(The supporter above asked that I not show her face in the photo)
The D.C. council’s committee on human services and committee
on health co-chaired a joint hearing on June 13 to consider Bill 23-214, “Direct
Support Professional Payment Rate Act of 2019.”
This bill arose from the conclusions of a working group that has been
looking at DSP pay and retention issues over the past year. At this time DSPs must be paid the D.C.
living wage, which any organizations receiving $100,000 or more in contracts or
assistance from the D.C. government must pay their employees. However, by July 2020, D.C.’s minimum wage will
reach $15.00 and catch up with the living wage.
With little (now) or no (by next year) differential between the two wage
rates, there will be little incentive for people to assume the arduous work of
being a DSP rather than taking a far less demanding minimum-wage job. In order to address this, the bill - co-sponsored
by councilmembers Nadeau (human services committee chair), Gray (health
committee chair), Silverman and Grosso - recommends adoption of a tiered wage
system for DSPs ranging from 110% to 125% of the D.C. living wage. Here is a summary of the bill - https://tinyurl.com/y33t88yl. (I have not yet located a copy of the actual
bill.)
The D.C. Coalition of Disability Service Providers (http://dc-coalition.org/), as well as many individual
service provider agencies, DSPs, people receiving support, family members and
others turned out in support of the bill, with more than 40 people testifying in
favor. Supporters pointed to the fact
that neighboring jurisdictions in Maryland have established DSP wage floors
above the Maryland minimum wage. (The
Maryland state minimum wage is currently lower than D.C.’s, but Montgomery County
already is supporting a DSP pay rate of $15.00, above the current D.C. minimum
wage which will go to $14.00 on July 1.)
They also discussed the difficulty facing DSPs who want to live in D.C.
as opposed to the far suburbs – according to a 2018 report by the budget
director of the D.C. council (https://tinyurl.com/y5hvbkot),
the actual cost of living for a single adult living in D.C. would require an
hourly wage of $17.78 per hour, and many DSPs must hold at least one other job
in order to make ends meet. A key
argument made was that vacancy and turnover rates in D.C. are higher for DSPs than
in neighboring jurisdictions.
Speaking for the D.C. government, deputy mayor and director
of the Department of Health Care Finance Wayne Turnage and DDS director Andy
Reese argued that the National Core Indicators
(https://www.nationalcoreindicators.org/)
do not show the same numbers for DSP vacancy and turnover rates as those cited
by the Coalition and other supporters.
They went on to say that singling out DSPs as worthy of a higher pay
rate than similar care providers such as home health aides and personal care
assistants would not be defensible and that the pay raise, if enacted, would
need to be extended to others, meaning higher costs. They said providers are able to pay DSPs at a
higher rate now if they want to and can justify the costs. They further said that self-direction, which
DDS plans to introduce next year, will provide more flexibility in this regard.
Government representatives are always going to argue for
budget restraint. It’s what they have to
do. For me, though, what’s true without
a doubt is that DSPs can’t support themselves, much less a family, living
within the boundaries of D.C. Do we want
D.C. providers to keep having to reach further and further out into the suburbs
for DSPs who have to drive 10 or 15 miles to get to the people they
support? In the end, what the deputy
mayor testified may also be true – these same benefits may need to be extended
to other groups of care providers. But
doesn’t that just show that we don’t yet have a living wage in D.C.?
This was an amazing event at a great many levels, including
the fact that this is the first time in the past decade that I recall sitting
in a hearing on legislation about which local advocates and DDS were on opposite
sides of the issue. This is a sign of
maturity in the D.C. disability community, and it was exciting to see how many
folks turned out to testify. I hope that
people will stay just as motivated as we move ahead to create a system of disability
supports in the District that is equitable and rights-based for everyone.
And there’s still time on this bill – written testimony can
be provided through June 26 at humanservices@dccouncil.us. Let your voice be heard!