{"id":62743,"date":"2025-12-16T22:27:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/62743\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:27:14","slug":"caregivers-in-pennsylvania-are-celebrating-a-rare-pay-boost-but-long-term-funding-issues-linger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/62743\/","title":{"rendered":"Caregivers in Pennsylvania are celebrating a rare pay boost, but long-term funding issues linger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA<\/a>\u00a0is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG \u2014 Public funding for child care, home services for older adults, and disability support will increase under Pennsylvania\u2019s latest budget, but caregivers and business leaders expect longstanding pay and staffing problems to persist without deeper state investments.<\/p>\n

The budget, passed last month after a four-month delay, provides $25 million for early childhood education recruitment and retention. The sum is less than the $55 million\u00a0proposed by Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a>, but child care advocates are still celebrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart was happy. It was a relief,\u201d said Brie Rice, an educator who oversees hiring and recruitment at JB\u2019s Bright Beginnings, a child care center in Westmoreland County.<\/p>\n

Child care workers were disappointed when the previous budget passed without boosted funding,\u00a0Spotlight PA reported<\/a>. The new money comes after several years of concentrated lobbying from the industry, which sees its staffing challenges as existential: low wages lead to high turnover, which can cause facility closures and long waits for child care.<\/p>\n

Alongside the new money for early childhood workers, this year\u2019s budget also allocates $21 million to direct care. These caregivers provide daily, on-site assistance to older adults and people with disabilities \u2014 support that\u2019s critical for keeping them out of nursing homes and hospitals.<\/p>\n

The home care industry also struggles with recruitment and retention, issues likely to remain despite the new funding. The $21 million applies only to workers paid through a state waiver \u2014 a group representative of just 6% of direct caregivers in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

That means many vulnerable Pennsylvanians who desperately need these services won\u2019t receive them, said Mia Haney, CEO of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur legislature knows what\u2019s going on. This administration knows what\u2019s going on,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a number of people who are choosing to look the other way, and we simply cannot continue down this road. It\u2019s not safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The home care industry hasn\u2019t lobbied as successfully as child care providers. Although organized labor and business groups agree the workforce needs more state support, their visions of what that should look like differ.<\/p>\n

SEIU, which represents direct care workers, wants lawmakers to up the oversight of home care agencies that receive state money, to ensure workers are fairly compensated.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Homecare Association says state data show most of the waiver funding goes to the salaries of direct care workers.<\/p>\n

Whether the funding for child and direct care is permanent is unclear.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for state Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin (R., Lancaster) told Spotlight PA via email that, \u201cWhile the state legislature should always keep one eye toward the future, lawmakers still budget one year at a time based on available revenues. Funding levels will continue to be evaluated as part of the budget process, which begins less than two months from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for State House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said the child care funding is intended to be recurring, and the direct service workers\u2019 rate increase \u201cis the new minimum, pending a rate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Child care<\/p>\n

The $25 million for child care comes from the newly created Child Care Staff Recruitment and Retention Program, which will be overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. The program provides workers with a one-time $450 bonus next year<\/p>\n

That amount might seem meager, but Rice said her colleagues are thrilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone was like, \u2018That could be a car payment for me, or that could pay off part of a school loan for me. Or that could pay off dental work that I had done, or like that would just lift a little bit of that stress,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This line item is \u201chuge,\u201d said Jen DeBell, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a new line item in early education since Pre-K Counts was created in 2007, so I think it shows the importance that all four caucuses saw in this program,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

DeBell hopes that funding will grow for this program over time, like it has for Pre-K Counts. In 2007, the state allocated $75 million to the program, which provides free pre-kindergarten education during the academic year for income-eligible families with kids three and older.\u00a0This year<\/a>, Pre-K Counts received $326.8 million \u2014 that includes a $9.5 million bump from the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The retention and recruitment money marks the first time the state budget will directly fund the compensation of early childhood educators, noted Diana P. Barber, executive director of the Pennsylvania Child Care Association.<\/p>\n

Previous initiatives, including Pre-K Counts and various tax breaks, focused on making child care more affordable for families rather than raising workers\u2019 wages.<\/p>\n

Those efforts didn\u2019t address the workforce shortage, Barber said: \u201cIf there aren\u2019t teachers in the classroom, if there isn\u2019t capacity to provide child care, then making it affordable doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n

JB\u2019s Bright Beginnings cares for about 120 kids, and Rice said there\u2019s enough physical space to triple its enrollment. However, JB\u2019s can\u2019t hire staff to fill those slots because higher wages would require significantly higher tuition. Rice said that would price out the families currently enrolled there.<\/p>\n

