Fellow Help at Home Indiana SEIU Healthcare members,  

We wanted to share an update with the latest information on our campaign to raise pay for Indiana home care workers with funding we secured in the state budget this spring.  

Following the passage of the state budget, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) was responsible for making recommendations about how the funding should be used. Their process included a public comment period and 18 Indiana SEIU Healthcare members who work at Help at Home Indiana submitted powerful comments about why funding needed to be used to raise pay and improve benefits for frontline workers to address the worsening workforce shortage.  

Thanks to those leaders who submitted comments and to all the advocacy work we’ve done to date, FSSA released their recommendations that include major increases to the rates Help at Home receives for frontline Indiana home care workers!  

• Home Health Aides: 31% increase from the old rate  
• Attendant Care: 47.6% increase from the old rate  
• Homemaker: 59% increase from the old rate  
• Direct Service Provider: There are multiple rates that support the work of DSPs, with increases of around 20-30%  

It’s important to note that these are only recommendations and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be reviewing and approving them next.  

We are looking ahead to the fight to make sure every penny that is recommended to go to workers actually ends up in our paychecks and improving our benefits. The only way to demand and secure we get the most for workers is through our union when we collectively bargain with Help at Home Indiana in the coming months! 

This funding is significant and presents an opportunity to truly transform our jobs and ultimately improve services for those we serve. The home care workforce shortage in Indiana threatens care for seniors and people with disabilities, and the only way to address this shortage is by making home care jobs ones we can thrive in.  

We need to be ready to step up like never before and meet this moment because there is too much at stake to sit on the sidelines! We fought so hard to win this funding in the state budget and now we need to be ready to do whatever it takes to win as much as possible at the bargaining table.  

Get started right now by activating your union membership here. The more Indiana home care workers who are united in our union the more powerful our voice will be at the bargaining table, so join our movement for better home care jobs and services right now. 

Stay tuned for ways to take action and get involved as we gear up to win higher pay and better benefits in upcoming negotiations.  

In solidarity,  

Patricia Owen 

SEIU HCII member & Help at Home Indiana worker  

Muncie, IN