BLOG : Voices for Higher PA Wages

Many lives will drastically change unless New York State properly funds the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) program, which allows people with disabilities to maintain their independence in the community. Without proper funding, the Personal Assistants (PAs) who attend to CDPA Consumers will continue to receive only minimum wage, which is simply not enough. PAs do vital and skilled work, keeping people with disabilities alive & in the community, living with the dignity and freedom that every person deserves. They are life-savers. Here are just a few of the voices speaking up from the Concepts program, asking New York to properly fund CDPA in order to raise PA wages to a reasonable and livable level.

“When you find the right Personal Assistant to work for you, it really makes the Consumer Directed program come alive. It gives you wings. As PA wages have stagnated, it has become increasingly challenging for me to recruit and hire workers. I find myself competing with the fast food industry. My workers are already undercompensated for the many skilled tasks that they perform throughout the day. A funding increase would be incredibly invaluable.”  -Bryan Sealy

“I am a Concepts Consumer on a vent, and I use oxygen. I live an independent life only because of the skilled work that my Personal Assistants provide to me. Funding for PA wages must be increased. Such funding means I can live outside, not in an institution. It means I can contribute to my community and live in freedom. Without this increase, PAs who do important and life-saving work will not be able to support themselves, and thereby not be able to work for me any longer. Without them, I lose my freedom.” - Elizabeth Ramos

“For the type of work Personal Assistants do, and the importance of it… I believe they are grossly underpaid. And it is impossible to find qualified people who are reliable at that low rate…. Their wages need to be higher. They deserve more, and I need them to get more in order to get the type of people that I need to help me live…. My whole life depends on them from the smallest tasks like taking out the garbage to big things like wound care…. Everything that you normally have to do in life, I am dependent on them for… It’s a matter of life and death. Without a PA I cannot do the things that I used to be able to do before I got injured. Without them, I’d be in a nursing home or a hospital… or worse.” -Joseph

“Personal Assistant workers don’t want to work for those low wages anymore because they can no longer afford to feed their families… My Personal Assistants are the reason that I’m able to do anything. They are the reason that I’m able to get up… They are the reason I am able to do life-sustaining things such as eat and drink. I’d be dead without them.” - Melissa Weitz

“I became a Consumer in August 1993. Since then the hourly wage has only increased by $4.80. The state of NY is a champion for people with disabilities living in the community. We can do better. We must do better.” -Anthony Trocchia

“My son James & I are depending on Personal Assistants receiving higher wages. The funding increase would help me get more opportunities to hire people and give them an incentive to work for me and my son; to help us with daily living, and to be safe and secure in our homes. I beg of you please, help us with this wage increase.” - Albert Hiller

“The most vulnerable of society – people like me who can’t take care of themselves, can’t get out of bed on their own - our workers are only receiving as low as $11 an hour. I find this really distressing because no one wants to work for that little amount of money. They’d rather go to McDonalds… If Consumers’ can’t find workers, they are going to end up in nursing homes. Which is going to cost more for New York. It really makes no sense to me. We have people on ventilators whose workers are receiving minimum wage. It’s just unconscionable.” -Rob Cicoria

“Concepts came to me because I have an eight-year-old daughter with down syndrome. There are no words to describe the level of support that (PAs) provide, coming to the house every day to help me with my child. There are simply no words…”  - Theresa  Ianelli

 “I've been a Concepts Consumer since 2008. I have a rare disorder that severely restricts my mobility.  I primarily use a motorized wheelchair to get around. I need Personal Assistants for all my daily needs. I can't do any of the essential tasks like bathing, dressing, preparing meals without the help of attendants. 

Caring for others who are unable to physically support themselves is a truly noble profession.  It takes a special skill and compassion to be able to provide the services we Consumers may need.  We all don't fall under the same umbrella. Our abilities and needs vary from one person to the next. That's why PAs absolutely deserve to be adequately paid. Unfortunately, CDPA is devastatingly underfunded. This threatens to further isolate, marginalize and irreparably damage the lives of those of us who need Personal Assistants to survive.  Literally survive. That is no exaggeration. People need to be valued for the work they do in any capacity.  If PAs are not paid well and their job security is threatened, it would be impossible for them to continue in a field that neglects those principles. 