In Pennsylvania, the annual mean salary for a child care worker is $29,510, according to\u00a02024 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. And for a preschool teacher, it\u2019s $35,250. These salaries can\u2019t compete with the entry-level pay found in other sectors, including hospitality and retail.<\/p>\n

The industry\u2019s cost issues are starting to hurt other sectors of the economy, according to dozens of chambers of commerce across Pennsylvania. These organizations joined child care advocates to lobby in Harrisburg for the recruitment and retention funding. Robert S. Carl, president of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, spearheaded the initiative.<\/p>\n

He called the lack of child care a \u201cworkforce development barrier,\u201d noting that there are more jobs than interested workers in his community.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotential workers cannot comfortably find gainful employment without viable child care options,\u201d he told Spotlight PA via email.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania\u2019s budget didn\u2019t deliver wins across the board for child care. Despite rising inflation, state funding for Head Start programs remained flat. Head Start serves families earning up to 100% of the federal poverty level, which is\u00a0less than $27,000<\/a>\u00a0per year for a family of three.<\/p>\n

The delayed budget also created a lapse in Head Start funding.\u00a0That forced some programs to take out loans or temporarily close<\/a>, explained Kara McFalls, the executive director of Pennsylvania Head Start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have funds so they didn\u2019t pay salaries. They had to be thoughtful about the fact that they had to pay their rent,\u201d she said of the programs.<\/p>\n

McFalls hopes the federal budget will increase Head Start funding, but anticipates some providers will have to scale back services or cut employee benefits. The latter might result in even more early childhood educators leaving the workforce.<\/p>\n

Direct care<\/p>\n

The $21 million budgeted for direct care workers will only benefit caregivers paid through the Community HealthChoices waiver. This program allows older adults and Pennsylvanians with physical disabilities to directly hire their caregivers instead of going through an agency.<\/p>\n

Lynn Weidner of Allentown is among the roughly 8,500 direct care workers slated to see a wage boost from the new funding. Her partner, Brandon Kingsmore, has cerebral palsy, which limits his mobility, and she\u2019s been his paid caregiver for nearly 13 years. Without direct care, he would likely have to live in a nursing or group home.<\/p>\n

Kingsmore has struggled to find backup when Weidner is unavailable, including earlier this year when she was hospitalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was putting him on the toilet in my hospital room. Like, you know that won\u2019t be necessary if we can get another caregiver,\u201d Weidner said.<\/p>\n

Some 148,000 Pennsylvanians receive Medicaid-funded in-home support, according to the DHS.<\/p>\n

Caregivers paid through the Community HealthChoices waiver comprise roughly 6% of the entire direct care workforce.<\/p>\n

The vast majority are employed by agencies that contract with people who need in-home support. Unlike those employed directly by the person they care for, this segment of the direct care workforce won\u2019t get a pay bump from Medicaid, even though they also face chronically low wages.<\/p>\n

A February DHS\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0estimated that an additional $809 million from the state is needed to bring all direct care agency workers up to $14.58 per hour. The starting wage for an agency worker in 2023, the year analyzed in the report, was $13.53.<\/p>\n

Workforce shortages result in a loss of services, which means some people might spend all day in bed or go days without bathing, said Haney of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association. She told Spotlight PA that due to inflation, every year that lawmakers fail to raise wages the crisis gets worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a snowball effect,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kingsmore and Weidner agreed that all direct care workers should be paid more, and that agencies are vital for Pennsylvanians who need this daily support but don\u2019t want to, or are unable to, be their caregiver\u2019s employer.<\/p>\n

Before that happens, they argued, state lawmakers must require more fiscal transparency from home health agencies to ensure that Medicaid dollars actually go toward care and not the pockets of executives. They also criticized private equity groups that are becoming a growing presence in the home care industry.<\/p>\n

Weidner is a member of the union SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. The union\u2019s president, Matt Yarnell, argues that the benefit of the state-run direct model is that every Medicaid dollar can be tracked.<\/p>\n

But with agencies, Yarnell said, \u201cWe don\u2019t know what is going on with money behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haney told Spotlight PA that she agrees transparency is essential and noted that the DHS report shows agencies are appropriately handling Medicaid dollars, as 85% of this money that agencies receive goes directly to caregiver compensation. The rest pays for overhead costs, including training, employee background checks, and caregiver supervision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe investment in agency care is really an investment in quality,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026\u00a0If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at\u00a0spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by\u00a0foundations and readers like you<\/a>\u00a0who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n

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