Starting on Jan. 1, workers like Ott got an increase to $17.50 an hour after the state dedicated $21 million to boost wages in the last budget cycle<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis month, for the very first time, I was able to pay my mortgage on time. No late fees. I paid my bills and I still had a little bit of money left over,\u201d said Ott. \u201cI\u2019m actually saving for a car \u2026 that\u2019s what this raise means. It\u2019s not extra; it\u2019s stability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ott doesn\u2019t work for an agency, meaning the person she cares for is her boss and the number of hours she works are determined by their Medicaid managed care organization. Roughly 6% of direct care workers in Pennsylvania operate outside of an agency in a participant-directed model, which comes without guaranteed benefits like paid time off and health insurance.<\/p>\n Suzanne Ott, left, and Cheryl Harp are both home care workers and shared how increased wages benefited them personally. (Photo by Whitney Downard\/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost all\u201d participant-directed workers should now be at $15 per hour or more<\/a>, according to state Department of Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh.\u00a0<\/p>\n The increase isn\u2019t automatic, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arkoosh said that the employers must submit paperwork<\/a> by May 8 to access the extra funds for caregivers. Once completed, the worker will qualify for backpay from the beginning of the year, though the payments filter through the managed care organization.<\/p>\n Cheryl Harp lives in Harrisburg and works as a direct care worker for her mother with dementia, and previously couldn\u2019t afford to get the very service she provides: health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never had health insurance. So this raise is a blessing every morning,\u201d Harp shared, struggling to speak through her emotions. \u201cTo go years without health care, and now I\u2019m able to have health care? Because at the end of the day, we have to take care of ourselves to be able to take care of our loved ones.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She urged workers to get their paperwork submitted through their employer.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat is your money going all the way back to January the first. Don\u2019t leave it sitting there,\u201d said Harp. \u201cWe\u2019re going to fight, and we\u2019re going to continue winning.\u201d<\/p>\n The road ahead<\/p>\n Like many people who directly hire caregivers, Allentown\u2019s Brandon Kingsmore lives with his full time and their salary funds household costs. Getting a boost to $16.26 will improve every day life for the roommates.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat wage could possibly keep us ahead,\u201d said Kingsmore, who has cerebral palsy. \u201cWith gas prices going up and everything going up, we need everything we can get.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kingsmore said he doesn\u2019t want another caregiver, but couldn\u2019t secure a back-up person last year when his primary caregiver was hospitalized. Previously offering $13.86, Kingsmore said applicants would \u201cghost\u201d him after just one interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe fought like hell and we finally won,\u201d said Kingsmore about the increase. \u201cBut it\u2019s not enough.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Caregivers aren\u2019t guaranteed to have paid time off or dental insurance. Following the expiration of federal subsidies, insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act Marketplace ballooned in costs<\/a>. Kingsmore pointed to all three as \u201cneeds\u201d for direct care workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n But funding for all direct care workers \u2014 agency or not \u2014 is flat in the latest version of the budget, which passed the state House on a bipartisan vote last week<\/a>. The Pennsylvania Homecare Association, which represents agencies, previously told the Capital-Star that reimbursement rates haven\u2019t kept up, even as economic pressures push wages higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n The association warned that providers may pull out of Medicaid entirely and rely on private payers or pivot to other state programs. But direct care workers are already in short supply, even as demand is slated to grow in the country\u2019s fifth-oldest state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arkoosh said that group is \u201cgoing to be so critical to enabling older adults who choose to age\u201d at home or in their communities, the preference of most seniors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that these workers are treated with the dignity and fairness that they deserve, and paid a professional wage to acknowledge the work that they are doing,\u201d said Arkoosh. \u201cI think when we do that, we will have the workers that we need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But Arkoosh put the responsibility for funding squarely on the General Assembly, tying it to the Shapiro administration\u2019s priority to increase the state\u2019s minimum wage to $15 an hour for all professions, up from its current $7.25. House lawmakers have passed legislation doing that three times in the last four years<\/a>, but the Republican-controlled Senate has rejected such measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re waiting on the Senate to act next,\u201d said Arkoosh.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether wages for direct care workers will stay flat \u2014 or get another increase \u2014 will also be determined by the Senate, which is crafting its own budget counterproposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A typical day for Suzanne Ott starts by getting her children ready for school, like many parents. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[77246,77247,77249,33662,3831,77245,28,30,29,77248],"class_list":["post-172162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-brandon-kingsmore","tag-care-workers","tag-cheryl-harp","tag-direct-care","tag-health-care","tag-managed-care-organization","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-suzanne-ott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Suzanne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1f85b8dabff26199aa68d2258f3b4fd1.jpeg\"\/)
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