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For direct care workers and their allies
 
July 17, 2012

High School Students Earn DCA Personal Care and Support Credential

Fourteen students at a vocational technical high school in Fall River, Massachusetts, became the first high school students in the nation to earn the Direct Care Alliance's Personal Care and Support Credential.

The DCA created the credentialing program to establish a national standard for the knowledge and skills required to provide high-quality in-home care. Before it was launched, there was no recognized credential that allowed employers and consumers to assess the knowledge of the home care workers that they hire. Read more.

Direct from Washington, DC

Capitol HIll

President asks Congress to extend Bush tax cuts for all but wealthy Americans:  On July 9, President Obama announced his plan to preserve current tax rates for the majority of Americans. The Obama administration asked Congress to pass a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for people making less than $250,000 annually; under this proposal, 98% of Americans would not see a tax increase next year. The U.S. Senate is expected to schedule a vote on the proposal, while the House of Representatives will vote later in July on a one-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for everyone, including Americans earning more than $250,000 a year. Direct care workers will benefit from an extension of tax cuts, as median annual earnings for direct care workers were $17,000 in 2010. Learn more.

Senate holds hearing on Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: 
On July 12, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international treaty to promote, protect and ensure the rights of people with disabilities. The United States signed the CRPD in July 2009, but has not ratified it to date. The Obama administration introduced a treaty package to the Senate in May 2012; the package has received bipartisan support in the Senate and has not yet been voted on.
    
House passes repeal of the Affordable Care Act: 
On July 11, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), 244-185. Despite this repeal vote, the Senate will not vote on repeal and President Obama supports the ACA. To show your support for the ACA, e-mail your representatives or call (202) 224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to your representative's office. 
Support Home Care Workers and Strengthen Our Middle Class
Home care work is the fast-growing job category in the nation. That means home care worker wages have an increasingly important effect on our economy. And that means we have a choice to make as a nation.

We can continue to deny home care workers the right to minimum wage and overtime pay and keep swelling the ranks of the working poor--people who put in long hours doing important work yet must rely on food stamps, Medicaid, and other taxpayer-funded public benefits to support themselves and their families.

Or we can strengthen our middle class by making sure these essential, non-exportable jobs offer basic labor protections.

Sign our petition to let the U.S. Department of Labor know that home care workers need minimum wage and overtime protection NOW.

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Direct from the Headlines
Assisted living resident Martin Baynes on the frustrations of institutional life and the difference a good direct care worker can make.

A New York-based home care agency must pay a $1 million settlement after a court found the company had underpaid its employees and flouted overtime rules. The suit, which was brought by Catherine Ruckelhaus of NELP, represents the first time a class action by New York home health employees has been recognized.

In its first-ever measure of the amount of unpaid care provided to people over 65, the American Time Use Survey found that 16 percent of the U.S. civilian noninstitutional population age 15 and over were eldercare providers in 2011.

Home care workers earning minimum wage and no benefits were refused a raise by a California public authority.
The Direct Care Alliance is the national advocacy voice of direct care workers in long-term care. We empower workers to speak out for better wages, benefits, respect, and working conditions, so more people can commit to direct care as a career. We also convene powerful allies nationwide to build consensus for change. 

Questions? Comments? Story ideas? Please contact Elise Nakhnikian at 646-823-7434 or [email protected].