As of the first of the year, the minimum wage in California has increased from $10 to $10.50 an hour. This increase is the first of many as the state’s minimum wage gradually goes up to $15 an hour. Read more here.

UDW caregivers in 14 counties including Alpine, Butte, Kern, Madera, Merced, Mono, Nevada, Orange, Plumas, San Diego, Sierra, Stanislaus, Sutter, and Tuolumne counties will see an improvement in our IHSS pay as a result of the new, higher minimum wage.

The minimum wage increase is no coincidence. UDW caregivers worked with other low wage workers to convince elected leaders to raise the wage, and lift California families out of poverty. And we won!

The minimum wage is scheduled to reach $15 by 2022, and in addition, the plan includes paid sick days for IHSS providers for the first time in history starting in 2018.

We will continue to celebrate this victory for working families, but we will not be complacent. UDW caregivers must continue to fight for more than minimum wage, because in-home care should not be a minimum wage job. The work we do is worth far more. That’s why UDW caregivers went All In for Care in 2016. We recommitted ourselves to the fight for wage and benefit improvements in UDW counties throughout the state, which you can read about here.

Click here to contact your local UDW office and find out how you too can go All In for Care.

Remember, no one IHSS provider can do it alone! Click here to join our work to increase IHSS provider pay in your county by becoming a member of UDW today.

My name is Toni Monique Taloa, and I’m a home care provider in Buena Park, California. I initially became a professional home care worker to take care of my elderly grandmother. My grandmother was originally assessed just 80 hours of in-home care each month – far less than she needed – by California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) home care program. My union, the United Domestic Workers/AFSCME Local 3930 (UDW), helped me successfully appeal the decision, and my grandmother’s home care hours were increased from 80 to 283 per month.

As a person who honestly did not believe in the power of being a union member, this help was just what was needed to change my mind. After that I wanted to know what else the collective power of home care workers could accomplish, so I became a UDW volunteer. As a more involved member, I would eventually become one of the many home care providers in California who fought for fair implementation of our overtime benefits.

My grandmother has since passed away, but I’ve been responsible for my sister Tonya’s care since 2012. When Tonya was born, she was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, also known as water on the brain, which caused cerebral palsy. When I learned my sister had been moved into a nursing home, I took her out and moved her into my home. I knew my sister would get the best possible care among family with me working as her caregiver.

Unfortunately, despite the vital, cost saving nature of our profession, working as a home care provider has been rough on my budget. There have been many times when I wasn’t really living, I was just surviving. And it’s not just me who is affected: my sister Tonya depends on me to provide for her needs as well, including food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and medication.

That’s why I got involved with my fellow UDW home care workers in our fight to win overtime pay. I knew we were excluded, but I never knew why. I was excited when in 2011, President Obama announced in-home caregivers would soon receive basic labor protections like overtime. And I joined my fellow caregivers in celebration when the U.S. Department of Labor amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to include home care workers after decades of unfair exclusion.

After the announcement at the federal level, we fought hard, wading through challenges in the courts and from our own governor. When overtime was finally implemented here in California for IHSS home care providers, it changed not only my life, but Tonya’s as well.

Now that I have overtime pay, I’ve been able to comfortably provide Tonya with the food her condition requires her to have. I’m able to pay our rent, and no longer live with the fear that we could be evicted from our home, forcing me into a shelter and Tonya back into a nursing home. Overall, overtime pay was crucial to ensuring Tonya and I are able to remain in our home. And the extra money overtime provides gave me something I think is priceless: time. Tonya has a second home care provider who comes in 20 hours per month to give me a break – something we would not have been able to afford in the past.

My name is Maria Cota, and I’ve been an IHSS caregiver since 1993.

In 2013, I had a stroke and the recovery made it difficult for me to keep working as a home care provider. Once I was back on my feet and ready to get back to work, the UDW Match program helped me find a new home care client. Now, I’m working again and I don’t have to worry about how I will pay my bills and support myself.

UDW Match is one of our members-only benefits. It is a totally free home care referral service that connects home care providers with seniors and people with disabilities who need our care.

I’ve been a home care provider for 25 years, and an IHSS provider for 23 years. It is the work I know best, and the job I love. Before my current client, I worked for a woman with leukemia. But while caring for her I also had health issues of my own, which culminated in a stroke in December 2013.

I spent four weeks in the hospital, and went through at-home therapy for an additional four weeks after I was released. I had to learn basic tasks and knowledge, like my colors and how to make purchases in a store, all over again. It was a rough road, and it took about a year, but I got through it.

I heard about UDW Match at one of our San Diego County membership meetings. I needed a new client so I asked for more information. The process was pretty simple: I completed a caregiver enrollment form, and UDW Match began the work of pairing me with a client looking for care. The program matched me to a client based on her unique care needs, and ensured our compatibility. From start to finish, the process took less than three weeks.

My matched client is Estela. She lives with asthma, nerve problems, and arthritis. Estela was so happy with my care that she asked me to care for her 44-year-old son who lives with schizophrenia as well.

Our work isn’t high paying, and turnover of clients can happen frequently. I recommend UDW Match to any UDW caregiver in need of a new or additional client. Knowing this is one of the benefits of being a UDW member has really made me love our union. I feel like UDW is member-driven and member focused, and wants the best for us all.

Maria Cota is a home care provider and UDW member in San Diego County.

UDW Match is currently servicing San Diego County only. The goal is to expand the program to other counties soon.