Business coalition demands fix for Maine's essential support workforce crisis
Screenshot / Maine Council on Aging
Jessica Maurer, executive director of the Maine Council on Aging in Augusta, is seen here at a press conference held Thursday to support higher wages for essential support workers.
Low wages are causing a shortage of essential support workers that has reached crisis portions in the state.
That was the message during a press conference held Thursday by the Maine Council on Aging in Augusta.
The council leads an alliance of more than 100 businesses and nonprofits calling on state legislators to pass and fund LD 1573, a bill that requires the wage portion of the state-funded reimbursement rate be set at 125% of minimum wage for all essential support workers in all settings.
The rates would also include reimbursement for unfunded duties and be adjusted for cost of living increases every two years, according to a news release.
“This is about our tight labor market and inadequate MaineCare rates,” Jess Maurer, the council’s executive director, said in the release. “These workers can earn more working almost anywhere else. Providers can’t pay competitive wages to maintain an adequate workforce unless the state pays higher rates for these services.”
The essential support worker system is at the brink of collapse, she said.
“Essential support workers” are people who work in home- and community-based settings to provide help with core functions of day-to-day living for tens of thousands of Mainers. They include older adults, people who have disabilities, and people with behavioral health challenges.
But thousands of Mainers are finding it nearly impossible to find support at home or to gain access to assisted living facilities or nursing homes because of the state's shortage of essential support workers.
“In 30 years of serving children, older adults, people with disabilities and families across Maine, we at Care & Comfort have never experienced as much difficulty hiring as we have today,” said Mike Stair, president and CEO of Care & Comfort, a home health care service in Bangor. “The need for essential support workers in our state is beyond the point of critical.”
People in need of care continue to go unserved, he said.
“It is well past time for the legislature to step up and fund these important jobs at a level that allows us to fill positions and retain workers in these vital jobs,” Stair said.
Mary Jane Richards, chief operating officer of North Country Associates, a nursing and rehabilitation provider headquartered in Lewiston, said the direct care labor shortage is the biggest threat to nursing homes and assisted living centers in Maine.
“As a provider and consumer, I witness the staffing crisis on every level of the care delivery system,” said Richards.
Rebecca Emmons, executive director of Mobius Inc., a service provider headquartered in Damariscotta, said reimbursement rates aren’t high enough to retain staff.
“Burned out, underpaid, their pandemic heroism ignored, direct support professionals working with people with intellectual disabilities and autism are fleeing this field and new applicants are not coming through the door,” said Emmons.
Staff shortages put pressure on other staff to work overtime, and managers are now assuming empty shifts on top of their other duties, said David Cowing, the father of an adult son with multiple disabilities who lives in a group home.
“Ultimately it is my son who must also pay the price for an essential support worker’s inadequate paycheck,” he said.
The rate increase is the primary recommendation of the Commission to Study Long Term Care Workforce Issues. The commission, formed by the Legislature, released its report in January 2020.
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