We were proud to support our fellow home health aides as they demand fair wages, benefits and hours. Home health aides are one of the fastest growing industries in the United States but it remains on of the lowest paid fields with many unregulated protocols and limited restrictions on how many hours people are asked to work, and virtually no protections for workers from harassment or injury.
From sexual harassment that goes unchecked to two and a half hour commutes on top of unreasonably long hours, home health aides face some of the hardest working conditions for the lowest pay and is largely dominated by women of color. In defending and standing up for the field of home health care we must remember that women do not choose low paying fields, rather fields become low paying when more women, and minorities, enter them. The amount we pay workers reflects what our culture deems worthy of higher pay and for years whatever was seen as women's work fell into the realm of undeserving of higher pay.
Now, as the baby boomer generation ages and the demand for these jobs grows, we must acknowledge that we not only value our elderly, but that we also value the work of caregivers in general - from the field of childcare to care of the sick, disabled and elderly.