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Why isn't pay higher?

Ashley Ahern • April 9, 2021

This is a question Caregivers often ask, for good reason!

You do very important work. Without caregivers like you, many seniors would not be safe living at home – they would need assisted living facilities and nursing homes earlier.

 

Our clients are happier and healthier at home, as long as they can get the help they need. And facilities are expensive. So your work makes their lives better and it saves families and the state money.

 

So why doesn’t it pay more?

 

It should.

 

To understand why it doesn’t, you need to understand who pays for care.

 Connected has two kinds of payers – ASAPs and families. 

 

ASAPS (Aging Service Access Points) are funded by the State of Massachusetts and provide us with most of our clients. 

 

The state sets rates that assume we can hire caregivers at minimum wage or a little more.

 

These rates simply don’t allow us to pay you what you are worth.  (Massachusetts pays caregivers well compared to other states – but it’s still not enough!)


At Connected, we try to spend more on you, the caregiver, by keeping other costs low – for example, we ask you to use the app and log in electronically, so we can pay less for office staff to call caregivers to make sure they are onsite and scan paper time sheets – and more for caregiver pay.


How can I get paid more?

 

Here are some ways to maximize what you earn:

 

Get more training! 

 

Every level of training comes with slightly higher pay and many more opportunities. Connected offers free training for Personal Care, Home Health Aide, and Supportive Home Care Aide Certifications.  Find out about that here.

 

Take on specialized care, like Heavy Chore.

 

Find a career path!

If you are interested in becoming a Lead HHA, an Assistant Field Supervisor, or working in the office, let us know. These positions all come with more responsibility and higher pay and we always try to promote our current caregivers before we hire from outside.

We can help you prepare for these jobs and will let you know when there is an opening.  All the management in our offices started out as caregivers.

 

If you are interested in becoming a nurse, let us know. We are planning a program to help our caregivers find LPN programs, prepare to take the entrance exams, and then apply for programs. Many of our nurses – including Laura Jankowski, our head of nursing – started out as caregivers.

 

Join our Select Team and work for Private Pay

Our Select Team serves private clients and gets paid slightly more for HHA and SHCA work.  If you want to work with private clients:

·  Get your HHA or SHCA certification.

·  Make sure you are doing your best work already. We can’t send caregivers to private clients who are late, don’t fill out paperwork, or not always professional.

·  Reach out to your HR Generalist to let her know you are interested!

 

I have worked for the same clients for years – do I get a raise?

Only a small one, with the exception of those that may already be at our pay rate cap, unfortunately. Unless the client is requiring a higher level of care, the rates don’t change, so it’s hard to increase the pay of that client’s staff.

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