SAN FRANCISCO – May 8, 2023: Joint statement released by SEIU Local 1021 and SEIU Local 2015 regarding its progress in lifting up the wages of San Francisco frontline care workers in order to bring dignity and respect to essential jobs and reverse the city’s Care Crisis:
“We’re pleased with the commitment shown by Mayor Breed and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to address San Francisco’s ‘Care Crisis’ by working to lift up the wages of our lowest-paid frontline workers.
“On Friday we reached the first milestone of two in this work when SEIU 2015, which represents 24,700 In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) home care workers who provide vital care to over 26,000 local low-income seniors and people with disabilities, attained a tentative agreement with the San Francisco Public Authority that will put home care providers on a path to earning $25.50 an hour over the next four years. The second milestone that we must also attain in this budget cycle is to achieve similar gains for San Francisco’s thousands of non-profit workers who provide mental health, permanent supportive housing, addiction treatment, and other essential services to our most vulnerable community members and whose work helps battle homelessness.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Mayor and Board of Supervisors to accomplish our second milestone by funding increases in the Minimum Compensation Ordinance and Cost of Doing Business for nonprofit workers. Only then will we be able to lift all of these vital workers out of poverty and help to retain and attract the thousands of workers needed to provide the care our communities need.”
Background:
San Francisco is in a “Care Crisis” caused by low wages placed upon the frontline care workers who care for our seniors, people with disabilities, and those most at-risk. These poverty wages have created a crisis in San Francisco resulting in high worker turnover rates, short-staffing, millions of care hours going unmet, a weakened social safety net, and a loss of millions of federal dollars for our local economy.