**MEDIA ADVISORY**
In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) home care providers speak out again that the county is responsible for lifting their wages and insist that paying for the county’s sex abuse lawsuits should not fall on their backs.
WHEN:
Tuesday, May 27th, 2025
10:00 AM PST – 1:00 PM PT
WHERE:
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
500 W Temple Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
WHO:
Members and allies of SEIU Local 2015, the largest long-term care union in the nation and California’s largest labor union, representing more than half a million caregivers, including more than 225,000 Los Angeles IHSS workers.
WHAT:
Home care providers, care recipients, and supporters will deliver public comments and gather outside the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting after being excluded from the county’s budget presentation last month to call on the BOS to address low wages, improve healthcare, training, and other critical employment benefits.
WHY:
Home care providers in Los Angeles County currently earn just $18.50 an hour, making these essential workers the county’s largest low-wage workforce and earning well below what’s needed to survive in one of the most expensive regions in the country.
In a recent SEIU 2015 survey showed that:
- 87% of IHSS providers in L.A. County reported working multiple jobs, at least some of the time, to make ends meet.
- 69% struggle with housing payments. 65% spend at least half of their income on housing, and 26% spend at least three-quarters of their income on housing.
- 37% currently rely on public assistance programs like CalFresh, Section 8, and MediCal to supplement their poverty wages.
- More than 45% access food banks and/or CalFresh at least once per month. When you add in those who report they’ve had to occasionally access food assistance, that jumps to 64% of LA’s IHSS providers. That’s 141,000 hardworking county residents who would otherwise go hungry on IHSS wages.
- More than half are struggling with their healthcare coverage—they’re sometimes or often unable to access medication because they can’t afford the cost of prescriptions and report skipping doctor appointments due to concerns about cost.
Currently, Los Angeles County caregivers earn $18.50 an hour, but a living wage in the county is $27.81 for a single person. If you add one child to that household, and the wage needed to survive in Los Angeles County is $48.65.
Last year, Los Angeles County had more than 10.6 million authorized consumer care hours that went unserved, indicating a shortage of providers that left recipients without needed care.
Press Contact:
DKC News
SEIU@dkcnews.com
On Site Contact:
christopherb@seiu2015.org