Maine urged to raise wages for home health aides, long-term care workers [Video]

Emily Curry worked for 28 years providing care to people who needed it. She said she would still be in the same industry now – working jobs like caring for people with intellectual disabilities – if wages, benefits and working conditions were better.

But she said low pay and concerns about her own health – trying to work a physically demanding job while having multiple sclerosis – forced her to switch careers.

Similar decisions are being made by many members of what’s known as the direct care workforce, according to a report by the Maine Center for Economic Policy. The progressive think tank released a report on Tuesday that recommends Maine government boost the pay of direct care workers to help alleviate the workforce shortage.

“It’s like night and day,” Curry said, when comparing her current job as a medical receptionist at Intermed in Portland to being a direct care worker. …