Some industries survive almost completely independent of government funding, but some are at the mercy of government officials who traditionally are looking for areas to save taxpayer money. The Pine River Group Home is just one of many such facilities.
"We're funded by Medicaid dollars," said Carrie Guida, Pine River Group Home administrator. "For us to get a raise, we have to go begging to the Legislature every session, which is an odd way to do business. The last increase was 2014."
Guida and her staff serve adults with disabilities, providing housing and services with experts trained to provide assistance to make their lives safer, more convenient and more entertaining. Though her staff has large responsibilities, Guida said wage issues may be causing a shortage in direct support professionals. Limited wages mean Guida is competing with many businesses in a community where staff shortages are becoming common.
"We also feel like we could attract more and better applicants if we could offer better starting wages," Guida said. "We're competing with every other business in Pine River. This is a broad workforce shortage. Our wages are competing with Holiday, the nursing home and Dairy Queen. We sometimes feel if we could offer a better wage it might be attractive to prospective employees."
Starting wages can be so low that some employees qualify for public benefits for fuel assistance and health care subsidies.
ADVERTISEMENT
Guida estimated that her staff of approximately 75 has been short four or five caregivers for several years, which causes difficulty whenever illness makes them short on staff.
"We have minimum staffing ratios we are required to provide," Guida said. "We can't just not open another teller lane or reduce our hours. We are a 24-hour care facility. We have to have the staff here. We have to come up with staff at one point. Maybe we have two people who call in sick at the height of the flu season. We have to find other people to cover and we're doing that with a lot of overtime, which is an expensive way to run a business."
In addition to limiting funding, Guida said some legislative regulations have increased responsibilities for her facility while putting more training requirements on staff, all of which also increase cost.
"We keep getting new rules or what we call unfunded mandates," Guida said. "Training costs are increasing and other costs keep increasing like licensing fees, but the rate we are provided to cover all those costs is not increasing."
Considering the responsibilities of her staff, and loyalty of those who have been with her for extended periods of time, Guida said she has made sacrifices to offer cost-of-living and merit wages to some of her employees.
"Last year as an agency we felt it was imperative to pass on a cost of living to our employees," Guida said. "We did that, but it had to come out of our existing budget because we didn't get new money from the state. We were hoping that maybe 2017 would be our year, but it doesn't sound good."
The result is that the group home has less funding for other program areas. Guida said the funding could limit capital improvements or affect other areas, but the ultimate impact will be revealed in the next budget.
Guida and her staff have reached out to legislators to request a cost-of-living increase in several ways, including personal emails, drafted letters and correspondences signed by all employees. Guida said that while some of her 45 residents are unable to vote, they are still important members of the public, and limited funding to the group home can limit the recreational activities and additional comforts that are provided for them.
ADVERTISEMENT
"They're still important constituents, and I think sometimes their voices aren't heard," Guida said. "The state has lots of new rules and initiatives about greater independence and more choice and more community access, but that all costs money and it all costs staff. If we don't have enough staff, then maybe someone can't go to a ball game or they can't go wherever it is they want and do whatever they want to do that day, or maybe if someone has to go, everyone has to go instead of more individualized access."
Overall, Guida said a cost-of-living increase is not only fair, but overdue.
"I think our staff does good work and is an important group to some of our most vulnerable citizens," Guida said. "I think they deserve to be fairly paid. A living wage would be nice."
