Dear Gov. Hochul, Leader Stewart-Cousins and Speaker Heastie,

Home care workers are essential. As the leaders of our Executive and Legislative Branches, we urge you to make New York a national leader by enacting a bold plan to value and invest in this fast-growing workforce that our communities depend on to live and age with dignity. Home care is a vital, high-skill job, and now is the time to value it as such. Investing in home care workers will help us meet our population's care needs and will help reinvigorate the economy.

We, the New York Caring Majority, call on you to invest in the home care workforce, and bring home care workers' wages to 150% of minimum wage, reflecting that this work is high-skilled, essential work that deserves more than the minimum wage (S3189/AXXX).

We are facing the worst home care workforce shortage in the nation. In a recent survey, 1 out of 4 people who qualify for home care cannot find the care they need, and 3 out of 4 struggle to retain the care they have. As New York's population ages and home care workers continue to flee the sector, we know fair wages are the only solution to stem the home care shortage.

Now more than ever, we need to rapidly expand the workforce in order to meet the growing needs of our aging population.

Now is the time to provide fair pay for home care.