{"id":448167,"date":"2026-08-30T16:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T16:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448167\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T16:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T16:40:10","slug":"santa-clara-county-home-aid-workers-see-pay-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448167\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Clara County home aid workers see pay increase"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of meager wage increases, thousands of home aid workers in Santa Clara County will receive a bump in their hourly pay amid a tight budget cycle \u2014 a move advocates said is necessary but falls short to cover rapidly rising costs of living.<\/p>\n

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a new two-year contract for In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers that includes a $2 hourly wage incremental increase over the next year. By July 2027, more than 36,000 workers will be making $22.44 an hour. The contract was secured through negotiations with SEIU Local 2015, a union representing more than 21,200 long-term care workers in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased that the union and the county have reached an agreement that stays within our budgetary constraints while strengthening support for our IHSS workers,\u201d District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThe work our IHSS providers do is essential to the health and well\u2011being of older adults and residents with disabilities. I deeply value their contributions and am glad we were able to arrive at a positive resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The costs for the program are split between the federal, state and local governments. While caregivers received modest wage\u00a0 increases every year from the state based on the Consumer Price Index, the county hadn\u2019t increased its portion since 2023, according to IHSS worker and SEIU 2015 union member Natascha Walker.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what we put out there to begin with, considering the disparity between \u2026 professional caregiving,\u201d Walker told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cDo we wish it was more on the check? Absolutely, especially with the rise in costs with everything. It\u2019s just horrible what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recent poll of IHSS workers in the county conducted by SEIU 2015 showed nearly 62% of home aid workers struggling to keep up with housing costs. Nearly 53% rely on food stamps or make regular trips to the food pantry, and 78% of workers have multiple jobs to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

The county is facing its own economic headwinds as the federal spending bill, known as H.R.1, slashed funding from social safety net services and created a $1 billion annual deficit<\/a> in the county that required it to slash services<\/a>\u00a0and tighten its belt.<\/p>\n

Another part of the IHSS contract caps the number of workers who can enroll in the county\u2019s health insurance, the Valley Health Plan, to 15,800 workers. It also slightly increases out of pocket premiums from $25 a month to $41 or $57, depending on the plan.<\/p>\n

There were roughly 15,540 workers enrolled in health insurance as of last month, less than half of the total number of home aid workers in the county, according to data provided from Public Authority Services, which serves as the employer of record for IHSS workers.<\/p>\n

Although the number of workers enrolled in the county\u2019s health insurance hasn\u2019t reached the cap, disability rights advocate Michele Mashburn said the limit is still concerning given how many people are losing Medi-Cal coverage<\/a> and\u00a0marketplace insurance costs have skyrocketed after enhanced government subsidies ended last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cap sets a dangerous precedent, especially at a time when so many people are struggling because their marketplace insurance or their spouse\u2019s insurance program is becoming prohibitively too expensive for them to pay,\u201d Mashburn told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n

\"In-line<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite a tough budget year at the state and local level, the IHSS program was spared cuts<\/a> from Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s earlier proposal that would have jeopardized care for people like Mashburn. The final state budget, passed in June, rejected the cuts that would have shifted more of the cost burden onto counties.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Walker and Mashburn said\u00a0there needs to be greater systemwide\u00a0changes to the program, including better training for workers in addition to higher pay, for it to be more sustainable and attract quality workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do I get quality care is the question that I constantly grapple with,\u201d Mashburn said. \u201cIn reality, for another person who is struggling to survive in Santa Clara County, it is almost impossible to not have a stressed out worker in addition to my own life stress because they\u2019re dealing with similar issues with affording rent, groceries, bills, gas, their car insurance, affording car repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Joyce Chu at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or @joyce_speaks on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of meager wage increases, thousands of home aid workers in Santa Clara County will receive a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[712,88,90,89,14533],"class_list":["post-448167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-centerpiece","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county-board-of-supervisors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}