShare Human Services of New York came to the rally to ask that New York state invest $45 million a year for the next six years to fund a living wage for workers. The investment would represent a small portion (0.029 percent).
of the state’s $156 billion budget, advocates said.

The participants also included representatives and direct care workers from the Guild for Exceptional Children, a Bay Ridge-based agency that provides educational programs, job training and housing for developmentally disabled children and adults.

Many of these workers make minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage, according to advocates.

“We should not have to beg for a living wage for those who every day advocate, support and care for other human beings who greatly need our help,” said Pheona Grant, a HeartShare residence manager.

HeartShare sponsors group homes and apartments for 373 adults and 14 children with throughout Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

“I’ve always enjoyed working alongside individuals with disabilities to help them achieve their life and employment goals,” said HeartShare Job Coach Tiffany Harris.

Dozens of elected officials have come out in support of the living wage concept, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, state Sens. Marty Golden, Diane Savino and Jesse Hamilton, and Assemblymembers Felix Ortiz, Peter Abbate, Pamela Harris and Nicole Malliotakis.

“Rallying for our direct care workers who care for our most vulnerable population and deserve a good wage,” Malliotakis wrote on Twitter on Friday.

More than 90 percent of the funding that sustains nonprofit organizations like HeartShare comes from the government and 80 percent of that goes directly to staff wages, according to HeartShare officials.

The only way that organizations can raise wages for direct support professionals, teachers’ aides, drivers, cooks and others is for the government to increase the rates they pay, advocates said.