It's hard for Consumers to recruit people to do such a highly demanding job. It's even harder when they feel and know the security is not there and they may not be able to make enough money without looking for other work or quitting the field altogether.” -Trichele Reese

"I have been with Concepts since December 1994. My disability is Cerebral Palsy. Personal Assistants are important to my everyday survival because they help me in my tasks and keep me active and out of a nursing home. I'm able to live a life where I have choices and can do the things that most people take for granted. Low wages deeply affect my life, as they inhibit my ability to hire new Personal Assistants… It even affects keeping the workers I already have, because if wages do not go up and if benefits need to be cut, they most likely will have to seek some other job to support their family." - Carmelo Gonzalez

“My son Tyler is intellectually disabled and non-verbal. He has been with Concepts for over two years. Our family does not function without our Personal Assistants. I need them to breathe. They are like family, and they preserve the health and SANITY of our entire family. Without funding for a wage increase for these incredible workers, we are going to lose them. And lose the health and peace they bring to our lives. It will wreak havoc and cause severe stress on our family and living situation. We cannot continue to function.” -Jeanette Rodriguez

"I have been with Concepts since the beginning, I was one of the founders of this organization in 1980. I have Cerebral Palsy since birth. With the help of my PAs, I am able to live my life with independence and freedom of choice. But people would prefer to work at fast food restaurants than to work with a Consumer who requires more help. To find and keep qualified PAs at this current salary is very difficult." - Joann Vitiello

"I have been a Concepts member for one and a half years. I am a C3-C4 Quadriplegic for ten years. My Personal Assistants are important to me because they help me maintain a normal lifestyle. From bathing and getting dressed to basically everything else I need. They care for me, cook for me and clean for me… just to name a few of the things from a very long list. If wages are not raised, I won't be able to hire any new potential PAs, let alone keep the ones I have now. The cost of living rises every so often, and for the amount of work PAs do, their pay should go up." - Jonathan Gonzalez

"I started with Concepts in May of 2016. My disabilities are Cerebral Palsy and Multiple Sclerosis. Having a Personal Assistant is important for me because as independent as I am, there are things that at times are extremely difficult or impossible for me to do without a PA there to help. My bones can't handle the cold weather well, and because of my MS I can't be exposed to too much heat. So things like getting my laundry done, picking up my groceries, picking up medication from the pharmacy, - these are essential to my daily living. My PA cooks my meals. Because I have little balance, without my PA I could burn and hurt myself. This also goes for the upkeep of my home: sweeping, mopping, general cleaning as I am prone to infection because I have a low immune system. The assistance my PA provides is life-saving and a necessity. 

Low wages and cutting benefits would be very unfair to the PAs as well as the Consumers because these PAs help us stay proactive and make sure we are taken care of. They also deserve to get paid for as hard as they work, and maintain good benefits to feel secure at their workplace. If they don’t receive an increase above minimum wage, they will be forced to leave to find another job to support themselves and their families. This leaves us Consumers in jeopardy and makes life a whole lot harder to balance on a daily basis. Recruiting a PA is very difficult because the first question is always related to, "how much do I get paid and what benefits do I get?" Many are not willing to work with Concepts because wages are too low and benefits aren't enough. So my options to hire someone are very limited for this reason." - Lisa Rivera

"I've been with Concepts for 3 years. My disability is Cerebral Palsy. Having a Personal Assistant is life itself! I cannot imagine how I would manage without a Personal Assistant, especially now that I have a child of my own. Low wages and cutting benefits has a big impact on keeping current PAs and recruiting new ones as well. These PAs are hard-working people who have families to support and they will have no choice than to find jobs elsewhere and leave us Consumers in desperate need of home care." - Milvia Perez

"I have been part of The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) program since 2006. The reason I chose this program is because the traditional agency I was with was cutting my services and limiting my ability to make decisions within my own home and about my care. They made the decision to pull a home health aide that had been working with me for years and the reason given to me was “we were too comfortable working together.”

My Personal Assistants through CDPA are essential to my way of life because they assist me with every part of daily living. From the moment I wake up in the morning I need to be assisted with dressing and transferring into my wheelchair. They also provide essential services that a traditional agency would not. Without CDPA, the government would have to pay for specialized nurses to come in a minimum of three times per week to assist me with those needs creating additional costs to Medicaid. My PA through CDPA keeps all of that from happening.

10 years ago it was relatively easy to find a Quality Personal Assistant willing to work for you and perform a nursing level of care  - the wage at that time was $10 an hour. Fast forward 10 years and the pay is now at minimum wage – just $11 an hour. So the quality of the Personal Assistants has gone way down. These are individuals that care for people with a variety of different disabilities. We ask these people to perform specialized tasks like bowel programs, suctioning, tube feeding, diabetic care (insulin shots) and more – tasks that normally require a nurse to come to the home ….and we are asking these PAs to perform all of these tasks on top of day-to-day tasks on minimum wage. If you had a choice of taking care of an individual with specialized needs or standing in front of a machine and putting together hamburgers, what would you choose.

Adequately funding The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance program will continue to save the government millions per year. If this program was to go away, many individuals including myself run the risk of being placed in nursing homes, which costs the government more." - Jose Hernandez

"I will be with Concepts for 10 years in March 2017.  I have muscular dystrophy and I am in a power wheelchair. Personal Assistants allow me to live on my own and be independent.  I get to enjoy what I like to do, and in my professional work. It's difficult to find reliable and caring Personal Assistants when they are underpaid in this industry.  Their earnings correlate to my level of care." - Tabitha Estrellado

Written by Meghan Taylor