Tucson Home Care Workers Urge Passage Of Build Back Better

TUCSON, AZ — Tucson home care workers, along with State Sen. Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton and other advocates plan to gather for a vigil Thursday to urge the U.S. Senate to pass the Build Back Better bill to improve care worker jobs and increase wages.

The vigil is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Veinte de Agosto Park, 123 W. Congress St. in
Tucson.

“Our care industry is broken, and I’m praying the Senate passes Build Back Better to fix it and deliver relief to workers like me,” Joan Steede, a 65-year-old Arizona home care worker said in a news release. “After 30 years as a home care worker, I have no savings or ability to plan for retirement. Soon enough, I might need care myself. With higher wages and lower costs through Build Back Better, I will be able to put some money aside and turn things around. Arizonans need this bill. Congress, it’s time to deliver.”

Across the United States, the home care workforce is largely comprised of women of color. Home care workers in Arizona are 82 percent women, 57 percent people of color and 23 percent immigrants, according to the Service Employees International Union. On average, personal care workers and home health aides in Arizona made $12.70 per hour in 2020 and around $27,700 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,

Build Back Better would invest $150 billion to provide relief to both home care workers and people who need care. It would also increase wages and strengthen working conditions for caregivers while also cutting costs and expanding access to quality care for working parents and children, seniors and people with disabilities, the union asserts.

“In Arizona we have failed our home care workers, denying them the quality of life we expect them to provide for our loved ones,” said Arizona State Senator Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton in the news release. “The Build Back Better act will address this shortcoming, it will provide the resources necessary to raise the standard of compensation and help to fill the shortage of home care workers. It will improve the lives of those who so faithfully and diligently care for those we love.”