Siskiyou becomes the final California county to establish a union IHSS contract, capping a decade of organizing by SEIU 2015 members and a statewide milestone for home care workers
Yreka, Calif., October 7, 2026 – Siskiyou County In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers have won the first IHSS contract in county history, securing a three-year agreement that includes an $0.85 an hour increase to the IHSS wage supplement. Until now, Siskiyou was the only county in the state that paid its IHSS workforce minimum wage and had never reached a union contract, making this agreement a milestone for home care workers and the families who depend on them statewide.
After nearly a decade of organizing, IHSS workers secured their victory when the Siskiyou Board of Supervisors approved the contract at its October 6 meeting. With Siskiyou’s approval of this contract, IHSS providers in all of California’s counties will soon work under wages negotiated above the state minimum, a standard union care workers have fought to establish county by county for years. The win comes as California faces a growing shortage of home care workers and a rapidly aging population, and it strengthens the case that fair wages are essential to sustaining in-home care in rural and urban communities alike.
“With this win, we’re bringing positive change to our community,” said Monica Bermudez, an IHSS provider and SEIU 2015 bargaining team member. “This is a victory for care providers and our recipients. It will improve the quality of service for the people we care for, and better pay will go a long way to help with rising inflation and everyday costs.”
IHSS is one of the largest home care programs in the country, with hundreds of thousands of providers caring for older adults and people with disabilities across California. Rural counties like Siskiyou have long struggled to recruit and retain caregivers, and advocates say low wages in those areas have left consumers waiting for care or relying on family members who cannot afford to leave other jobs. Raising wages in the last minimum-wage county helps stabilize a workforce the entire state relies on.
The new $0.85 hourly wage supplement will be added to the current statewide minimum wage of $16.90. Once implemented by the California Department of Social Services, which typically takes two to three months, IHSS workers will receive $17.75 an hour. Wages will get another boost to $18.25 an hour on January 1 as the statewide minimum wage rises to $17.40.
IHSS is a social service that allows people who need long-term care to receive it in the comfort and safety of their own homes. In Siskiyou County, nearly 500 IHSS workers provide essential long-term care—including paramedical, personal care and household services—to older adults and people with disabilities.
Siskiyou IHSS workers faced numerous obstacles on their way to winning the higher wages and protections of a union contract, including a mandated factfinding procedure with county leadership. Siskiyou officials faced a September 30 deadline to broker an agreement or face a significant state-mandated financial penalty from the state Public Employee Relations Board.
Workers demanded a union contract with the wages needed to attract and retain enough workers to meet the county’s growing demand for in-home care.
“With gas prices and inflation, we needed a wage that could sustain a household as an IHSS worker responsible for essential care,” said Paula Johnson, an IHSS provider for a senior in Siskiyou. “It’s difficult to attract new care providers because they can’t live on minimum wage. Many of our existing caregivers can’t justify working so hard for so little.”
“SEIU 2015 members and County Supervisors ultimately came together to secure this union contract, which will help IHSS workers provide for themselves and their families,” said SEIU Local 2015 Executive Vice President Kim Evon. “Their collective effort means that, for the first time, no IHSS worker in California is caring for our seniors and people with disabilities at the bare minimum wage, and it puts Siskiyou on a path toward a more just and equitable future of care where every person in the county can access the long-term care they need.”
Siskiyou IHSS workers are members of SEIU Local 2015, the nation’s largest long-term care union representing more than half a million long-term care workers across California.
To learn more about SEIU Local 2015 visit www.SEIU2015.org or on social media @SEIU2015.